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For those moments when you need to shoot real estate photography, but the real estate photographer isn’t available, the iPhone 14 can take quality listing photos.

The iPhone 14 has one of the best smartphone cameras available. It offers many advantages for those wanting to shoot good quality real estate photography. 

Therefore, this article will discuss how to shoot real estate photography with iPhone 14 (7 powerful tips). 

How to Shoot Real Estate Photos With an iPhone 14 (7 Tips)

how to shoot real estate photography

Intelligent sales agents understand the challenge. You can take listing photos with your cell phone, but you know that photos are everything in real estate sales. Therefore, most agents leave the photos to professional photographers.

But what if your cell phone is the iPhone 14? It’s got a great camera, but is it good enough to take real estate photos in a pinch?

The answer is yes, but in most cases, you still want to leave the listing photos to the skilled photographers with the eyes of artists. 

Still, the camera on the iPhone 14 is one of the best. 

So, let’s discuss 7 powerful tips for how to shoot real estate photography with your iPhone 14.

1. Plan Your Shoot and Stage the Home

how to shoot real estate photography

While the iPhone 14 has many wonderful features, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort if you plan your photo shoot ahead of time. For example, plan the following before arriving at the listing:

  • Write out a shot list of all the rooms and spaces – and don’t forget exterior photos!
  • Pay attention to the weather and aim to shoot on a sunny day
  • Ask the seller to have the home ready by giving it a good cleaning and putting away any stray objects

When it comes to real estate photography, planning the photo shoot ahead of time will yield the best results.

2. Take Advantage of Built-in HDR

how to shoot real estate photography

Let’s start by noting that Apple has made HDR photography a default feature on iPhone 13 onwards. 

A definite advantage of the iPhone 14 is that it can easily shoot HDR photos. This is a significant benefit. For example, think about the following:

  • While you should aim for a sunny day with blue skies for your shoot, even on a cloudy day, the exposure levels will be addressed automatically by the built-in HDR
  • Each of your photos will have a combination of various exposures, saving you time
  • And this feature also blends the shots of multiple exposures

So, as you can see right away, the iPhone 14 has some definite advantages. 

3. The iPhone 14 Works Well in Natural Light

how to shoot real estate photography

We’re all aware of the importance of lighting when we shoot images. 

And most photographers prefer natural lighting for the overall aesthetic, especially in real estate photography. 

The iPhone 14 has built-in technology that helps avoid over-exposed images, making capturing the benefits of shooting in natural light easier. These advantages include:

  • Outdoor shots are now much easier, even on a sunny day
  • The camera renders colors best in natural lighting
  • You won’t have to worry as much about glare

So, the iPhone 14 allows you to shoot real estate photography in natural light with confidence and additional ease. 

4. You Might Not Need a Tripod

how to shoot real estate photography

You may not need a tripod for your shoot. The iPhone 14 has a camera stabilization capability called Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The advantages of this feature are many, including:

  • Most sales agents aren’t photographers, and they are unlikely to carry a tripod with them
  • The majority of people’s hands shake, even if just slightly
  • You can achieve the stability you need for clear photos simply by tucking your elbows in for balance and using two hands to capture photos

You may also adjust your shutter speed if looking for finer images, especially when preparing for interior shots.

One note, however, is that the iPhone 14 camera features high-quality panoramic capabilities. Still, the OIS doesn’t work well with this feature, and shakey hands are more likely to affect these photos.

5. Make the Most of the Zoom Function

Make the Most of the Zoom Function

Having quality zoom capabilities is important when shooting real estate photography. And the current iPhone 14 camera zoom is among the best available. It includes the following features:

  • A 2x optical zoom lens
  • And a 3x optical zoom lens
  • These are easy to use. To zoom in and out, simply pinch the screen

These lens options allow you the benefit to zoom in to make the property’s details more evident and distinct, meaning less time is needed during editing.

6. Don’t Forget to Explore the Live Photo Option

Don’t Forget to Explore the Live Photo Option

With Apple’s iPhone 14 live photographs, you can easily capture the perfect animated shots for some of your real estate marketing photos. This feature allows you to do the following:

  • Render your images to life by converting them into gif-like 1.5-second films that capture the moments before and after you take a shot
  • Instead of a single static image, record real-life movement with background sound 

These photographs are great when marketing the property on social media, especially Instagram. 

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7. Photo Editing on an iPhone 14

Photo Editing on an iPhone 14

Photo editing is an incredibly valuable part of real estate photography. The iPhone 14 comes with several built-in photo editing capacities, including:

  • Exposure adjustment
  • Auto-correcting distorted lines
  • Noise reduction
  • And some color correction ability

While the above is impressive, the iPhone 14 still can’t add or remove objects, do sky replacement, or do virtual staging, so you’ll still need a professional editor for those services. 

The above are some really impressive features when you are shooting real estate photography. Now, let us show you a detailed overview of the iPhone 14 camera specs.

iPhone 14 Camera Specs

iPhone 14 Camera Specs

There are plenty of bells and whistles on this new iPhone 14 camera, including these specification details:

  • 12MP Main: 26 mm, ƒ/1.5 aperture, sensor‑shift optical image stabilization, seven‑element lens, 100% Focus Pixels
  • 12MP Ultra Wide: 13 mm, ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view, with a five‑element lens
  • 2x optical zoom out and digital zoom up to 5x
  • Sapphire crystal lens cover
  • True Tone flash
  • Photonic Engine
  • Deep Fusion
  • Smart HDR 4
  • Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
  • Portrait Lighting with six effects (Studio, Contour, Natural, Stage, Stage Mono, and High‑Key Mono)
  • Night mode
  • Panorama (up to 63MP)
  • Photographic Styles
  • Wide color capture, including on Live Photos
  • Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
  • Advanced red‑eye correction
  • Auto image stabilization
  • Burst mode
  • Photo geotagging
  • Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG

Reviewing those specs, you see why the iPhone 14 is superior in many ways. Next, let us review our post by answering a few questions. 

FAQ – Summary

FAQ - Summary

Q. Is the iPhone 14 good enough to shoot real estate photography?

A. Apple has tried to improve its phone cameras with each new design. iPhone 14 offers the best resolution among iPhones. The additional features on their latest camera allows nearly any agent to take quality listing images. Combining those features with three types of lenses gives you a camera with real advantages.

Q. Is iPhone 14 as good as a digital camera for real estate photography?

A. While smartphone cameras have been improving, and the iPhone 14’s camera is quite good, there are still limits to any cell phone camera. For example, dynamic range is one feature of the iPhone 14 that falls short compared with DSLR and mirrorless cameras. For the best quality photos, you need the best quality camera, the DSLR digital cameras. 

Q. Do professional real estate photographers use iPhone 14?

A. Agents and their sellers expect expertise from real estate photographers, which is reflected in their choice of gear. So, while a real estate photographer may own an iPhone 14, it’s doubtful they’d use it for their photography. With that said, it’s likely your best option in a pinch. 

And while the iPhone 14’s camera might work in some situations for real estate photos, there are other factors to consider, such as photo editing.  

Therefore, let us offer you one more powerful tip for how to shoot real estate photography — the best real estate photo editing provider.

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PhotoUp’s real estate photo editing team can quickly help with all your real estate photo editing needs, including: 

  • Improper exposure levels
  • Excessive shadows, lack of light, etc. 
  • Distorted or blurred images 
  • Cropping and other effects
  • Color and tone adjustments 
  • Lawn greening and sky replacements
  • Clutter and object removal
  • Line and angle corrections

And PhotoUp’s quality, service, and pricing are superb, with most photo editing costing $1.10 to $9.00 per image, depending on the complexity and subscription. 

The turnaround time for most editing jobs is 24 hours or less. 

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And PhotoUp does much more than just real estate photo editing. Their marketing services also include the following:

So, do yourself and your clients a favor, and have all your listing photos look their absolute best. 

Sign-up for a free PhotoUp account to get stunning marketing images for real estate sales. And as a bonus, you get 10 free edits when you sign up.

We hope you benefited from this blog post on how to shoot real estate photography with iPhone 14 (7 powerful tips). If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out some related resources: 

Gregory Gronbacher

Real Estate Sales Agent / Professional Blogger

Gregory is a real estate sales agent and a state-certified instructor of real estate licensing and law. Originally from New York City, he's called Grand Rapids, Michigan home since 1995.

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