Photo courtesy Uniqwa keep an up-to-date portfolio highlighting their biggest and most interesting achievements to date. • Marketing material. Use images of your best work for your instagram posts, advertisements, WHAT YOU INVEST IN website content, emails, pamphlets, signs and STYLING AND more. As long as you have full usage rights PHOTOGRAPHY WILL (discuss this with your photographer) you can EARN ITSELF BACK promote your business across any platform in a MANY TIMES OVER visually appealing way. • Future consultations. Begin a physical book of work to show your future clients. Use photos of common and unique features to visually demonstrate what’s possible, what’s not possible, and what the final result looks like. This both helps to ensure you’re talking about the same features and colours (their idea of ‘green accents’ might look very different to yours) while developing trust in your skill and experience. The home styling game is booming so finding these services is as simple as an online search. Each professional will provide a unique service but this is what you can generally expect the pros to do for you: • Stage the home. Stylists will use rental furniture and artwork to create an ambience that suits the home perfectly while it’s either photographed or displayed. • Get the right angles. A property photographer who specialises in real estate or architecture will take lifestyle shots, wide angle shots, and capture the flow of the home. • Post production. Photography often includes an amount of post-production too. This will mean enhancing, balancing and editing the best photos to maximise their impact. • Tell a story. Whether it’s in the finer details or the layout of a room, a professional property styling service can turn an empty house into a cosy home, a garage into a decked out man cave and a garden into an adventure playground. take it from Charl Earlier this year, Founder and Director of Uniqwa Furniture Charl van Heerden told Housing ‘We are living in a visually stimulating environment and people have become accustomed to scrolling through thousands of beautiful images all over the internet and social media. ‘The expectations are high and if you do not visually present to the expectations of your customer then you are doing yourself a disservice,’ he continued. ‘[You] can take photographs but it is important to find the way that the message of the interior and space is captured. It should be a factor of consideration in any plan to showcase a home and the design and interior should be built upon creating beautiful images.’ Photo courtesy Space Constructions SEPTEMBER 2018 HOUSING 75