How many 360° photos does a home need?
Fewer than you think. A 360° photo captures a whole room, floor to ceiling, in one shot, so a tour needs one photo per room and a few in between. This post gives you a count by home size, the rule for the in-between shots, and a shoot plan you can follow with a camera in one hand and your phone in the other.
The rule
One scene per room, plus one in each hallway, plus one at any doorway that joins two rooms without a hallway.
The room scenes are what buyers came for. The hallway and doorway scenes are what make the tour walkable: without them, a hotspot jumps from the middle of the living room to the middle of the bedroom and the layout is lost. With them, the visitor walks the same path they would walk in person.
Each scene becomes one hotspot target. Each doorway gets two hotspots, one in each direction, so a tour with ten scenes usually has eighteen to twenty-four hotspots.
Scene count by home
| Home | Scenes | What is in them |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 3 to 4 | Entrance, main room, kitchen corner, bathroom |
| One-bedroom flat | 5 to 7 | Entrance, living room, kitchen, hallway, bedroom, bathroom, balcony |
| Two-bedroom flat | 8 to 10 | Add the second bedroom and a doorway scene where rooms meet |
| Three-bedroom house | 12 to 16 | Add upstairs hall, each bedroom, second bathroom, garden, one exterior |
| Villa | 20 to 30 | Every room, both halls, terrace, pool, approach, one scene per view |
The number that matters for planning is the Free plan's 30-scene allowance: that is three two-bedroom flats online at the same time. When a listing sells, delete its tour and the scenes come back.
Where exactly to stand
- Rooms: near the middle, camera about 1.5 m high. In a long room, two scenes at a third and two-thirds of its length.
- Kitchens: in the middle if there is room, otherwise in the doorway facing in. Open-plan kitchen and living: one scene where they meet, plus one in each.
- Bathrooms: in the doorway, lenses facing in. The camera will be in the mirror; stand on the side that keeps you out of it.
- Hallways: at the point where the most doors are visible.
- Balconies and terraces: in the doorway facing out, then one scene outside facing the view.
- Exterior: one at the approach, facing the front of the building. For a house, one in the garden looking back.
- Stairs: one at the bottom, one at the top. Skip the landing unless it has a window worth showing.
The twenty-minute plan
For a two-bedroom flat with a 360° camera on a monopod:
| Minute | Do |
|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Lights on, doors and blinds open, clutter out, toilet lid down. Walk the route once. |
| 3 to 5 | Entrance, then hallway. |
| 5 to 9 | Living room, kitchen, the doorway between them. |
| 9 to 11 | Balcony doorway, balcony. |
| 11 to 15 | Bedroom one, bedroom two, hallway outside them if separate. |
| 15 to 17 | Bathroom. |
| 17 to 20 | Check every shot on the phone for your reflection and the stand's shadow. Reshoot any that fail. |
Eight to ten scenes. Export them from the camera app as full 360° JPGs, rename them in order (01-entrance.jpg, 02-hallway.jpg), and you have everything a tour needs.
When to add more
- A view that sells the home. A separate scene at the window, facing out.
- A feature room. A walk-in wardrobe, a wine cellar, a workshop.
- Large open spaces. Add a scene every 5 to 6 meters so hotspots do not jump too far.
- Twilight. One exterior at dusk is worth more than three in daylight.
When to shoot less
- Small identical rooms. Three identical bedrooms in a rental: shoot the best one, name it clearly.
- Storage, utility, garage unless they are a selling point.
- Corridors with nothing in them. One scene at the junction is enough.
From photos to a tour
With the files in a folder, the rest takes about as long as the shoot. Create a project and a tour in the studio, drop all the files in at once, drag each scene from the strip onto the doorway that leads there, and publish. Your first tour in 10 minutes has every step; How to shoot a home with a 360° camera has the camera settings.
The scene count above is a starting point. After a few homes you will know your own: most agents settle around eight for a flat and fourteen for a house, and the tours get quicker every time.
