How to edit photos on iPhone with the Photos app

Before you edit: a good photoshoot on iPhone

Editing fixes small things: a dark corner, a slight tilt, a color cast. It can't fix a blurry, crooked or badly lit photo, so most of the work happens before you tap the shutter. Shoot in daylight with every light on, hold the phone level at chest height, use the 1× lens unless the room is too small, and take two or three of each shot.

Our iPhone camera settings guide covers the settings to change once, and the guide to real estate photos on iPhone covers where to stand in each room.

Step 1: Auto, then the light and color sliders

These steps are from Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27. Older versions of iOS name a few buttons differently.

1. Open the Photos app, tap a photo, then tap the edit button.
2. Tap Adjust. Tap the Auto button first: Apple says it automatically enhances the light and color.
3. Swipe left under the photo to see the other settings, for example Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights and Shadows. Tap one and drag the slider. The outline around each button shows how much you've changed it.
4. Tap the photo to compare your edit with the original.
5. Tap Done to save, or Cancel, then Discard Changes, to drop the edit.

For a room, a light touch usually works best:

Step 2: Straighten and fix leaning walls

Vertical lines that lean are the most common thing that makes a room photo look amateur. The fix is in the crop tool:

1. Open the photo, tap the edit button, then tap the crop button.
2. Tap the buttons below the frame to straighten, tilt vertically or tilt horizontally, and drag the slider.
3. Use vertical tilt to make door frames and wall corners stand straight up, then straighten if the horizon is still tilted.
4. Tap Done, or Reset to go back to the original.

Correcting a strong lean crops off the edges, so it's better to hold the phone level when you shoot and use the tilt only for the last few degrees.

Step 3: Crop to the right ratio

In the crop tool, dragging a corner keeps the photo's original shape; tap the lock at the top right to change it. Apple's guide lists preset ratios such as Square, Wallpaper, 9:16 and 5:7.

• Listings: keep the iPhone's own 4:3, or crop to 3:2. Both are landscape and fit listing sites; our photo size guide lists each site's minimum.
• Instagram Stories, Reels covers and TikTok: 9:16, vertical.
• A feed post: square or 4:5.
• Crop little. Every crop throws away pixels, and a tight crop can hide what a buyer or renter needs to see.

Step 4: Clean Up, and which iPhones have it

Clean Up removes distracting objects: open the photo, tap the edit button, tap Tools, then Clean Up, and tap, brush or circle what you want gone. You can tap Reset later to undo it. In iOS 27 the same Tools menu also has Extend, which grows the photo past its original edges, and Reframe, which changes the point of view after the fact.

For a listing, use Clean Up only on things that leave with the seller or guest: a cable, a sticky note, a toothbrush. Never remove something that stays with the home, like a crack, a radiator or a neighbor's building, and treat Extend and Reframe as alterations: they add things the camera never saw.

What not to do to listing photos

• Don't over-saturate. Orange floors, neon lawns and electric-blue skies look fake on a phone screen and disappoint people who visit.
• Don't swap the sky or the view without saying so. A blue sky over a gray-day house, or a better view in the window, changes what the photo shows. MLS and state rules on altered photos differ; our guide to MLS rules for edited photos explains when a label is needed.
• Don't remove permanent features with Clean Up: stains, cracks, power lines, the house next door.
• Don't use filters or Photographic Styles that tint the whole photo. Apple says that on iPhone 16 models or later, Photographic Styles take the place of filters. For listings, keep the Standard style.
• Don't use the 0.5× lens and then crop. You get the stretched edges and lose the extra width.

Edit a whole set at once

Once one room looks right, copy its edits to the rest. Open the edited photo, tap the more button, tap Copy Edits, choose which edits to copy, then select the other photos and tap Paste Edits. Apple says Photos also adjusts white balance and exposure so the pasted photos match better. Check each one afterwards: a dark bedroom and a bright kitchen rarely need the same numbers.

Edits are saved with the original. To undo them after you've saved, open the photo, tap the edit button, then tap Revert.

Exporting the right size and format

Most iPhones save photos as HEIF (HEIC files). Apple says HEIF uses less storage than JPEG at the same visual quality, but some listing sites and older computers don't accept it.

• Shoot JPEG from the start: Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible. Apple says new photos are then saved as JPEG.
• Sharing by AirDrop, Messages or email: Apple says the photo might be converted to a compatible format such as JPEG automatically if the receiving device doesn't support HEIF.
• Importing over USB: photos may be converted to JPEG, unless you turn on Keep Originals in Settings > Apps > Photos.
• Size: don't shrink photos on the phone before uploading. Our real estate photo size guide lists each site's minimum width and file size.

When to use an editing service instead

The Photos app is enough for a few photos that are already well shot. It is slow for twenty rooms, it can't blend several exposures into one evenly lit room, and it can't swap a gray sky for a blue one cleanly. If you're listing a home every week, or the photos need window detail, sky replacement or virtual staging, a service is usually worth it. Our guide to editing real estate photos compares doing it yourself with the main services and their prices.

The October app is another route: it guides you through each room on an iPhone 12 or newer, and an image model then makes finished listing photos from your capture, which usually come back within a few hours. The photos are lightly styled, with beds made and loose items left out, so check each one and label them where your listing site requires. It costs $49 a place (up to 6 rooms), and the first place is free. See pricing.

Step by step

1. Open the editor

   Open the photo in the Photos app and tap the edit button.

2. Adjust light and color

   Tap Adjust, then Auto. Fine-tune Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights and Shadows lightly, comparing with the original by tapping the photo.

3. Straighten

   Tap the crop button, then use tilt vertically to make walls and door frames stand straight, and straighten for the horizon.

4. Crop

   Keep 4:3 or crop to 3:2 for listings, 9:16 for Stories and TikTok. Crop as little as you can.

5. Clean Up, carefully

   On an iPhone 15 Pro or any iPhone 16 or later with iOS 18.1 or later, use Tools > Clean Up to remove loose items, never permanent features.

6. Copy edits and export

   Copy Edits from one finished photo and Paste Edits onto the rest, check each one, then upload as JPEG at full size.

Questions