Guide: 7 Steps to Taking Professional-Quality Real Estate Photos on your Iphone
1. Plan the photoshoot ahead of time to achieve the best natural lighting
North-facing properties: 10am-2pm
East-facing properties: Morning
South-facing properties: Early morning, evening
West-facing properties: Afternoon, evening
2. Clean your camera lens
Any dirt, oil or residue on the camera lens will cause your phone to take blurry, out of focus pictures. A dirty lens will also cause any lighting in the room to cast optical halos.
A microfiber towel or the inside of your cotton t-shirt should be gentle enough to do the trick.
3. Prepare the room
Stage the room you are about to take pictures of by cleaning up clutter, removing personal items such as family photos, opening window blinds to allow in natural light and moving furniture if necessary to get the perfect shot!
4. Best camera settings
Turn your phone sideways and shoot in landscape mode. You typically want rooms to look spacious instead of tall.
Using the wide angle setting is always the best way to capture the depth and expanse of a property’s features.
The iphone auto-enhance feature doesn’t always result in a perfectly touched-up real estate photo, but I do find that it tends to help balance lighting from windows that are letting in too much light or not enough.
Never use flash on your iphone camera. The light from an iphone’s flash is too harsh (The average light temperature of an iphone’s flash is 5,000 to 5,500 K) and it casts shadows in photos. You are better off turning on lights in the room, opening window blinds or using the HDR setting to achieve better lighting.
Turn off the “Live Photo” setting on your iphone so photos aren’t saved as HEIC (High Efficiency Image File Format).
Open the Settings app.
Go to Settings > Camera > Formats.
Select “Most Compatible.” All future photos you take will be saved as a JPEG.
5. Camera location, angle and height
Photos should be shot somewhere between your eyes and your chest.
Ensure vertical elements of the room are straight. Adjust the tilt of your camera as needed.
Shoot from the corner of each room so you can capture the entire room.
Take multiple pictures of each room from differing locations so you’ll have plenty of photos to choose from.
6. Photo Editing
Since the introduction of auto-enhance, which was first released on the iphone 11, extensive editing is not necessary although adjustments may be needed to lighting levels, contrast, etc.
Do not use the same filters that you would use on an Instagram photo. A great real estate photo is well-lit and simple without too much additional editing. Spend more time learning to stage a room properly rather than scrolling through which filter to use.
7. Uploading Photos
If you forgot to change the settings on your iphone so that your photos are saved as JPEGs and not as HEICs, do not worry. Although most property listing platforms such as the MLS and Zillow do not allow you to upload HEIC photos, there are plenty of free photo file converters available online. For example, you can search the following phrase on Google, “Convert HEIC to JPEG.”
Try to tell a story with your photos. Upload and organize the photos as if you were walking through the house for the first time. Typically you see the front of the house first, then you enter the front door, walk through the living room, check out the kitchen, walk into bedrooms or bathrooms and finally take a stroll through the backyard. This rule of thumb doesn’t apply to every home. If a house has a special feature such as a pool or updated kitchen, you may be inclined to show a photo of the special feature earlier on so as to catch the attention of a potential buyer or renter.
If you have a tip that we should include, please contact us on our website or DM us on instagram so we can try out your tip on our next property photoshoot!
