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This
week we're going to do something a little different. We are going
to give some tips on improving your tours by making them eye catching,
not because of the way the pictures were lighted but how they were
made more inviting to the viewer. We also have some other interesting
things that people have written.
The
first two tips come from Steve Jarrell, President of VisualTour.com.
Click Here
- Always make
your first scene a scrolling panoramic scene, even if it's only
two pictures wide. The motion helps get people's attention and
makes for a more attractive beginning to the tour.
- When you
get into really tight areas like the bathroom, remove the wide-angle
lens, turn the camera sideways and take a few pictures that you'll
later stitch together. You'll find that you get a lot better field
of view and far less distortion.
Our
next tip comes from Allyson Hoffman of RE/MAX North, Northbrook,
IL. Click
Here
Allyson
says, "I have found that by purchasing and using a 256MB chip
for my camera, it is very easy to do enough photos to easily make
the tour with many panoramics."
Recently
we received the following tips from Gayle Moore of RE/MAX Preferred
Group, Cincinnati, OH.
Click Here
"In
an effort to improve the look of my VisualTours, I tried 3 things
differently after reading suggestions on your web site:
- When suitable
for the picture, I cropped standard photos to ratio of 1.7 to
1 so they would fill the entire screen.
- I resized
photos to a height of 202 pixels, which eliminated distortion
I was getting in larger photos.
- I added within
the text screen my name & phone number & invitation to
set appointment to see the property. This helps especially if
tour is viewed on HomeSeekers which does not include any info
about agent/company/logo."
Our
last tip comes from The Zac Team of RE/MAX Greater Atlanta. They
say that since Georgia doesn't provide as much sunlight as Florida
they have resolved their situation this way.
Click Here
"We
have been looking with envy at your tours-of-the-week. Unfortunately,
our real estate market is not in well-lit Florida. We now take flood
lamps with us, and while it is laborious to stage a panoramic shot
-- which often requires us to move lights between each shutter snap
-- the results are improving. The small rooms still give us fits,
and, where we used to just take a one-shot of them, our customers
are now sold on the panoramas and insist we take them…"
For
those of you who prefer to carry less cumbersome equipment you can
invest in a slave flash, which will hook right into your camera.
(Ordinary slave units will not work with most digital cameras because
these cameras use a very rapid series of pre-flashes.)
Finally
we would like to give you a few more tips from our support and training
staff.
- Don't try
to take full 360-degree images inside. Get in the corner of the
room (or in the doorway) and take a sweeping panoramic shot encompassing
the best view possible of the room. This may take anywhere from
2 to 5 overlapping single photos.
- Make sure
that your pictures display long enough for someone to read the
description if you set them on autoplay.
- Be daring
and alternate panoramas and stills.
- Check to
make sure that you have not accidentally uploaded the same photograph
twice in a row.
And
now a brief note for those people who have not yet taken the plunge
into virtual tours because they think it is too difficult. Please
go to http://www.visualtour.com/create_tour1.asp
to see just how easy it is to create your own masterpiece.
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