Exterior Shot List for QuickStage Curb Appeal and Twilight

To get a good Curb Appeal or Twilight result from QuickStage, shoot the front of the home in daylight with the camera level at about chest height, from straight on and from a three-quarter angle, with the whole house, a strip of sky and some lawn in frame. Move cars, bins and hoses before you shoot. For Twilight, open the blinds and turn every light on. Both treatments are built to keep the house, the landscaping and your camera angle as photographed, so the result can only be as good as the frame you give them.

What do Curb Appeal and Twilight need from your photo?

Curb Appeal turns a dull or overcast sky into natural blue sky, greens up a brown or patchy lawn and balances the light and color. Twilight converts the daytime shot into a dusk photo with warm, glowing windows. An exterior uses one credit, the same as an interior room.

Both are built to leave the architecture, siding, roofline, windows, doors, driveway, landscaping and camera angle as photographed. For shooting, that means:

• A crooked shot stays crooked. The treatment keeps your angle, so level the camera on site.
• Whatever is in the frame stays in the frame. A car in the driveway or a bin by the garage is still there in the result. Move it before you shoot.
• The sky and windows need room to work. Curb Appeal needs some sky to replace. Twilight needs windows that face the camera, because the glow is the point of the image.

The Curb-to-Dusk Shot List

Our ten items, in the order we'd do them at the curb.

Before you raise the camera

1. Clear the driveway. Move every car, including yours, out of the frame.
2. Pull in the small stuff. Bins, hoses, toys, tools, a ladder against the garage. Put them out of sight and close the garage door.
3. Tidy the yard, don't disguise it. Mow, rake and sweep the walk if there's time. Seasonal tidying is fine. Covering a crack, a stain on the siding or a damaged roof is not, and no treatment should be asked to do it either.
4. Open the blinds and turn the lights on. Raise the blinds or open the curtains on every window that faces the street, then turn on interior lights and any porch, sconce or garage lights you can see from the curb. Do this for both treatments: windows that read as glass look better in daylight and give Twilight something to glow.

Framing the shot

5. Shoot two angles. One straight on, centered on the front door, and one from about 45 degrees off a front corner, which shows the depth of the house and a side wall. The three-quarter view is usually the stronger lead photo.
6. Hold the camera level at about chest height. Roughly 4 to 5 feet off the ground keeps vertical lines vertical. Don't tilt the camera up to fit the roof in. Step back instead, crossing the street if it's safe. Tilting up makes the walls lean back, and the treatment keeps that lean.
7. Use a moderate lens. On a phone, use the main 1x lens and walk back rather than switching to the ultra-wide, which bends the edges of the house. On a full-frame camera, something in the 16 to 24 mm range is typical for exteriors.
8. Leave margins. Keep the whole house in frame, with a band of sky above the roofline and some lawn or driveway below it. For Curb Appeal, that strip of sky is what gets replaced. For Twilight, it's where the dusk color shows.

Light and timing

9. Pick the light you can get, not the light you wish for. If the sun is behind you and on the front of the house, shoot. If the front faces away from the sun, an overcast day is fine, because Curb Appeal replaces a dull sky anyway. What's harder is hard midday shade: a dark shadow from a tree or the roof overhang across half the front, which no sky swap will lift. Come back at a different hour if you can.
10. Shoot Twilight's source in daylight. Twilight converts day to dusk, so start from a bright daytime frame. Don't hand it a shot taken at sunset that's already dark and noisy.

Which shots go to which treatment?

If the same daytime frame suits both, run it through both. Each version uses one credit.

What should you check before you upload?

A short pass saves a credit:

• Is it level? Check the vertical edges of the house and the door frame. Straighten in your editing app now, because the treatment won't.
• Is it the original file? Upload the photo itself, not a screenshot or a version saved from a text message, which can be smaller and softer.
• Did you pick the right treatment? In QuickStage's upload form, choose Exterior, then Curb Appeal or Twilight for that photo.

Results come back in about 30 seconds and are also emailed to you. Compare each with your original before you post it: roofline, window count, siding color, trees and driveway should all match. If anything about the property itself has changed, don't use that version. On a plan, a QuickFix re-do lets you describe what's wrong and re-run the photo without spending a credit.

Do you have to disclose an edited exterior?

Yes, treat it as an altered image. Label a Curb Appeal or Twilight photo as digitally altered and keep the unedited exterior right next to it in the gallery, so a buyer can see the house on an ordinary day.

In California, Business and Professions Code §10140.8, added by AB 723 and in force since January 1, 2026, requires a disclosure that the image was altered plus a link, URL or QR code to the unaltered original. Many MLSs have their own rules, and some restrict altered exteriors, including greened lawns and dusk conversions, more tightly than staged rooms. This isn't legal advice; check your MLS and broker.

What does an exterior cost?

The same as any photo. Your first 3 photos are free, with no account and no card. After that it's $1 per photo pay-as-you-go with no subscription, and the rate goes as low as $0.11 per photo on the annual Agency plan, billed yearly. The full list is on QuickStage's pricing section. QuickFix re-dos are included on plans.

Bottom line

Curb Appeal and Twilight change the sky, the lawn and the light. They're built to keep everything else as you shot it, so do the work at the curb: cars and bins out, blinds open, lights on, camera level at chest height, two angles with sky above the roof. Then label the result, keep the original beside it and check your MLS.

Shoot the front of your next listing and run it through QuickStage: 3 photos free, no card.