Good real estate photos are crucial in selling a home quickly. According to Shannon Petrie (editor at HGTV) “80 percent of homebuyers starting their house hunt online, a home’s “pix appeal,” or how good it looks in photos posted on the internet, is taking over as the top way to impress buyers off the bat. In a survey by the National Association of Realtors, homebuyers rated photos as the feature they use most when searching for a home on the web. Online listings with bad pictures — or worse, no pictures at all — can cause buyers to overlook your home from the get-go.”

That is a pretty big deal, and that is why I am a real estate photographer. I want to get rid of crumby photos from the internet, but I realize not everyone can afford a real estate photographer. So here are some tips on how you can take good pictures with your phone.

The 6 things that create good photos

1. Take the photo at the correct time.

   Choose a good time to take photos. It is best to have the front of the house lit up by sunlight. Also, try to photograph on a sunny day, a picture taken during beautiful weather looks more attractive and gets more attention.

2. Use natural light on the interior photos

   Natural light does a lot of good for the interior photos; it makes space look bigger and more inviting, as opposed to a dark area that looks smaller even if it is significantly spacious. So open up the curtains, and open or raise the blinds to let that light into the room.

3. Turn on the lights in dark rooms

   I don’t recommend turning on lights for interior shots in bright, naturally lit rooms. Artificial light adds extra color to the scene that doesn’t look as pleasant. You will see a lot of blue and yellow light. That said, if a room is naturally dark, turn on the light, as long as there is not too much artificial and natural light mixing, your photo will look beautiful.

4. Get Rid of Extra Clutter

   My general rule is, less is more. Clutter distracts the viewer from the space and can give them a claustrophobic feeling, ouch. So take away as much stuff as possible. Get rid of anything extra from whats going to be shown. So pack your closets and garage to hide anything you need to. Word of caution, empty rooms can also have their downsides; it’s hard to gauge the size of a room without some objects (like furniture) to give some perspective.

5. Use a good phone with a wide-angle lens

   Use a modern smartphone, preferably on with a wide angle lens. Phones like these are able to show more of the space, and have better software that improves the photo quality. For example the iPhone 11 has a wide-angle lens and produces accurate colors with excellent image processing (a photo taken by an iPhone is more like 11+ photos all stitched together by software).

6. Make sure the vertical lines are straight

   Please aim the phone straight and level so that the walls don’t converge. Lines that are straight in real life. such as door and window frames, should look straight in your photo as well. Look to see if the ends of door frames and/or windows are bending into the center or outward. This bending becomes more prominent the more your phone is angled downward or upward when you are taking the photo. You do not need to show all the floor space, having both the floor and ceiling in the image is okay.

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With those tips, you will get above average photos for your home. However, if you want exceptional photos, strongly consider hiring a professional real estate photographer.

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Here are some photos I took and edited with an iPhone 11

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Here are the same photos done with a professional camera and editing software.

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Post Written By: Ven Kravchenko, Real Estate Photographer

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