How to Photograph a Port Moody Townhouse So It Doesn't Feel Small
Port Moody's townhouse inventory is its own category. Between Klahanie, Suter Brook, Moody Centre and the older complexes climbing Heritage Mountain, a large share of what changes hands in this city is neither a detached house nor a concrete highrise - it's a three-level side-by-side with the garage on the bottom, living space in the middle, and bedrooms on top.
That stacked layout is the whole photographic problem. A townhouse can carry the floor area of a modest bungalow, but it's split across levels, divided into narrower rooms, and stitched together by stairs. Shoot it the way you'd shoot a detached home and it reads as cramped and hard to follow. Shoot it with the layout in mind and the same unit feels generous.
Here's how we approach them. Our studio is on Murray Street, a few minutes from most of these complexes.
What you're short of is width, not light
The defining constraint of a townhouse interior is lateral space. In a detached living room you can back into a corner and let the room open up in front of you. In a townhouse, the corner you want is often a wall three metres away, and backing into a doorway just fills the frame with door casing.
Two habits matter most here.
First, resist the widest lens you own. Extremely wide angles are the standard cheat for tight rooms, and they backfire on townhouses - the near end of the sofa balloons, the far wall races away, and buyers who walk through afterwards feel misled. That gap between photos and showing is what kills offers on small homes. A moderate wide angle, shot from a slightly lower camera height, gives an honest sense of scale that survives the in-person visit.
Second, shoot down the long axis. Almost every Port Moody townhouse main floor is a rectangle running front to back. The useful frame looks along that length - kitchen through dining through living to the patio door - because it shows the flow and the depth in one image. Shooting across the short axis just confirms the room is narrow.
The middle level is a two-light problem
Main floors here typically have windows at one end only - a patio door at the back, maybe a small window over the sink. That means one bright wall and one dim wall in the same frame, and the difference between them is several stops.
A single exposure forces a choice: a properly lit room with a white rectangle where the window should be, or a legible patio with a murky interior. Neither helps. This is the plain technical case for HDR interior photography - blending bracketed frames so the room and whatever is outside the glass are both readable. In Klahanie and Suter Brook, where a patio often looks onto a landscaped courtyard or a slice of green, that outdoor detail is genuinely part of the value.
Practically: every light in the unit on, including under-cabinet and range hood lights, and every blind fully up. Half-open blinds throw banded shadows across cabinetry that look like dirt.
Stairs and transitions deserve real frames
Most townhouse photo sets treat stairs as dead space. That's a mistake, because stairs are the only thing telling a buyer how the levels connect.
We shoot at least one deliberate transition frame - typically from the top of the main stairs looking down toward the entry, or from the landing where the upper hall opens onto the bedrooms. It doesn't have to be a hero shot - just an orientation shot, so the gallery reads as one home instead of eighteen unrelated rooms.
Sequence matters just as much. Order the gallery the way someone would walk the unit: entry, main level front to back, patio, bedrooms, then the flex or garage level. Sets that jump between floors are the most common reason a well-photographed townhouse still feels confusing.
The outdoor space is a room - treat it as one
Patios and rooftop decks are what buyers here compare between complexes. A main-floor patio is functionally an extra room for much of the year, and it deserves the same care as the kitchen: swept, furniture squared, planters tidied, hose out of frame.
Same goes for the front entry. Many Port Moody complexes are laid out around interior walkways, so the unit's door is set back from the street. One clear approach shot - path, door, landscaping - solves a real problem for buyers who otherwise can't picture how they'd get home.
Where a floor plan and a 3D tour earn their cost
On a flat, single-level home, a floor plan is a nice extra. On a three-level townhouse it's close to essential, because stills cannot convey stacking. A measured floor plan answers the questions buyers actually have: are all the bedrooms on one level, is the den on the entry floor or the main, is the powder room where you'd want it, does the garage connect inside.
A Matterport 3D tour does the complementary job. It lets someone move up and down the stairs themselves, which is exactly the spatial relationship that photos flatten. For out-of-town buyers relocating along the Evergreen Line, or anyone comparing three similar Klahanie floorplans on a Sunday night, it's the difference between shortlisting the unit and skipping it.
A short pre-shoot list for agents
- Clear the counters completely. In a narrow kitchen, a knife block and a kettle occupy a visible share of the frame.
- Park elsewhere and empty the driveway apron. Townhouse garages open onto shared lanes with no room to hide a vehicle.
- Tidy the garage or flex level. Buyers care whether it's usable; boxes to the ceiling say it isn't.
- Remove one piece of furniture per room. Townhouse rooms are almost always over-furnished relative to what photographs well.
- Sweep the patio and the walkway to your door, and pull the recycling bins out of sight.
Booking a Port Moody shoot
If you're listing a townhouse and unsure where the budget belongs, tell us the complex and the number of levels - that's usually enough for us to say whether the money is better spent on a floor plan, a 3D tour, or extra interior time. You can see the rest of what we cover locally on our Port Moody real estate photography page, and we shoot the same townhouse stock next door in Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam.
When you're ready, book your shoot and let us know your listing date so we can schedule the interior around the light.
RealtyShot
Real estate photography, 3D tours, drone and video for agents across Metro Vancouver. Based in Port Moody, shooting from Vancouver to the Fraser Valley since over 5+ years.