I was requested to assist on an audio-visual installation at a site in Nelspruit. We ended up staying at the Sheppard Boutique Hotel in Nelspruit. This venue provided me with a quite opportunity to do some cellphone real estate photography.

Cellphone

For my own satisfaction I decided to try some real-estate photography with my cellphone. I still prefer using a DSLR, tripod and decent quality lens.

Due to my phone being a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, using an app called Expert Pro, I can do HDR photo capture into a raw DNG format. These photos have greater dynamic range capability. They also are easier to edit in Adobe Lightroom.

Make sure you hold your phone properly. The S21 has image stabilization, but it is still advisable to hold the phone as stabile as possible. My camera app called ‘Expert Raw’ can do voice activated which means less movement on activating the shutter. I will still advise that you use a tripod to reduce camera shake.

I also make sure that I do not use digital zoom as that reduces image detail.

Outdoors in cellphone real-estate photography

I initially did a few outdoor photos, including one panoramic set of photos. These photos were taken early in the morning and late in the afternoon. I love sunrise and sunset photos.

I try to capture eye catching images of the outdoors, possibly including amazing features to attract people to the property.

Indoors

Later the one night I captured several photos of my room that I was staying in.

For interior photographer I make sure that vertical objects are shown as properly vertical. Also I will try angle shots to emphasize leading lines etc. I also like to make sure that all the lights are on. With lights on I could end up with white balance issues, therefore I will take note of large white areas and use these for correcting WB in post-process.