How to Take 360° Photos for Real Estate Listings

Choose the position and height

Stand near the centre of the room at about chest height, which tends to give a natural, balanced view. In long rooms, the middle is usually best; in L-shaped spaces, you may need two viewpoints. Be consistent from room to room so the property feels coherent.

Capture technique

With Panorama 360, choose Horizontal 360° for most rooms (usually about 10 to 14 photos) or Full sphere when the ceiling or floor adds value, for example a double-height space or a feature staircase (about 25 to 35 photos). Turn on the spot rather than walking around, hold the phone upright, wait for the markers and hold still for each photo. The app keeps exposure steady after the first photo and checks for blur.

If you want a deeper checklist for technique, see our 12 practical panoramic photography tips.

Lighting, windows and reflections

Windows are the biggest challenge in interiors. A bright window and a dim wall in the same view exceed what a phone sensor can capture in one exposure, so either the window is blown out or the room is dark. Options:

• Shoot when daylight is soft and even, such as overcast conditions.
• Turn on interior lights to lift the room closer to the window's brightness.
• Accept a slightly bright window rather than a dark room, and avoid heavy editing.

For mirrors, stand off-axis so you are not visible in the centre of the reflection, and avoid shooting directly at large mirrors from the middle of the room.

Present the property accurately

Panoramas make a space feel real, so accuracy matters. Do not use them to hide defects or exaggerate size. Check that the finished panorama looks like the room. If you retouch it, limit changes to exposure and colour. When AI tools launch in Panorama 360, they will be optional and credit-based, and listing text should still be reviewed by you. They are planned and not available yet; see AI panorama tools.

Static panoramas versus virtual tours

A single 360° photo shows one viewpoint. A virtual tour links several. For a studio flat, one or two panoramas might be enough. For a house, you may want a linked set that follows a natural route from the entrance to each room. Panorama 360 lets you add hotspots and link panoramas by hand, and the Studio plan can export them as a tour package that you host on your own website. Hosted share links are being prepared and are not available yet, and the app does not publish to listing portals. Read more in how to create a virtual tour without a 360° camera and on the real estate panorama page.

Publishing and platform considerations

Where you publish determines which format works. Some portals embed a 360° viewer, some accept only flat images and some link to tours hosted elsewhere. Check each platform's requirements for image size, aspect ratio and metadata before you shoot. Panorama 360 exports JPEGs with Google's spherical metadata, which many viewers recognise. Free exports are capped at 4096 pixels wide with a small mark, and paid plans remove both, so factor that in if you plan to publish at full resolution.

Limits of phone-based capture

• Small rooms. Walls close to the camera make parallax errors more visible.
• Mirrors and glass. Reflections show you and the phone.
• Challenging light. Backlit windows are difficult for any single phone exposure.
• Movement. Pets, people and curtains in a breeze can ghost.
• Equipment. A professional camera and tripod will usually still win on precision.

None of this means a phone is the wrong tool. It means you should check each result, retake what is wrong and match the tool to the job.

Small rooms, bathrooms and hallways

Tight spaces are the hardest. Walls are close, so parallax is more visible and your own reflection is more likely to appear. Stand as far from the nearest wall as you can, ideally in the doorway or the centre, and keep the phone level. A horizontal 360° is usually enough for a bathroom or hallway. Be honest about size: if a room is small, a panorama will show it, and that is fine.

Before you leave the property

Run through a short list: every key room captured, each one reviewed at full size, no stray people or bins in view, blinds and curtains consistent between rooms and the start view set to the best feature. It is much easier to retake a panorama while you are still there than to return another day.

Keep the originals

Store the original captures and your exports together, labelled by property and room. Properties change hands, get renovated and get re-listed, and having tidy originals makes updates quick.

A simple workflow

1. Walk the property and list the rooms you will capture.
2. Prepare each room.
3. Capture a panorama at a consistent height from the middle.
4. Review it on the spot and retake if needed.
5. Set a sensible start view for each, such as the best feature.
6. Export and publish, linking rooms if your platform supports tours.

For more about linking scenes, visit our virtual tour page.