How to Take Professional-Looking Photos of Your Airbnb With Just a Smartphone
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You’ve heard it a thousand times: professional photos are the key to more bookings. But what if hiring a professional photographer isn't in the budget right now? The good news is that the camera in your pocket is incredibly powerful. With the right techniques, you can take bright, crisp, and enticing photos of your Airbnb using just your smartphone.
Before you even think about taking pictures, the first and most crucial step is to prepare the space. Make sure your property is perfectly clean and staged by following a room-by-room staging guide. A well-staged room is the secret to a great photo.
Once your property looks its best, follow these five technical tips for amazing smartphone photos.
1. Use Natural Light Only
This is the number one rule of real estate photography. Turn off every single artificial light in your home (lamps, overhead lights, etc.). They create a yellow, dingy glow and harsh shadows. Instead, open all the blinds and curtains and shoot during the brightest part of the day. Natural light makes spaces look bigger, cleaner, and more inviting.
2. Shoot in Landscape (Horizontal) Mode
Your listing photos appear in a horizontal format on the Airbnb website. Always turn your phone sideways to shoot in landscape mode. Vertical photos look unprofessional and don't showcase the space effectively. The only exception is for a specific, tight shot, like a bathroom vanity detail.
3. Use the "Grid" and Shoot from Corners
Go to your phone's camera settings and turn on the "Grid" feature. This will help you keep your lines straight. The most flattering angle for most rooms is shooting from a corner, aimed towards the opposite corner. This makes the room look as spacious as possible. Try to get at least two corners of the room in your shot.
4. Keep the Phone Straight and at Chest Height
Never tilt your phone up or down. This distorts the vertical lines in the room, making the walls look like they are falling inward or outward. Keep the phone perfectly level. The ideal height is usually around chest height (about 4 feet or 1.2 meters off the ground). This gives a natural, eye-level perspective.
5. Tap to Focus, Lower the Exposure
Don't just point and shoot. Before you take the picture, tap your finger on the main subject of the room on your screen to make sure it's in sharp focus. Then, slide your finger down slightly to lower the exposure (brightness). Smartphone cameras tend to overexpose bright areas, especially windows. Making the image slightly darker in-camera will prevent the windows from looking "blown out" and will actually make the final edited photo look much richer.
Bonus Tip: Simple Editing
You don't need Photoshop. Use your phone's built-in editing app or a free app like Snapseed. Focus on three simple adjustments:
- Brightness: Increase it to make the room look bright and airy.
- Shadows: Lift the shadows to see more detail in the darker corners.
- Sharpness: Add a little bit of sharpness to make the details pop.
From Great Photos to a Great Listing
Amazing photos are just one part of creating a listing that ranks high and gets booked. To truly succeed, you need to combine those visuals with compelling descriptions, a smart pricing strategy, and a deep understanding of the Airbnb platform.
Our "Skyrocket Your Airbnb Success" eBook covers all of this and more. It’s the definitive guide to optimizing every single aspect of your listing for maximum visibility and revenue.