Shooting standard property photos is mostly an exercise in tactical hiding. You shove the laundry basket behind the sofa, stand in the corner with a wide-angle lens, and pretend the pile of post on the kitchen counter doesn’t exist.

With a 360 camera, there is nowhere to hide. The twin lenses see every single direction at once—including behind the door and right where you’re standing.

Here is how to shoot a clean, natural-looking property tour in twenty minutes without losing your mind (or appearing in sixteen bathroom mirrors). For the upload and hotspot side of things afterwards, check out our step-by-step guide to creating a 360 property tour.

1. Walk the route before unfolding the stand

Before switching the camera on, do a quick lap of the house with the homeowner or negotiator. Your shot list should mirror how a normal human walks through a viewing: front hall, reception rooms, kitchen, landing, bedrooms, and garden.

Spot the awkward corners early. If an L-shaped hallway or a large open-plan kitchen-diner turns a blind corner, plan two camera positions so the buyer can see where they’re clicking next instead of feeling like they’ve teleported through a plasterboard wall.

2. Do a two-minute clutter and privacy sweep

Because the camera captures the entire room in one click, you can't just kick a dog bowl two feet to the left out of frame. Do a quick sweep first:

  • Hide the everyday chaos: Tea towels over the oven door, drying racks, overflowing kitchen bins, and trailing phone chargers.
  • Protect the seller's privacy: Take down family calendars, school letters, and anything with bank details or Wi-Fi passwords pinned to the fridge.
  • Lights on, doors open: Switch on every ceiling light and table lamp—even on a bright afternoon—and prop internal doors open so each room visibly connects to the next.
  • Stop anything moving: Ceiling fans, flickering TV screens, and curious family pets will turn into ghostly half-stitched blurs.

Don’t strip the house bare—buyers still want to see real furniture so they can judge whether a kingsize bed and a wardrobe actually fit.

3. Pick one height (chest height) and stick to it

Nothing makes a buyer feel seasick faster than a camera that’s waist-high in the lounge and seven feet tall on the landing.

Set your slim monopod stand to roughly chest height (around 130–140cm) and leave it there for the entire house. Make sure the pole is dead vertical; even a slight lean on thick carpet makes doorframes look like a funhouse mirror.

4. Stand for the sightlines, not dead centre

For a simple square bedroom, planting the monopod in the middle of the rug works fine. For everything else, think about lines of sight:

  • Small bathrooms & en-suites: Don't wedge the monopod between the toilet and the towel rail. Stand it just inside the doorway where a buyer would naturally peek in.
  • Mirrors: Glance at the hallway and bathroom mirrors before walking away. If the camera is staring straight at its own reflection, shift the stand a foot to the side so the mirror reflects the room instead.
  • Your own hiding spot: Step around the corner into the next room before tapping the shutter on your phone (or use the camera's 3-second screen timer). Crouching behind an armchair rarely works as well as you think.

5. Check two shots before handing back the keys

Before you pack the kit into the boot, open two or three panoramas on your phone screen (or drop an exported JPG into our free online 360 panorama viewer). Check that the windows aren't completely blown out, the horizon is straight, and you haven't accidentally photographed your own elbow peeking around the door frame.

Once your equirectangular JPGs are ready, drop them straight into Redfield360, connect the rooms with walk-through hotspots, and publish a stable link ready for Rightmove and Zoopla.