How to photograph a small bathroom for a property listing

To photograph a small bathroom for a property listing, stand in the doorway or wedge yourself into the corner beside it, and shoot at an angle towards the vanity and the shower or bath. Turn on every light, put the toilet lid down, and hold the phone level at about chest height with the 0.5x lens. Then check the mirror before you press the shutter, because the most common bathroom photography mistake is appearing in the mirror.

Bathrooms are the hardest rooms to photograph well in most houses. They are small, they are full of mirrors and glass, and the lighting is usually a mixture of bulbs around the vanity and a tiny window. Here's what works.

Prepare first, because there's nowhere to hide anything

In a large room, clutter can sit in a corner outside the frame. A small bathroom does not have corners like that. Everything in it will appear in the photo.

• Clear the vanity completely. Toothbrushes, soap dispenser, hair styling tools, the cup by the sink. Zillow's seller tips single out toothbrushes and combs, and they are right to.
• Empty the shower and the edge of the bath. Every bottle, the razor, the loofah.
• Remove the bath mat, the toilet brush and the rubbish bin. Put the scales in a cupboard.
• Lid down. Always. A raised toilet seat is the first thing people notice in a bathroom photo.
• Towels: one matching set, folded in thirds and hung neatly, or none at all. A crumpled towel looks dirty in a photo even if it is clean.
• Open the shower curtain by about two-thirds, or pull it back fully if the bath or tiles are worth showing. A closed curtain hides half the room.
• Clean the glass and the mirror. Water marks on a glass shower door show up clearly once the lights are on.

One small plant or a folded hand towel on the vanity is enough decoration. Anything more and the room starts to look busy.

Where to stand in a small space

The doorway is usually the best place

In most small bathrooms, the best position is in the doorway, or just inside it with your back against the wall beside the frame. Shoot at an angle so you can capture the basin on one side and the bath or shower at the far end. That diagonal angle is what gives a small room a sense of depth.

Open the door fully and push it flat against the wall. If it still encroaches on the shot, check whether you can shoot from behind it, standing in the gap between the door and the wall. Sometimes that gives you the widest angle in the room.

Stand in the bath

For a small bathroom with a shower over the bath, step into the dry side of the bath and shoot back towards the basin and the door. It's often the only position that gives you enough distance. Take one shot from here and one from the doorway, then use whichever shows more of the room.

Cloakrooms

A cloakroom usually has just a toilet, a basin and a mirror. Photograph the basin from the doorway at a slight angle, and don't try to include the whole room. If the cloakroom is fairly ordinary, you don't need to include it in the listing at all. The shot list guide covers which rooms to leave out.

The 0.5x lens: use it, but carefully

You'll need the ultra-wide lens for almost every small bathroom. At 1x, all you get is a basin and a slice of wall. At 0.5x, you get the room. But there are trade-offs, and in a small room they are easy to see.

• It distorts anything near the edge of the frame. A toilet at the edge becomes a wide oval. Keep fixtures towards the middle, or leave them out.
• It exaggerates depth. A bathroom measuring 5 by 8 feet can look noticeably bigger than it really is. That may seem like a win until a buyer walks in and feels misled. If the shot only works from inside the linen cupboard, it isn't honest.
• It makes everything lean as soon as you tilt the phone. Bathrooms are full of straight lines, such as tile grout, shower frames and mirror edges, so any lean is obvious.
• It produces a softer image than the main lens, especially in the corners and in low light. One more reason to turn on every light.

Keep the phone aligned with the grid, with the level function switched on, and resist the urge to tilt it down to bring the floor into the shot. Learn more in shooting real estate on an iPhone.

Mirrors: keep yourself out of shot

Every bathroom has at least one mirror, and a mirror facing the doorway will show whoever is standing in the doorway. A few ways to avoid this:

• Frame the mirror at an angle. From one side, it reflects the opposite wall or the shower, which looks natural.
• Use the timer. Place the phone on the counter or a small tripod, and step out of the room.
• Check the glass shower door and any chrome fittings too. A shiny tap can reflect a tiny figure of someone holding a phone.

Don't edit yourself out of a mirror and leave a strange smear where you were. If you can't avoid the reflection, it's better to take the photo again from a different position.

Lighting: a mixed bag

A small bathroom usually has lights above the mirror, maybe a ceiling light, maybe a light in the shower, and a small frosted window. Turn them all on. Open the window blind.

That gives you a mix: warm vanity bulbs, cooler light from the window, and whatever colour the shower light happens to be. The photo will come out with a yellow or orange cast on the walls near the vanity and a bluish tone near the window. That's fine. A colour cast is easy to correct afterwards. A bathroom with only one light on and the rest in shadow looks cramped and unclean.

And don't use the flash. In a room full of tiles, glass and mirrors, the flash bounces straight back and leaves a white spot in the middle of the frame.

Low light in a small room means a slower shutter speed. Rest your elbows against the door frame, or set the phone on the counter and use the timer. A soft photo of a bathroom looks dingy.

Editing the bathroom photos

Most bathroom photos taken on a phone need the colour cast neutralised and the verticals straightened by a degree or two. White tiles make any cast obvious, as buyers expect white to look white. You can correct both manually in Lightroom or your phone's photo editor.

Real Estate Camera's Enhance handles lighting, white balance and verticals in one pass, for 1 credit, in 20 to 60 seconds. It doesn't change the tile, the fixtures or the layout. We don't have a bathroom in our sample image set, so here's a kitchen with the same problem bathrooms usually have: warm light bulbs alongside daylight.

If the bathroom is in a vacant home, Virtual staging includes bathrooms as a room type, for 2 credits. Staged photos are marked "virtually staged" in the app, and you'll be asked to confirm the disclosure when you export. Read virtual staging MLS rules to find out what your board expects.

Bathroom checklist

1. Vanity cleared. Shower and tub ledge clear. Mat, brush, bin and limescale removed.
2. Toilet lid down. Towels folded and matching, or removed.
3. Mirror and glass cleaned.
4. All lights on, extractor fan off, blind open and flash off.
5. Shoot from the doorway or the corner beside it, at an angle. Try from inside the tub too.
6. 0.5x, phone held level at chest height, fixtures kept away from the edges of the frame.
7. Check the mirror, the shower glass and the tap for your reflection.

For the main bathroom, take a second shot of a freestanding bath or a walk-in shower if it's a selling point. For the rest, one good photo of each is enough.

To shoot and edit your bathroom photos in one app, see the real estate photography app.

Brighten and straighten your next bathroom photo. Start free: 1 credit.