A picture is worth a thousand words and the Internet is a visual medium. Photographs are the most important selling features of your listing. You can use a professional photographer, but most of the photos on HomeAway.com are taken by the owners themselves.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when taking and selecting the photos for your listing:

1. Lighting.  Choose well-lit, clear photographs taken on a sunny day.  Early mornings before sunrise and late afternoons tend to be the best for taking photographs.   The best rule of thumb to follow is to have the sun behind you at all times.  If your home or the room you are photographing faces West, the sun will be at your back in the mornings.  If it faces East, the sun will be at your back in the evenings.  Avoid photos with too much light or too little light, which is also a common mistake.
2. Recency.  Photos should not be more than two or three years old.  Avoid uploading photos that show a date stamp.  When you select your photos, you don't want to have to continually update those pictures because your date stamp is giving away the age of the photo. 
3. Variety.  Include both exterior and interior shots of your property.  Travelers want to get a sense of the size and style of your home.  Include the main living room, kitchen, and all bedrooms. That's right - if you have a 5 bedroom home, 5 of your photos should be of the bedrooms.  Site visitors want to see accurate representations of your property.  That being said, it's probably not necessary to include a photograph of your bathroom unless it is spectacular.  A toilet is pretty much a toilet everywhere.  Along those lines, avoid filling space with generic nature photos.  Try to feature some aspect of your actual home in each photo.
4. Staging.  Help the travelers imagine what it will feel like to stay in your home.  Instead of showing a bare table and chairs, add a bowl of fruit or a vase of flowers.  You might even set the table with place settings and wine.  Sofas and other seating areas can be spruced up with throw pillows and blankets. Lamps tend to photograph better when they are turned on.  However, always be sure to turn televisions off. 
5. Framing.  Consider what is in the frame of your shot.  When choosing exterior photos, stay away from the ones that have cars in the frame as they can distract from the actual home.  When selecting your bedroom shots, try to select photos that show the entire bed.
6. Format.  A standard landscape/horizontal format fits best.
7. Pixels.  Upload 640 pixel x 480 pixel digital originals for best results. 400 pixel x 300 pixel photos are minimum requirements.
8. Digital Images.  Use JPEG digital image format ONLY.  If you don't have a digital camera, borrow one from a friend or hire a professional photographer.  You don't want to use low-resolution or scanned photos that don't do your home justice.
9. Camera Settings.  Use medium to high quality settings on your digital camera. Don't over-compress your photos.
10. 12 Photos.  HomeAway allows you to upload 12 photos.  You don't want to sell your home short by only uploading a portion of the available photos.  Even if you have a small home, take pictures of your rooms from different angles to make the most of this space.

How do you select the photos to display in your vacation rental listing? "When I visit my vacation home, I try to take new pictures each time.  The first time I took photos, I took over 100.  That way I had plenty to choose from when selecting which ones to put on my ads." -Jessica M., La Jolla, CA. "It is very important not to chose photos to upload by their thumbnail shot. You must look at them "full-screen" to really get the feel for what it's going to look like onlin. Then it's always a good idea to print some on plain paper if you're really having a hard time chosing - having to go back and forth from the same few photos. Actually printing some on paper you can see them all in "real" size making it easier to chose." -Tammy, Asheville, NC (HomeAway #305828, VRBO #20261) "I added a wide angle lens to my camera. It really helps to bring an entire room into the frame. Other tips: pick a time of day that brings pleasing (not glaring) light into the room, turn on all the lights (even during the day) to show off the fixtures, and stand on a chair (gives a different perspective to the room - did I learn that from Christine? - I forget). -Bob, Pacific Beach, WA.  (HomeAway #163760, VRBO #131067)

4 Reasons to Upload 12 Photos on HomeAway 4 reasons for making sure that you have 12 photos up on your HomeAway listing.   How to Place Images in Your HomeAway Advertisement Uploading photos of your vacation rental home is simple if you follow these easy steps.   How to Use Flickr to Market Your Vacation Home Tips for using photo-sharing sites to further market your vacation rental home on the web.   Small Property?  How to Come Up with 12 Photos For smaller properties, it can be hard to find 12 photos to display.

© Copyright 2008, HomeAway, Inc., Updated 10/24/08.