“Why do Rooms Look Bigger in Photos?”
As a real estate photographer, this is the question that I hear (and see on social media) the most. I’ve seen people say that it’s “Hollywood trickery”, a marketing ploy to get people into homes, or some other kind of intentional fraudulent act. The reality is much more benign and somewhat boring.
Real estate photography is a very specialized niche of photography. With that specialization comes the use of specific cameras and more importantly camera lens’. I use a 10mm - 18mm wide angle lens. Some real estate photographers will use a 16mm - 35mm or even a prime wide angle lens. I prefer the ability to zoom due to the difference of one room to another. Now, what about the lens makes a room look “bigger” in the photo than real life? Very simply, the curvature of the lens is what makes the image look bigger than in person as well as the height at which the photo is taken.
When I walk into a home and begin my photo shoot, I am looking for the angles that show off the features of the home. A wide angle lens allows me to get as much of the room (or rooms) in a single photo as possible. I have an exercise that anyone can do to better understand what I’m talking about. Take your cell phone and open the camera app. Now, select the smallest lens that you can. On most modern cell phones this will be a “wide angle” lens. Stand in the corner of a room and see how much of the room you can see. Now, while standing in the same spot, switch to the next lens up from the wide angle and notice how much information is lost in the photo. Next, do the same exercise but with the phone at waist height or slightly higher than your belly button. We take photos at this height (for most rooms) to get as much of the room in a single image. This includes the ceiling, the floors, and most of the walls. So, instead of taking 8 - 9 photos of a living room or master suite, I can take 4 and then add detail photos where possible.
What you’re going to notice when looking at the wide angle lens on your phone is a “bending” distortion on the edges of the photo. This is normal for wide angle lens’ due to the curvature or the lens itself. A good real estate photographer can “flatten” the image in a photo editor to remove said distortion. This makes the image look more natural while retaining all of the images detail and information. The point of view also adds to the image making a room look “bigger” than in real life.
As a photographer, I recognize that buying a home is the largest investment that most people will make in their entire life. I’m very serious about presenting the home that I am photographing as accurately as possible. While the buyer will most likely never meet me, they are beginning their home search by looking at photos that I’ve taken and I want what they see in those photos to accurately represent what they see in person. We are limited to the tools that we have as photographers so wide angle lens’ and editing is what we will use.
