Regarding the wide angle lens. Don’t forget when your naked eye views a room, you get to see the room in its entirety. The wide angle lens allows this. I can guarantee that a wide angled shot is more productive for a potential clients point of view rather than a narrower field. They want to see the bigger picture. AirBnB realised this in the very early days when they offered the free photos as they continue to do so. It works. If I look at a listing with ordinary photos, I turn off pretty quickly as I feel they really don’t care that much to show us their property in the best way. A great thread and thanks for posting @johnr.
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I disagree. As others have stated, using a wide angle lens tends to give the illusion of more space than a room actually has. My guest rooms are small and I want guests to know exactly what they are getting. Standing in each corner of a room and snapping a photo does a good job of showing the entire room without distortion.
To think that someone who doesn’t use a wide angle lens to photograph their rooms doesn’t care is ridiculous.
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Wide angle lenses come in a variety of degree, the widest, which creates a false sense of space is in the the range of 10-16mm. A wide angle lens in a longer focal length 24- 28 mm will give you an undistorted image and allow you to get a good picture of a room that a 50 mm lens can’t. Most point and click cameras don’t allow you to change the focal length, some offer zoom, but not enough to provide a wider angle. I don’t know about iPhones . My camera has interchangeable lenses, I use the right lens for the right image. When I had a real estate agent take pictures, he had the extreme wide angle, I asked him to use my pictures which gave a more realistic image, as the distortion is IMO false advertising .
I agree that if you make the rooms look bigger than they are you will get complaints. I generally use my iphone to take photos in natural light, then do a bit of cropping and editing. I show the room from every angle, so they can clearly see that it’s not large. I still get reviews every once in a while that say the room its smaller than they thought. You can’t please everybody!
I know that not everyone can do this but I mention in the house tour that me and 'imself have lived in our apartment which is exactly the same size as the rental for thirteen years. I tell them that for several of those years, we both worked from home and that 'imself is not a small bloke - and yet we never killed each other 
The implication is that if we can survive happily for thirteen years in such a small place, they will be fine for their three day stay!
Yes, but a <18mm equivalent lense is often required to give a good overview of the room. Only with less than 18mm you can get a field of view of 90 degrees or larger. If you stand in the corner of a room, you want to be able to show both walls.
But like I mentioned before, you should have enough references in it, for people to be able to judge the size.
The problem is that when you use >24mm, you will only be able to shoot details. And people will not be able to figure out how the layout of the space is.
A good set of photo’s should be a mix of shots.
The best thing is to add a floorplan, so there will be no confusion.
I used this planner: https://floorplanner.com/
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Hi @jonr,
These tips appear to be referring to a “real” camera. What are your tips for a phone camera?
Hi Faheem,
Main difficulty with a phone camera is the tiny lens. These can either have a field of view that is too narrow, or if wide, can cause straight lines to look curved. The important thing (and this is true of all interiors photography) is to make sure the camera is horizontal to the floor. A miniature tripod can help, as can shooting either with the camera parallel to a wall, or into a corner. Take your time to line up the shot, using the ceiling and wall joins as a guide. Then when you’ve taken the shot, take another, and one more for luck. One is always going to be better than the rest.
Most phone cams now have some editing facilities. Learning to use these can make a huge difference. Shadows can be lifted to bring out detail hidden in dark corners, highlights reduced to minimise glare coming through windows, and so forth. Have an experiment.
The flash on most phones only has a range of a couple of yards, so turning it off can actually make things better, as otherwise it tends to light just the closer areas, leaving the rest of the room under exposed.
And before you start, give the lens a clean! (Hands up if you do this on a regular basis? Yeah, thought so…)
As with everything, practice is the most important thing - after reading the manual, that is.
Jon
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Hi @jonr,
[Note: if you don’t reply to or reference me using @faheem, I will not be notified.]
Thanks for the comments.
I don’t have a proper camera. Or, to be precise, not a functioning one. I used to, but it stopped working. I suppose I could buy another one, but I wouldn’t use it much.
A phone camera has a lens? Just kidding. And no, I don’t clean it.
I could use Gimp to post-edit. But I’m unsure if that is dishonest or not.
A phone camera is a proper camera, and can be used to obtain excellent results. Like any tool, you just need to know how to get the best from it. As for editing, every single shot I take is edited. It’s a part of the process of photography, every bit as important as all the other parts. Sometimes editing involves seeing at a glance that no changes need to be made. But that check must be made.
There are no Airbnb photographers in my area. I checked. And all I have is my iPhone and my husband’s iPhone. While they’re not at all professional, I think we’ve still got some good shots.
I’d stay there, Zandra!
Thanks for the Tips!!
Awesome suggestions, love them! Natural lighting is the best way. Always edit photos! An okay online photo editor is:
Use Lightroom instead if you have it 