Real estate photo editing checklist

Edit listing photos in this order: select the best shots, straighten vertical lines, set the exposure and recover detail in the windows, correct the white balance, remove small distractions, add virtual staging if needed, then label the images and compare each edit with the original. Only edit what you photographed, such as lighting, colour, angle and crop. Anything you add or remove needs a label, and nothing about the home itself should be changed.

This is the checklist I use for every listing. It works in any editor, whether that's Lightroom, the iPhone Photos app or an app designed for property listings, like ours.

The checklist

Which edits are allowed on listing photos?

California set out the clearest rules in law. AB 723 says an image is not "digitally altered" when "only lighting, sharpening, white balance, colour correction, angle, straightening, cropping, exposure, or other common photo editing adjustments are made that do not change the representation of the real property." Steps 1 to 7 in the list fall within that definition. Steps 8 and 9 don't, which is why they carry a label.

Some edits are prohibited altogether, whether they're labelled or not. Stellar MLS prohibits changing permanent fixtures, adding views or lighting that don't exist, removing "negative visual elements" such as holes in the wall or damaged flooring, and distorting a room's dimensions. CRMLS bans changing wall colour, flooring, cabinets and landscaping. Don't edit the house.

Steps 1 to 3: cull, straighten, crop

Cull first, before you edit a single frame. Pick the best shot of each angle and delete the rest. It's faster to edit 25 photos than 80, and how many listing photos you need covers the recommended number.

Straighten next, because every subsequent step looks different once the frame is square. Leaning walls are a common giveaway of an amateur shoot. On an iPhone, the Photos app has straighten and vertical tilt controls under Crop. Fixing vertical lines explains the process step by step.

Crop out slivers of furniture at the edges and trim excess ceiling. Keep photos in landscape orientation. Zillow's photography tips note that the MLS and property listing sites use this orientation.

Steps 4 to 7: light and colour

Exposure. Brighten until the room looks as it does with all the lights on at midday. Lift the shadows before raising the overall brightness, or the windows will blow out even more. In Snapseed, Tune Image lets you lift the shadows and reduce the highlights independently of the overall brightness.

Windows. Reduce the highlights until you can see some of the view outside. That's an exposure correction, not an alteration. Substituting a different view is an alteration, and boards such as Stellar ban it. Fixing dark photos and blown-out windows covers both problems.

White balance. Mixing daylight and warm light bulbs can make white walls look orange in one corner and blue in another. Set the white balance using a white wall or ceiling, then adjust the rest of the photos to match it.

Colour. Don't overdo it. Over-saturated green grass and orange timber are what make a photo look over-edited. If the result looks better than the house does in person, dial it back.

Steps 8 to 10: removals, staging and the check

Small distractions like a cord, a rubbish bin or a toothbrush can be erased on most phones. That's an alteration under AB 723, so mark the photo as needing a label. Better still, move the object and reshoot. Decluttering listing photos covers the options and the rules.

Staging is for empty rooms only, with furniture scaled to fit the room. See which rooms to stage.

Then check every edit against the original. Open both side by side and look at the windows, doors, floor, fireplace and ceiling line. AI tools, including ours, can move a window or reshape a mantelpiece while making other changes. California's Department of Real Estate says failing to review AI-generated images "may result in violations even if the alteration was unintentional."

Steps 11 and 12: the final pass

Consistency. Scroll through the full set as thumbnails. A room that’s noticeably warmer, brighter or more saturated than the others will stand out and look edited. Match it to the rest.

Labels. Every staged, decluttered or otherwise edited photo needs a label in the position your MLS requires, with the original alongside it where the board permits. In California, add the statement and a link to the original. Our disclosure wording guide contains text you can paste.

No text on the image unless your board requires a disclosure there. Realcomp, for example, bans watermarks, words, frames and special effects on listing photos, apart from its own watermark.

Order and export. Cover photo first, followed by the order in which a buyer would walk through the property. For the file sizes required by portals, see Zillow listing photo requirements.

Completing the whole checklist on your phone

Real Estate Camera is our app, and it’s built around this list. Enhance handles steps 2, 4, 5 and 6 in one pass for 1 credit: verticals, exposure, window detail and white balance. Declutter (2 credits) takes care of step 8 for a busy room, while Virtual staging (2 credits) covers step 9. Staged images come with labels, and the original stays alongside each edited version. You’ll still need to complete steps 1, 10, 11 and 12 yourself. Credits are available in one-off packs, and editing a listing on your phone walks you through a listing from start to finish.

For details on how Enhance handles several of these steps, see AI real estate photo editing.

Run steps 2 to 6 on your next listing in a single tap. Start free: 1 credit.