Start at the front door, looking in. Then work clockwise. If there is a room or a
powder room to your left, go in there first. Come out, take the next door along, and keep
going the same way round until you are back at the front door.
At the stairs, finish the whole floor first. Then go up — or down — and walk
the same circle on that floor, starting from the top of the stairs. Take one photo of the
stairs themselves, so we can see where one floor ends and the next begins.
Outside comes last: the front of the house, then round the outside the same way.
Why it is worth the trouble. The order of the photos is the only
record of your walk through the house. If you always take the same route, that order tells
us which room sits next to which — something no software can work out from the
pictures alone. We tested it: on a home shot in walking order the rooms grouped themselves
almost perfectly, and on one where a bathroom photo sat up front between the garden shots
it fell apart. Shooting the same circle every time is what makes the difference.
Three things that help. Take every angle of a room together, rather
than coming back to it later. Never mix two floors. And shoot a room from the doorway
before you step in — that first frame shows how the room connects to the rest.