It’s a given, you need to photograph your client’s home to list it. While hiring a professional photographer is recommended, we both know that if you’re in a pinch for time you’re going to reach for your smartphone and say good enough (it’s not). Since it’s going to happen regardless of what I think, I want to offer up advice if you choose to shoot your next listing with a smartphone so they’ll be better than most.
Shoot Slightly Below Eye Level
You want to keep the photos looking as natural as possible. Don’t shoot over your head looking down -- people, on average, aren’t 6’ 5” giants. Lower the height of your phone to either slightly below eye level or below the chin. That range gives a natural perspective for most folks.
With that, you need to shoot level. What does that mean? Shooting level means that all vertical lines in the photo (doors, windows, wall edges and corners) are all parallel to the vertical edges of the photo. Turn on your 3x3 grid to help align the verticals. My previous write up goes into this and what goes into a good interior photo.
You can pick up a cheap Amazon tripod and smartphone tripod adapter to keep your shooting level consistent throughout the house and to make leveling your shots easier.
Avoid Windows or Close the Blinds
If you’re shooting against a window, you’re not going to get a good photo. The sensor on your smartphone doesn’t offer enough dynamic range to resolve the differences in bright light and interior light. This also ruins your white balance, as it’s adjusting for the outside light and not the interior light. There are two ways to mitigate this; don’t shoot against windows or close the blinds and turn the interior lights on. You can try to shoot with HDR mode on, but I find the color reproduction is always slightly off.
Touch to Focus and Expose
The depth of field on a smartphone is pretty deep regardless of where you tap to focus, but you’ll want to pick a location in the midground of your photo to focus on. Doing so, you should have everything in frame in focus; foreground, midground, and background. Since most phones focus and expose on touch, you need to make sure whatever point you focus on is also well exposed so you don’t over expose your image. If you need more info on this read my previous write up on good interior photography.
Lens Attachments
Don’t use them. Ever. Most are plastic junk that just degrade the image quality, distort the image, and add chromatic aberration. I know they’re cheap and plentiful, but you’re better off saving that $20 and using it towards lunch. If you need a wide shot, try a panorama but even then, that’s pushing it because MLS typically requires photos 3:2 aspect ratio and it distorts the perspective of the room.
Third Party iOS or Android Applications
If you want to push more out of your smartphone’s image sensor your can try third party apps, but just like the lens attachments mentioned above, save your money. These two points are seen as “cost-saving” because you feel like you can do it yourself, but in reality, while smartphones have come a long way in terms of camera quality, they are still not on par with professional level DSLRs and Mirrorless cameras.
You can use your smartphone in a pinch if you need to get a listing up quickly, but honestly, it’s a disservice to yourself, your brokerage, and your client. Typically the photos of the house serve as the first point of contact. By not representing the home as best you can you reduce the amount of foot traffic coming in for a tour. Remember you are a professional service and business, treat yourself as such and your client as such and have a professional photograph your new listing.