How to take real estate photos with your phone

Buyers and tenants judge a listing by its photos before they read a word. You don't need expensive kit to get them right, but you do need a method. This guide covers the ordinary photos that make up a listing's gallery. If you want 360° photos people can look around in, that's a different technique, covered in how to take 360 photos of a home with your iPhone.

The short version

Prepare the home before you pick up the phone. Tidy, clean, nothing personal on show.
Shoot at the brightest time of day, every light on, flash off.
Landscape, level, chest to eye height. Turn on the level and keep vertical lines vertical.
Use 0.5× sparingly. It helps in small bathrooms and kitchens, but it stretches and enlarges.
Lead with the best room, group each room's photos together, and stop before you get repetitive.
Edit light and perspective, never the property. If AI adds or removes something, say so.

Before the camera: prepare the home

Half of a good property photo happens before you take it. Walk through as a buyer would and remove what distracts:

Clear kitchen worktops: kettle, toaster, washing-up liquid, sponges.
Bathrooms without toothbrushes, used towels or bottles in the shower. Toilet seat down.
Beds made, cushions straightened, nothing draped over chairs.
Family photos, fridge magnets, post and trailing cables out of shot.
Interior doors open so rooms feel connected.

Rightmove's own advice to sellers says the same: declutter first, and avoid photos of a lone piece of furniture or personal items on the mantelpiece.

Light and time of day

Daylight does most of the work. Rightmove recommends photos taken on a sunny day with curtains open, and warns against shots tied to a time of year, such as Christmas decorations, which date a listing quickly.

Check which way rooms face. A south-facing lounge often looks best mid-morning, a west-facing one in the afternoon.
Open blinds and curtains and switch on every light. Lamps fill dark corners.
Don't shoot straight into a window with direct sun. Stand side-on to it, or lower the blind a little.
Flash off. It lights the foreground and leaves the rest of the room dark.

Real estate photography with an iPhone: the settings that matter

Grid and level

Go to Settings > Camera and turn on Grid and Level, as Apple describes in its camera tools guide. The level tells you when the phone is straight; the grid helps line up door frames and corners.

Height and vertical lines

The giveaway of an amateur property photo is walls leaning inwards. That happens when you tilt the phone up or down. Keep it perpendicular to the floor, and if the room doesn't fit, step back rather than tilt.

Most property photographers shoot from roughly chest height so tables and worktops aren't seen from above, though eye level also works. Try both in one room, pick what looks natural, then keep that height for the whole home.

The 0.5× ultra-wide: useful, with care

The iPhone's ultra-wide lens covers about 120°, so it can fit almost a whole room from one corner. That helps in narrow kitchens and bathrooms. It has three downsides:

It stretches the edges. Furniture near the sides of the frame distorts. Apple's Lens Correction, on by default, reduces this; leave it on.
It makes rooms look bigger. A buyer who arrives to find a box room where they expected a double bedroom will not book a second viewing, and may tell your vendor.
It's weaker in low light than the main camera.

Simple rule: use 1× wherever the important parts fit, and 0.5× only where there's no other way to show the room.

HDR, exposure and orientation

HDR: the iPhone applies it automatically when it helps, blending several exposures to keep highlight and shadow detail (Apple). Leave it on; it rescues rooms with bright windows.
Lock exposure when a shot is too dark or blown out: press and hold on the key area until "AE/AF Lock" appears, then slide to adjust brightness.
Always landscape. Portals and MLS galleries are built around landscape images.
No digital zoom, no filters.

How many photos, and in what order

Rightmove advises at least five photographs including an external shot, and says the first two should normally be the best ones.

Zoopla's best practice page for listings says sales listings with 15 or more photos had a 38% higher search click rate than those with just five, and recommends 6 to 10 photos for lettings. Its floor plan page gives a 9% higher search click rate for sales listings with a floor plan (4% for lettings). These are Zoopla's own figures from its 2022 data, with no published method, so read them as a direction rather than independent research.

Zillow listings in the US usually arrive through the MLS, so your local MLS's photo rules apply first. Those rules commonly ban logos, contact details and text overlays on listing photos (see, for example, CRMLS's photographs and media FAQ), so keep branding off the images.

An order that works on any portal:

Lead photo: the home's strongest feature, such as a bright reception room, the garden, the view or a new kitchen.
Living and dining areas, then the kitchen.
Main bedroom, then the others.
Bathrooms.
Garden, parking, storage, communal areas at the end.

Keep all photos of one room together. One or two angles per room is usually enough; four near-identical shots of the same bedroom just slow people down.

How to edit real estate photos on your phone

Listing photos don't need heavy editing. What does help:

Straighten and fix verticals. The iPhone's Photos app can adjust horizontal and vertical perspective as well as straighten. Start here.
Brightness, shadows and white balance. Lift shadows to open up corners and cool down the yellow cast of bulbs.
Snapseed (free) has a perspective tool for finer control.
Lightroom mobile fixes geometry with its Upright modes, but that's a premium feature.

Apply the same look to every photo so the gallery feels consistent.

AI edits: what's honest, and what gets listings pulled

AI apps can furnish an empty room, swap a carpet for oak or turn a grey sky blue in seconds. The line is clear:

Fine: correcting light, colour and perspective; removing something temporary of yours, like a bag on the floor.
Only with a label: virtual staging of an empty home, or showing what a renovation could look like. Mark it on the image and include the original photo as well.
No: hiding damp, cracks, a pylon outside the window or the building opposite, or changing floors and finishes without saying so.

In the UK, the duty not to mislead under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act applies whether a person or an AI made the image, as a compliance officer at The Guild told Property Industry Eye, and Propertymark's chief executive said any AI-altered image "must be clearly labelled". Labelling may not be enough on its own: in 2025 an agent's virtually staged photos were removed from Rightmove at the portal's request even though the listing flagged them.

In the EU, Article 50 of the AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026: if you use an AI tool to generate or alter an image that could pass as real, you have to say so. The Digital Omnibus, published as Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 in July 2026, only gave providers of existing tools until 2 December 2026 to add machine-readable marking; it doesn't delay the disclosure that falls on whoever publishes the image.

In the US, the NAR Code of Ethics requires Realtors to present a true picture in their advertising, and California's AB 723, in force since 1 January 2026, requires agents to disclose digitally altered listing images and give access to the unaltered original. San Diego's MLS has a plain-English summary of what counts as an alteration.

Best camera for real estate photos, and when to hire a photographer

A recent phone, used well, is enough for most flats and ordinary family homes. Hire a property photographer when:

The home is large or high-value and competes with professionally shot listings.
It's dark, or the view through the windows is the selling point and the phone can't hold both.
You need exteriors at dusk, drone shots or a measured floor plan.
You don't have time to prepare, shoot and edit properly.

A professional brings a camera with a wide-angle lens, a tripod and several exposures per shot, then edits. How long it takes: a visit usually lasts 30 to 60 minutes, more for big homes or extras, and many photographers deliver the next day. Fees vary by area, size and extras, so get two or three quotes with the items listed separately.

Photos and a 360 tour, not one or the other

Photos win the first click. What answers "how does the kitchen connect to the lounge?" is a 360° tour with a floor plan. If you're already on site with your iPhone, use the same visit: with RoomTour, our app, you take about 30 guided shots per room, the phone stitches them into a 360° panorama, and the tour comes with an approximate floor plan of the layout. You get a link to send by WhatsApp or email to each enquiry, or to put on your website. You can see the result in this example tour.

The full walkthrough is in how to make a virtual tour with your phone.

Frequently asked questions

How do you take real estate photos with an iPhone?

Declutter first, shoot at the brightest time of day with every light on and the flash off, hold the phone level and in landscape, use the 1× lens wherever it fits and keep 0.5× for tight rooms. Then straighten verticals in the Photos app.

What is the best camera for real estate photos?

For most flats and family homes, a recent phone used carefully is enough. A camera with a wide-angle lens and a tripod is worth it for large or high-end homes, dark interiors and exteriors at dusk.

How long do real estate photos take?

A professional visit usually takes 30 to 60 minutes, longer for big homes or if you add a floor plan. Doing it yourself, allow time to prepare the rooms first; that is usually the slow part.

How many photos should a property listing have?

Rightmove suggests at least five, including an exterior. Zoopla's 2022 data found sales listings with 15 or more photos got more search clicks than those with five.

Can you use AI to edit real estate photos?

For light, colour and straightening, yes. If AI adds furniture, changes finishes or removes defects, label the image clearly and show the original too. Rightmove has asked agents to remove virtually staged images, and California now requires disclosure by law.