Professional-Grade Photography: iPhone vs. DSLR

Invest in the visuals

With all the work that goes into selling a house, it might be tempting to offset costs by snapping a few pictures with a phone, rather than investing in professional photography. However, homes marketed using Open Homes sell on average for 8% higher than asking price. Days on market (DOM) for homes marketed with Open Homes average less than 30 days, versus the industry average of 50.8 days. When it comes to photography, it’s best to put the iPhone down and invest in professional-grade photography.

Professional-grade equipment for personal projects

Still considering pulling out the phone? Check out the main differences between iPhones and the DSLR cameras that our photographers use:

Dynamic Range

Our unique dual image processing system helps capture the true lighting and color of the home. Our photographers capture two images: the primary image which is correctly exposed for the house, and the second image, which exposes the bright windows. Our editing team then manually masks these two images together to produce a final photo with great dynamic range. Unlike iPhone images, photos taken with a DSLR don’t have blown out windows or overly dark shadows.

Image sharpness

An iPhone might look fine on the screen, but using an image that lacks sharpness means that the photos aren’t high-quality enough to use in print materials such as brochures and flyers. Once blown up, the iPhone image becomes blurry, while the DLSR image’s higher megapixel count, sharper lens, and stable tripod-shot results in a much much sharper, professional-looking image.

Color Fidelity

The DSLR has much better accuracy and flexibility when it comes to producing colors. DSLR images are shot “raw,” which means the colors manipulated for optimal results in post-production. This is especially important in Twilight photos, where we can add in a great sunset sky. You could say something like the cool blue of the tw sky is designed to contrast pleasantly against the warm glow of the interior windows.

Lens

Wider lenses mean more dramatic shots. An iPhone lens is only slightly wide at 28mm, whereas a DSLR image is shot at with a super wide lens (16mm). Professional lenses also enable our photographers to capture distance shots, motion shots, and alter aperture and shutter speed manually to fit the setting as needed.