Tips for Taking Your Property Photos to the Next Level

You might think, “But, Jon, I don’t have a professional DSLR camera!” No worries, it is perfectly fine if you don’t have one. Because most of us have great cameras on our smartphones nowadays.

Here are some key tips to step up your photo game:

• Phone

  • Turn your phone sideways to capture your photos.
  • Turn on the gridlines feature to guide your photos symmetry.
  • Use the camera flash at your discretion.

• Lighting

  • Open all the blinds and turn on all the lights inside.
  • You want as much natural light as possible.
  • Try to take the pictures with the light against your back, so it lights up the room.
    • If the sun is shining into your camera it will look blown out.
  • Around noon is the best time of day with the most sunlight.

• Keep your lines straight

  • Back into the corners of the rooms to get more content.
  • Make sure all the vertical lines in the photos are straight.
    • Look at the walls, doors, cabinets in your photo. Check if they are leaning left or right and tilt your camera accordingly. It won’t be perfect without editing software, but as close as possible is best.
  • Look for symmetry.

• Camera Height

  • Try to hold your camera at roughly the same height consistently throughout your photoshoot.
    • Otherwise, it will look like your jumping up and down as you scroll the pictures.
  • I find that holding the camera at chest height will give the best results.
    • Holding the camera too high will make the room feel small. And if you hold the camera too low it will look strange. 

• Bonus Points - Extra Steps

  • Use a photo editing software for touch-ups such as vertical lines. (Snapseed - is a phenomenal editing app. It's very user-friendly and it's free!)
  • Try to keep the color saturation to a minimum to keep the photos are natural as possible.
  • Increase the brightness and reduce the shade as necessary.
  • If you would like to get really creative you can add text over the photo for concessions. (Use this sparingly.)

Most importantly, have fun!

All these photos were taken on an iPhone!