Commercial occupiers want to see access, layout, working space and condition. A level shot of the roller shutter tells them more than a heavily edited photograph ever will.
Before you start
- Clean the phone lens with a soft cloth.
- Open blinds and switch on working lights, but avoid a dark room with a blown-out window.
- Remove loose rubbish, confidential papers, number plates and personal information.
- Open internal doors where this helps explain the route through the premises.
- Take landscape images unless a particular detail genuinely needs portrait framing.
What to photograph
- Approach and frontage. Show how the premises sit in the street or estate.
- Main entrance. Include the shopfront, office door or personnel entrance square-on.
- Main working area. Stand near a corner and show the shape and depth of the space.
- Access and loading. Photograph shutters, yards, gates and delivery routes.
- Offices and welfare. Include office rooms, kitchens and WCs where present.
- Parking and outside space. Make boundaries and allocated spaces understandable.
- Useful details. Capture three-phase power, extraction, fitted storage or other features only if safe and relevant.
- Known limitations. Honest images of material condition issues reduce wasted enquiries and protect trust.
Keep the phone level
Turn on the camera grid if your phone offers one. Use door frames and building corners to keep verticals upright. Step backwards rather than relying on an extreme wide-angle setting that makes the space look misleadingly large.
Take choices, not duplicates
Take two or three versions of each important view, then keep the sharpest. Ten to 18 different images will usually say more than 40 near-duplicates. Don’t add filters that change the colours or hide the condition.
Send original-size files
Messaging apps can heavily compress images. If possible, share original files or use a file-transfer link. Keep a copy of the unedited photographs and tell us when they were taken.
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