How to Prepare For A Virtual Tour Shoot
So you’ve finally decided to get a virtual tour for your space – awesome! Before we have one of our professional photographers do what they do best, we need to go over some essential tips in order to get your space ready! Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail, let us show you how to get the highest quality out of your 360 virtual tour!
Clean Everything
This may be an obvious one, but we’re stating it anyway. Momentum 360 recommends cleaning every single inch of your space. At the end of the day, the 360 camera will pick up everything that shows up on your space, so you need to make sure to clean everything to the best of your ability. Not only will this make your virtual tour look 10x better, but it will be easier for the photographer to capture!
How to Prepare For A Virtual Tour Shoot
Here is a checklist of cleaning items for your space:
- Floors
- Countertops
- Cushions
- Steps
- Walls
If you follow this simple checklist, you will make your virtual tour a lot better looking, i.e your tour will help you make more money. This is a great first step to learning how to prepare for a virtual tour shoot.
Momentum 360 has shot thousands of virtual tours in the entire world, so we know a thing or two about making sure your space looks the best it possibly can!
No Visitors Allowed
People still don’t seem to understand this, but you will need to close your listing/business so no people are walking around while we shoot! Remember, the camera captures whatever is there, even people. Thus, if you’re in the line of sight for the camera, it’ll pick you up in the virtual tour.
What Momentum recommends is meeting with your team a week before the shoot, and making sure that everyone can work from home and/or stay out of the way if they need to be in the office. Another popular option if you’re a M-F business is to simply shoot on the weekends. This will ensure for minimal people to be in your space, so we can focus on shooting without the worry of capturing someone in the scan. The good news is, even if we do, we can blur them out and/or delete the scan, so hope is not all lost.
We recommend having one point of contact to meet our photographer on-site, this way we can go over the shot list for 5-10 minutes and then get to work! This process has worked very well for our clients, we try to make it as easy as possible for them. This is another example of how to prepare for a virtual tour shoot.
Declutter
Another common sense tip but just so we’re on the same page, make sure you pick up your clutter! It would shock you the number of times we’ve shown up for shoots, only to find the place covered with trash.
It’s a shame because this means we’ll have to reschedule and shoot again. It’s essential for the realtor or small business owner to read this blog to get your space ready to shoot! Here’s a quick list of what to do in terms of decluttering:
- Clean everything off the kitchen counters.
- Remove from the refrigerator magnets, clippings, your children’s artwork, etc.
- Put away all personal photographs and photos on the walls.
- Make the beds.
- Vacuum and sweep the floors.
This list is especially important for realtors as you can see. For large commercial spaces in excess of 10,000 square feet, there is actually less declutter on average that the client has to deal with. Of course, it always depends on the space and size.
Great Natural & Building Lighting
This is one of the most important tips for your virtual tour shoot. Lighting will either make or break your virtual tour, so let’s light your space up!
Regardless of how many windows and built-in lights you have, your team needs to strategically create as much light as possible for the shoot. What good is it for your virtual tour if no one can see what they’re looking at! Of the thousands of virtual tours Momentum 360 has had the privilege of shooting, lighting is something we always look for in a shoot.
Whether our team is using Matterport, Cloudpano or 3DVista, we require good solid lighting for our cameras. If your team needs more natural lighting, use this brief checklist:
- Add More Mirrors and Shiny Objects
- Choose the Right Colour Palette
- Bring in New Furniture and Accessories
- Install Larger Windows or Doors
- Replace Wall Space with Glass Blocks
- Wash the Windows
- Lighter Window Treatments
- Add Skylights
Again, this is a great example especially for real estate listings, but the same goes for large commercial spaces that we work with too.
Create Shot List for Photographer
This should be worked out between Momentum 360 and our clients previous to shooting, but we want to emphasize the shot list again come shoot day. Just another way to be on the same page and create a better working relationship between photographer and client. Although the POC doesn’t have to monitor every single shot that the photographer does, instead a great idea would be to give the photographer the shot list after having a 5-10 minute meeting upon arrival. This is reinforcing what needs to be shot and again creating solid rapport with the client.
If you’re wondering what a shot list looks like, check out our own Momentum 360 Photographer Guidelines. We indicate what a correct shot list should look like, as well as a clear onboarding process for all of our new photographers!
If you’re a 360 photographer reading this, send us an email with your resume and portfolio to info@momentumvirtualtours.com and we’ll potentially add you to our vendor list!
Hide Personal Information
If we’re shooting a small business, we make sure to emphasize the protection of personal information. Some clients don’t think this is necessary, here at Momentum 360 we absolutely do. Here’s an example:
- Protecting the headshots and names of children in schools
- Protecting sensitive company data on a messy work desk
- Protecting specific areas that aren’t in the shot list
Make sense now?
Hiding sensitive information is absolutely a priority, and something that at Momentum 360 we take extremely seriously. The virtual tour softwares that we use such as Matterport, Cloudpano and 3DVista contain helpful features to help hide personal information.
Matterport can blur and hide scans that we shoot, thus having no possibility of leaking important company and personal information.
Don’t Forget to Stage!
This is the fun part!
If your listing or small business is vacant in some areas, this is a perfect opportunity to spice it up! Whether physical or virtual staging, Momentum 360 can consult which would be the better option for you. As you can see from this image, one side looks better than the other, and that’s the one with some staging in it!
Especially for realtors, staging gives the buyer a better idea of what they can do with their new space!
Momentum 360 also provides virtual staging for realtors and small businesses, you can check out our staging portfolio here!
Get Creative
This is one of the best ways to prepare for a virtual tour shoot. Getting creative with the space you have and maneuvering it in the best way possible is a huge selling point. Think about it. Ever seen a real estate listing that just didn’t cut it? Pretty boring? One of the reasons it was boring was because of the way the house was staged.
When we work with conference centers/schools/venues, our main question to those clients is: Which type of staging arrangement would sell the most online?
Because at the end of the day ladies and gentlemen, it’s about how much the tour sells, that’s the entire purpose of this technology. To sell more tickets, more students, more listings, more anything! Not taking the project too seriously and getting creative is another great way to prepare for a virtual tour shoot and make it perfect!
Check Everything One Last Time
Last but certainly not least, it’s important to go over this entire list again and make sure you did everything! You can never be too careful, especially when it comes to virtual tours.
Once you have triple checked to confirm you’ve done everything to prepare for a virtual tour shoot, then we’re good to go!
Momentum 360 likes to make it easy on our clients, that’s why we handle all our scheduling, support and invoicing online just like any other successful company would do!
If you want to hop on a demo or if you’re ready to see what all the virtual tour hoopla is about and get your own virtual tour, connect with us!
That’s it for this week’s blog! As always, check out our website and social media to learn more about Momentum 360 and all that we do.
For information about pricing, check out our pricing page here.
For a complete list of Momentum 360 Services, check out our website here.
Still not convinced? Check out our portfolio and see our work for yourself!
Our team members have also worked at Google and Facebook before, so we have the most up-to-date knowledge in the business. All to help your business rank at the top of Google and kickstart your journey to be a future lead generation machine!
Here at Momentum 360, we want to make growing your business easier than ever. Investing in a virtual tour is without a doubt an imperative step in making that happen. Our society is prioritizing digital content now more than ever, and we likely will not see a decline in this mindset in the future years.
If you are interested in learning more about Momentum 360 Virtual Tours or would like to have one made for your business, feel free to email us or schedule a call with Sean or Mac. For more information, visit our website! Mac Frederick and Sean Boyle, owners of Momentum, have over twenty years of experience in the digital marketing field and have a passion for helping businesses reach their fullest potential.
We post our Momentum Monday and Small Business Saturday blog every week, so feel free to subscribe and make sure you are up to date on the latest trends in the industry. If you have any questions or concerns, leave them in the comments below! From everyone at Momentum 360, thanks for the love, stay healthy, and until next time, build Momentum!