This article uses affiliate links
Taking Real Estate Photos With Your Phone
Getting professional looking photos with a phone is becoming easier and easier as mobile technology improves. This means taking real estate photos with your phone can be a viable option for some real estate photographers.
This article will outline 5 great tips for taking real estate photos with your phone and offer up some additional information that might be helpful.
Table of Contents
Taking Real Estate Photos With Your Phone: 5 Tips from a Pro
Taking real estate photos with your phone is starting to become a viable option for some real estate photographers. Although we are still pretty far away from phone rivaling traditional cameras, there are many reasons why taking real estate photos with your phone might be helpful.
- If you need to photograph a property very quickly, nothing is faster than just walking around and taking real estate photos with your phone.
- You can offer mobile photography as a lower cost option for the realtors that don’t want to pay a lot but still want decent photography.
- If you want to upload the images directly to social media, taking real estate photos with your phone makes the process extremely fast and effective.
Whatever the reason may be for taking real estate photos with your phone as opposed to a traditional camera, you’ll still want to get the most quality possible out of the images.
The following tips with help you achieve higher quality images with taking real estate photos with your phone.
Tip 1: Always Photography Horizontally
Tip number 1 is simple, but it’s probably the most important tip on this list. Vertical photos can be great for detail shots and for social media posts, but if you’re taking real estate photos with your phone, you need to be photographing horizontally.
Simply turning your phone on its side will allow the full photos to be uploaded on to any MLS. Vertical photos won’t work for websites like Zillow or Redfin. This fact alone makes horizontal photos a must.
Additionally, photographing horizontally will quite literally make the room appear larger than if you were to photograph it vertically. You want to see more of the area of the room, not more of the ceiling and floor.
You can achieve all of this by photographing horizontally and saving vertical photos for social media.
Tip 2: Make Sure to Capture the Important Angles
Tip 2 might sound obvious, but what do I mean when I say “the important angles”? You’ll want to make sure that you get shots showing the entire room in all of the most important rooms of the house. Kitchen, living room, master bedroom, etc.
This means that you’re going to want to back yourself into a corner and fit as much of the room as you can into the photo. It will help if your phone has a wide angle lens like the iPhone 12 or iPhone 13.
If you’re phone doesn’t have a wide angle lens, you can either do your best to fit as much of the room in the frame as possible, or purchase a phone lens like the Moment Wide Angle Lens. Either way, make sure you have photos showing as much as you can of all the most important rooms.
Here is a free cheat sheet to use when you’re on location to make sure you don’t miss any angles: Real Estate Photography Checklist
Tip 3: Think About the Composition
Following tip 2 will ensure that you capture the important angles in a house, but knowing how to properly compose a photo will do wonders for all of the other images. Here’s a list of some things to consider when composing a shot:
- Highlight the space itself rather than the things in the space. This means that showing the windows, doors, or other architectural features are more important than showing off the couch or other furniture.
- Keep your vertical lines straight. You can accomplish this by always keeping your iPhone’s camera level rather than pointing it up or down.
- Find the best natural light in the house and use it to light your photos as opposed to forcing a photo of a poorly lit angle.
- Take some time to properly stage the room before photographing it. Go ahead and use our Free Home Staging Checklist
Check out this article featuring 5 Tips for Real Estate Photography for more help with composition while taking real estate photos with your phone.
Tip 4: Use Editing Software
Using a mobile editing software can really enhance the overall look of photos. There are so many editing apps out there that can take your phone based real estate photography to the next level.
If you don’t mind spending a little bit of money for an amazing product, Adobe Lightroom is the best choice, even for mobile editing. You’ll gain access to both Lightroom and Photoshop on your phone and any desktop computer.
Check out this article explaining why Adobe Lightroom is the best editing program out there and read about a few other options as well: The Best Real Estate Photo Editing Software
If you just want a simple and free editing software, the built-in editing software that comes with your phone is a great place to get used to mobile editing. It has more than enough features to seriously enhance your real estate photography photos.
Tip 5: Consider an Upgrade
The truth of the matter is that the easiest way to get better real estate photos with your phone might be to upgrade. This doesn’t necessary mean you need to buy the newest iPhone, but a wide angle lens is best way to improve your real estate photography quality.
If you are in the market for a new phone, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is an absolute dream for real estate photography. Everything you need will come standard with the phone including a wide angle lens and decent enough editing software.
If you’re not an Apple person, check out our article Best Phones for Real Estate Photography to see other options.
If a new phone isn’t exactly in your budget, then a phone lens is a very good idea. The best quality phone lens is the afore mentioned Moment Wide Angle Lens, but the Xenvo Pro Lens is a good option as well for slightly less money.
Additional Information
If you follow the 5 tips above, taking real estate photos with your phone is more than achievable. Take your time when you are photographing the house, set up your angles properly, and use some sort of editing software.
Be sure to check out our Beginners Guide. It’s full of articles with helpful ideas and tips exactly like this one. Our Business Resources page has all the resources you’ll need to get your Real Estate Photography business started on the right path.
Finally, go check out our Gear page to get up-to-date reviews and recommendations on todays best gear for Real Estate Photography.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you take good real estate pictures with your phone?
Using the tips above, with get you the best results when taking real estate photos with your phone. Take your time when you are photographing the house, set up your angles properly, and use some sort of editing software.
Can you take real estate photos with your phone?
The short answer is yes, of course you can take real estate photos with your phone. However, if you are not a good photographer, it is probably best to hire a professional.
What photo app do realtors use?
VSCO and Instagram are the two most popular real estate photography apps used by realtors.
2 Comments