Preparing Photos for ListingPro
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Adding your own listings to your web site is very important for a number of reasons. Whether it’s to showcase your new listing (making your seller feel you’re doing everything possible to maximize exposure for their home) or to attract buyers by showing a home off like only you can -- the pictures, the words, the virtual tour; whatever your goal, your web site is your virtual salesperson and is eager to help you close the deal.
So, take a few minutes and read through this document. It’s not something you’ll need to refer to more than a few times and after you’ve added a couple of homes to your site, you’ll be a ListingPro in no time!
Ready? Let’s Go!
Many of today’s digital cameras let you determine the picture size you wish to take. The more pixels, the larger the picture size and thus the larger the file size. If you want to make prints from your digital photos, a higher resolution (file size) is recommended. But for listing photos or web photos, 640x480 is more than sufficient. Get to know your camera and see if you can change the default picture size to 640x480 and only change it back to a higher resolution for print quality.
Picture size and file size are two different things. While a photo can be 640x480 as displayed on the web, the file size is based on the compression of the photo. Many cameras will also let you determine the JPG compression, using Low or Standard or. The higher the compression, the sharper the photo, but the larger the file size. Try using a low compression setting and see what kind of results you get. Most likely, it will be more than sufficient for use on the web. Just keep in mind the smaller the file size, the faster the download for your house hunting visitors.
Remember, to ensure your photos display as nice
as possible, always take them horizontally.
Here are some standard settings for a picture with various sizes with the resolution set to low and standard:
Picture Size |
Dimension |
Low Compression |
Standard Compression (approx.) |
2304 |
2304x1728 |
852 KB |
1.4MB |
1600 |
1600x1200 |
288KB |
707KB |
1280 |
1280x960 |
220KB |
412KB |
640 |
640x480 |
59KB – ideal! |
135KB |
For ListingPro, you can upload a file that is any dimension but the file size cannot exceed 100KB. So, if you start with your photos set to 640x480 with a low compression, you actually do NOT need to use EZThumbs. Just upload your photos from your camera to your computer and then upload straight into your ListingPro application.
But let’s say for whatever reason all of your photos are 2304x1728 and have a standard compression setting. We need to get these photos down to 640x480 and a compression value no greater than 100KB. You’ve already got your photos loaded on to your computer so you’re ready to put EZ Thumbs to work.
If by chance you have your photos set to a default low resolution, it should just be a matter of resizing. Select your photos (if resizing all, don’t select) and on the Settings Tab change the size to 640x480 (you could leave the height off and change the drop down menu to Best Fit). Set the JPG quality to 60 (though your photo is already compressed sufficiently, doing this step every time will be a good habit to form).
A photo that was originally 2304x1728 with a compression of 852KB has now been changed to 640x480 with a compression of 37KB – perfect for ListingPro!
Note that the picture sizes detailed above will all resize proportionately, meaning no matter whether you have a photo that is 2300, 1600 or 1280, if you put in the resize value of 640 (and 480 for the height OR leave the blank and choose “best fit”), they will keep the correct aspect ratio (proportions). This is important as you don’t want your photos to look distorted.
Sometimes you might want to add a listing that is on the MLS (say a Realtor in your office has given you permission to add his/her listing to your site). Bring up the listing in the MLS and click on each thumbnail picture that is displayed (typically no more than 6 photos are available). Then, right click on each of the larger images and save to your desktop in a predetermined folder. While you’re at it, look at the Properties of the photo…most likely they are already set to the correct maximum ListingPro size and compressed well under the maximum allowable size as well. Continue to do this for all 6 images. Then, all you’d need to do is upload to your ListingPro.
Note: If you are saving photos from another source and the file format defaults to BMP, try refreshing your browser and then attempt to SaveAs again. BMP format is not allowed as they are a very large file format. If you must, save as BMP on your desktop and then convert to JPG using EZThumbs.
Last, let’s say the images you have are a size that is smaller than 640x480 to begin with. But, they could be larger than 100KB file size. How do you know the size? Again, just right click on an image to see the properties, which always include size and dimensions. In EZ Thumbs enter this value (for example 500) into the width field, leave the height blank and set the compression for 60. In this way, you’ve not changed the picture size but have made the file size smaller.
In general, don’t resize an image (for example 500x500) to a size larger than it’s original size (for example 600x480). This will distort and pixelize the picture. Resizing is to be used to make larger images smaller; not the other way around.
And finally, let’s not forget the all important naming conventions. Many digital cameras will assign an alpha-numeric # to the photos, such as P1000812.jpg. As long as your file name contains NO spaces or special characters, and ends in the jpg extension, it should be fine. The first photo you upload will be your thumbnail, so keep that in mind. I find naming the photos 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, etc. makes for easy uploading and getting them in the right order. You can upload your photos first, save, and then return to add your short caption. Be sure you put your caption in the right field ;-)
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