Real estate photo editing checklist

Edit listing photos in this order: cull, straighten, set the exposure and recover detail in the windows, correct the white balance, remove small distractions, stage the rooms if needed, then add labels and compare each edited photo with its original. Only adjust what you shot, such as the lighting, colours, angle and crop. Anything you add or remove needs a label, and nothing about the property itself should change.

This is the list I use for every listing. It works in any editor, whether that is Lightroom, the iPhone Photos app or a listing-focused app like ours.

The checklist

Which edits are permitted on listing photos?

California has set out the clearest rules in law. AB 723 states that an image is not "digitally altered" if "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 on the list fall within those rules. Steps 8 and 9 do not, which is why they are labelled.

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

Steps 1 to 3: cull, straighten and crop

Cull first, before editing a single frame. Pick the best shot for each angle and delete the rest. It is quicker to edit 25 photos than 80, and how many listing photos you need explains the recommended number.

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

Crop out small sections of furniture at the edges and trim excess ceiling. Keep photos horizontal. Zillow's photography tips note that horizontal is the orientation the MLS and listing sites use.

Steps 4 to 7: light and colour

Exposure. Brighten the image until the room looks as it does with all the lights on at midday. Lift the shadows before increasing the overall brightness, or the windows will be even more blown out. 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 make out some of the view outside. This is an exposure correction, not an alteration. Replacing it with a different view is an alteration, and industry bodies such as Stellar prohibit this. Fixing dark photos and blown-out windows covers both problems.

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

Colour. Go easy. Saturated green grass and orange wood are what make a photo look over-edited. If it looks better in the photo than the house does in person, dial it back.

Steps 8 to 10: removals, staging and the final check

Small distractions such as a cable, a rubbish bin or a toothbrush can be removed on most mobile phones. This is an alteration under AB 723, so mark the photo as needing a label. Even better, move the object and reshoot. Decluttering listing photos covers the options and the rules.

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

Then compare every edit with the original. Open both images 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 mantel while doing something else. 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 check

Consistency. Scroll through the whole set as thumbnails. A room that is 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 altered photo must be labelled where your MLS requires it, with the original alongside it where the board allows. In California, add the statement and a link to the original. Our disclosure wording guide has text you can paste.

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

Order and export. Put the cover photo first, followed by the order in which a buyer would walk through the house. For portal file sizes, see Zillow listing photo requirements.

Completing the whole checklist on a phone

Real Estate Camera is our app, and it is built around this list. Enhance handles steps 2, 4, 5 and 6 in a single pass for 1 credit: verticals, exposure, window detail and white balance. Declutter (2 credits) covers step 8 for a cluttered room, and staging (2 credits) covers step 9. Staged results include labels, and the original stays alongside each edit. You 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 takes you through a listing from start to finish.

To find out how Enhance handles several of these steps, see AI real estate photo editing.

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