Key elements elevate a real estate photograph: meticulous and balanced composition, strategic lighting for mood, close-ups highlighting craftsmanship, and curated staging that evokes a lifestyle. These features combine to create a photo that captivates viewers and enhances a property’s appeal.
Yet that’s all easier said than done. If you’re wondering how to take real estate photos, our step-by-step guide breaks down everything you need to know, from what equipment to use to how to best highlight each room. The best professional-looking real estate photos capture the unique features of your property listing—and the imagination of potential buyers.
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What you need to take the best real estate photos
If you want to photograph your listings instead of hiring a professional, the right gear makes all the difference. Here are the basics:
- Professional-grade camera: Mirrorless cameras and DSLRs offer better image quality, higher resolution, and many other advanced features that your standard smartphone camera does not.
- High-quality interchangeable lenses: The ability to change lenses multiple times while photographing a house gives you unparalleled flexibility as you move from room to room and from the interior to the exterior. Wide-angle lenses capture the grandeur of luxury properties while maintaining low distortion and high optical quality that ensure accurate proportions. Macro lenses are perfect for capturing intricate design details.
- Tripods: Stabilizing your camera will result in sharper images, especially in low-light conditions or the long exposures necessary for those captivating sunset shots. They also help with precise composition and consistent framing.
- Drones: Many high-end clients expect agents to use drones in luxury real estate marketing to capture unique aerial perspectives and stunning exterior shots of properties and landscapes.
How to take real estate photos
Luxury listings generally include photos that showcase the property in the day and evening. Daytime photography relies on natural light: think soft, diffused sunlight streaming through large windows, enhancing textures, colors, and architectural details.
Evening or nighttime photography lets you show off the home’s ambient lighting, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere. For exteriors, incorporate outdoor lighting such as pathway illumination and uplights to showcase the property’s nighttime allure. Indoors, use warm, dimmed lighting in living spaces, dining areas, and bedrooms to foster a cozy, inviting feeling.
How to frame real estate photos
You don’t have to have a degree in photography to use some basic composition techniques to your advantage. The rule of thirds divides the frame using vertical and horizontal lines to achieve balanced images. When photographing panoramas, align the horizon with a horizontal golden ratio line to balance sky and landscape. In interiors, place prominent architectural elements like staircases or fireplaces along these lines for added visual harmony.
Use elements within a home—such as doorways, arches, or windows—to create a frame within the photograph, drawing attention to the main subject and adding depth to the image.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and get creative as you highlight your real estate listing’s best features. Play around and adapt these tips and suggestions to suit the specific property and the desired effect.
How to stage luxury real estate photos
Staging creates an opportunity for creative storytelling that captures potential buyers’ imagination. Speak to your audience’s wants and needs by showcasing the property in a way that resonates with them and makes them feel right at home.
If you need a little support, interior designers and professional stagers are experts in design principles, furniture selection, and market trends to ensure that the property is presented in the best possible way. This is especially important to consider when marketing luxury listings and unfurnished homes.
With professional-level staging, buyers can envision the space’s potential and imagine how they would decorate it themselves. They can also imagine their own lives in the property and how their day-to-day lives would look. And finally, furniture placement helps buyers better understand the size and scale of rooms.
A room-by-room guide to taking luxury real estate photos
This is your chance to let each room speak for itself by asking what people want to do in this space. Relax, host guests, or cook a family meal? Let your room-by-room photos answer those questions.
Entrance and exterior
- Take wide shots that capture the full breadth of the property
- Showcase the architecture of the home
- Include any landscape features, such as a well-maintained garden
Living room
- Highlight the room’s unique features, such as fireplaces, columns, or views
- Showcase the space’s dimensions using wide-angle shots
Kitchen
- Show high-end appliances, quality of materials, and storage space
- Use a panoramic shot to include all the details, from counter space to lighting fixtures
- Include close-ups of designer fixtures or high-tech appliances that will be included in the sale
Dining room
- Use a wide shot to capture the size of the dining area
- Take close-ups of fixtures such as chandeliers and built-ins
- Consider staging the room to show its potential for entertaining
Bedrooms
- Capture the entire room from the corner to show the size and space
- Stage the room in a neutral way
- Showcase features such as walk-in closets or en-suite bathrooms
Bathrooms
- Ensure the bathroom is spotless and fixtures are gleaming
- Highlight spa tubs, rain showers, marble tiles, and custom vanities
- Use lighting and mirrors to your advantage to make the rooms look spacious and airy
Home office
- Include detailed photos of any built-in custom shelving or desk space
- Arrange the office neatly and ensure any cables or equipment are hidden
- If the office is really a flex space, stage it in different ways: an art studio, kids’ playroom, bar, and library
Gym/spa/swimming pool
- Emphasize any professional gym equipment, spa features, and pool design
- Stage the space with a yoga mat rolled out or towels by the spa
Outdoor spaces
- Take wide shots of the backyard, garden, patio, and balcony, emphasizing space and layout
- Highlight any luxury outdoor features like an outdoor bar, fire pits, water features, or unique garden installations
- Photograph these areas during the golden hour––just after sunrise or right before sunset
How to edit your real estate photos
Sometimes the element that makes a professional photographer’s portfolio look so incredible is post-production editing. You can balance color, adjust contrast, crop images, and refine other details “in post.”
Software and editing tools
Here are some of the best tools for editing real estate photos:
- Adobe Lightroom: Loved by professionals for its ease of use and advanced features such as color correction, light adjustments, and batch processing
- Adobe Photoshop: Great for complex edits, such as removing objects, blending exposures, and advanced retouching
- Photomatix Pro: Creates HDR images, ideal for balancing lighting in real estate photography
- DxO PhotoLab: A user-friendly option for high-quality denoising—the removal of grainy spots and discoloration—as well as other optical corrections
- Luminar AI: Automates editing tasks such as sky replacements, detail enhancement, and light adjustments
- PTGui: Stitches together panoramic images for virtual tours and 360-degree views
- Canva: Handy for creating collages, adding text overlays, or designing social media posts
- PicMonkey: Great for quick edits, offering many template designs
- Skylum AirMagic: Designed for drone photographers looking to edit aerial photographs
Learning how to take real estate photos and use post-production tools requires practice and experimentation. Seek out options with free trials to make sure you like them before investing, and be patient as you explore their capabilities.
Common post-production mistakes to avoid
Remember, people can often tell when a photo is over-edited. If you find yourself doing more than a couple of edits on a photo, it may not be the best one to include. Post-production aims to enhance your photos’ quality, not alter them completely.
It’s always best to start with high-quality images and use post-production editing as the final touch. When using post-production tools, try to avoid:
- Over-editing
- Inconsistent white balance
- Oversaturated colors
- Excessively high dynamic range
- Lens distortion
- Removing all shadows
- Starting with subpar image quality
- Inconsistent editing
- Misrepresentation of the property
- Not backing up original photos
- Rushing through edits
How to choose a professional real estate photographer
The photos you put on your website build your brand and reputation. Even if you’re a great amateur photographer, it may be worth the peace of mind––not to mention the hours saved––to hire a professional real estate photographer.
As there is an art to choosing your photographer, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Portfolio and experience: Find someone whose photography impresses you, but experience in real estate photography is a must. If their portfolio is full of wedding pictures, they may not have the experience to suit your needs.
- Understanding of luxury real estate: Make sure the photographer knows how to appropriately highlight the aspects of a luxury listing, such as capturing upscale amenities and fine details.
- Equipment and technical expertise: A professional photographer should have top-notch equipment and the technical skills to capture shots in any lighting condition. Ask about their post-production process and how many revisions are included in their package price.
- Professionalism and communication: Choose a professional, reliable, and responsive photographer who understands the creative vision for your listing.
- Reviews and recommendations: Positive testimonials and referrals can provide valuable insights into their professionalism, reliability, and quality of work.
- Pricing: As with any professional service, you get what you pay for. The price should reflect the quality of the work and the potential ROI from having professionally shot photos.
Elevated property marketing + Luxury Presence
Photography can make or break your luxury real estate listing, but if you follow our expert tips, your listings will stand out in the best possible way. At Luxury Presence, we specialize in high-end luxury marketing that elevates your brand.
Put those gorgeous glossy listing photos to work in our custom single-property sites and let them shine in your design-forward, visually optimized website. Reach out to our team of experts for more helpful advice and schedule a demo today.