It is very important to take attractive photos and videos in order to sell your yacht successfully. It is important to be well prepared before the shoot and not to be perfunctory in order to save time, effort and money. This guide has overall tips on everything from cleaning up your yacht and upgrading older items, to choosing the equipment to shoot with, the time of day to shoot, the framing, and presenting the photos to help you take the perfect photos and videos to increase the success rate of your yacht sale.
Do the prep work
When you are planning to sell your yacht, before taking photos or videos of your yacht, you can't just simply tidy up the yacht, but also thoroughly clear out your personal belongings on the yacht and tidy up all parts of the yacht, including beds, torn canvas, rusty metal, etc. You have to deal with them and deep clean the yacht. In addition, old TVs, old kitchen utensils and other items that look old or tired can be upgraded to bring out the best in the yacht.
Choose the right filming equipment
There are a number of quality smart collections on the market today that cater for taking photos and videos. Smartphones are easy to set up, have good resolution and wide-angle lenses for shooting in tight spaces or indoors. However, smartphones also have some limitations. If you own a good quality camera with a wide-angle lens of around 18mm, the images you take will be sharper. If you're planning to buy a new camera to shoot with, choose one with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which eliminates camera shake caused by slight yacht shaking and avoids blurred images.
Choose the right time and weather for shooting
Shooting photos and videos of the yacht is not a one-day process, you need to refer to the local weather forecast and set aside a few days for the conditioned charter. Lighting is critical when shooting, with different parts of the yacht requiring different lighting. When photographing the interior, as bright sunlight through the portholes will create shadows, choose a cloudy (but brightly lit) day and switch on all the lights.
When photographing the exterior, you should choose a sunny day to create the impression that you always have a sunny lifestyle or image on the yacht that the buyer can relate to. Mornings and evenings when shadows are not too deep are also usually prime times for exterior shots.
All-round shots
To show off your yacht from all angles, you need to shoot from all angles, both inside and outside the yacht. If the yacht is lifted out of the water, take photos of the propeller, rudder, hull and thrusters as a way of showing the features and maintenance of the yacht, which will also be useful once the yacht is back in the water. When taking photos of the interior, it is important to use both wide-angle photos to show the entire layout of the cabin and close-ups to highlight individual details, such as the beautiful teak trim or the brand-new fish finder. Beautiful teak trim or a brand-new fish finder. Change angles and try different shots, even of seemingly insignificant parts of the yacht.
Photographing the yacht in motion
It's not always possible to take moving photos and videos of your yacht, and many yachts for sale don't have them, but if you can do it, it will certainly make your yacht stand out. Sailing yachts have a great advantage in this regard, and you can capture images of them under sail with the sails up, creating an appealing lifestyle image.
When shooting, use a zoom lens and take care to balance the proportions of the boat, water and sky in the image. Another boat may be needed here to assist with the shot, and if you can't find a friend to help with the boat, it's worth spending a day's rent to hire one so that you can fully display the boat you're selling. Don't forget to take plenty of quality video footage while you're out shooting, too.
Rehearse the video in advance
Photographs can be difficult to show perfectly what a yacht is really like - it's hard to show the relationship of spaces, the experience of being on a boat, etc. - and video can make up for these shortcomings. Practice and plan your route before shooting the video. The key is to shoot slowly to avoid the camera swinging too fast and causing the image to be bumpy and blurry. Proper narration will make it clear to potential buyers what they are seeing, but there is no need to overdo it - simple explanations are fine. Close-up shots can also be taken with neat lockers open to show the well-maintained condition of the cabin, chrome trim, decks etc. Exterior video of the yacht under sail creates images of a great lifestyle and makes potential buyers understand that missing out on this boat would be a loss.
Add photo captions
Realize that without captions, people who see your yacht will have no idea what parts of the yacht they need to focus on. For example, which cabin has what function? Which space on the yacht is this? What are the specifications for a particular piece of electronics? Therefore, make sure you have clear, concise captions for your photos so that people looking at the yacht can understand them at a glance.
Get someone to evaluate the pictures and video in advance
Once the photos and videos have been taken, show the finalized images and videos of the yacht to friends and family so that they can give honest feedback. As you become overly familiar with your yacht table, it is likely that you will overlook some appealing features or fail to present something because you feel it is too commonplace. That's why it's essential to get more views and opinions from others before deciding on the final images to be displayed.
Displaying photos wisely
When you upload images to a yacht sales platform, or share them with professional yacht brokers, make sure to arrange the images in a logical order and put the most attractive ones at the beginning. Use the great photos that show the exterior appeal of the yacht as the main image, followed by some eye-catching interior shots.
If you want buyers to be instantly attracted, no matter how much cleaning and organizing you've done to the yacht, don't start with a photo of the locked anchor at the beginning. And, for each part of the yacht, choose only one image and pick the one that best shows its features. This is because people get bored with multiple photos of the same thing taken from different angles and are likely to stop scrolling further before they've seen everything.
Leave the comment
