Photo Size, Orientation, Resolution, Image Sharpness, and
Format
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To optimize efficiency in transmission, viewing, printing and storage, all
photos and graphic images larger than 300 KB and/or 840 x 525
resolution are automatically compressed (to a medium level of JPEG
compression) and sampled down to a
file size that is less than 300 KB when photos and images are saved on the MLS
server. Such
adaptive resampling is not based strictly on just file size or just
resolution.
The re-sampled MLS listing photo size also applies a width-to-height ratio of 1.6. adjustment
if needed (the image width must be 1.6
times its height). All listing photos are automatically cropped to this width-to-height
ratio so they fit properly in MLS reports.
To save the optimal size and highest
allowed resolution (see guidelines below) of photos for display in the MLS,
upload photos
through new CTI Navigator Web II (or through Navigator Web
Silverlight where
still available) which uses more efficient compression techniques than are available through Navigator Desktop.
CTI Navigator Web II supports the highest resolution photos (which
are larger in file size and therefore slower to upload than lower resolution
images from Navigator Desktop, or image files that Silverlight pre-processed in
the browser before uploading from Navigator Web).
It is not normally necessary, but you can manually resize (or change the
orientation of) photos using the basic
image editing program from your computer operating system manufacturer:
- Paint in Microsoft Windows
- Photos or Preview in Apple Macs.
Listing photos should be taken in landscape (horizontal or wide) view.
Landscape view provides the maximum image area to display and print in MLS
reports. Photos taken in portrait (vertical) view will either appear smaller and
with blank space on the sides, or must have some of their top and/or bottom
cropped off so more of the image width can be displayed.
CTI Navigator imports the universal jpg standard code for photos. Navigator
does not
process any special camera orientation adjustments that may be stored in a
photo's metadata code (such as used by Apple products).
The image cropping tool in
CTI Navigator Web II includes a
rotate option that can be used to correct the image orientation when
uploading a photo into the MLS. However, photos taken with the camera sideways
(or upside down) may need to be rotated
before being opened in Navigator Desktop or in
Navigator Web Silverlight.
Photos taken with iPhone 4 when locked in portrait orientation may
display as if rotated horizontally (sideways or upside down) in the MLS, in
email, or on any Windows computer. The recommended fix is to re-take the photos in
landscape mode with portrait orientation unlocked. To unlock portrait
orientation, double-click the Home button (or swipe UP from the bottom of
any screen) to display the toolbar (or Control Center in iOS 7) at the
bottom of the screen > slide right along the toolbar and tap on the
Rotate icon
(a circular arrow with lock inside) > confirm that
"portrait orientation is unlocked" message appears, or rotate icon dims or
"Portrait Orientation Lock: Off" displays > then swipe down or
press Home to close the toolbar. Otherwise, you can go to the Settings icon
> general > reset > reset all settings. If re-taking a photo is not practical, see "correct
the photo orientation" below.
Starting with iOS 5 (and later), photos taken on an iPhone
or iPad using the volume-up button
as a shutter release also may display as if rotated horizontally
(sideways or upside down) in the MLS, in email, or on any Windows computer. To prevent rotation issues
with photos or videos taken in landscape view (sideways) on an iPhone or
iPad using iOS 5 and later, shoot with the
volume
buttons facing down when using them as the shutter release.
Alternatively, you can use a photo app such as
Camera+ to add advanced photo shooting
and editing features to your iPhone or iPad.
iPhone Photo orientation note: For a
non-technical explanation and more options, see "Why
Your iPhone Photos are Upside Down & How to Fix That."
To correct the orientation of
photos, you can open or import them into the basic
image editing program from your computer operating system manufacturer
(Microsoft or Apple).
- In Windows: select Paint, File, Open (your photo image
file), click Rotate Left or Rotate Right as appropriate
(select "Flip Vertically" to turn the image upside down, or
select "Flip Horizontally" to make a mirror image of the photo). Once the
orientation is correct, whether or not you changed it, click on File > Save
As > JPEG > accept or change the file name and location. This will set the
image's default orientation as viewed, regardless of the original camera
orientation. .
- On Mac: open Photos app > select File > Import
>select file > Image in menu > Rotate
Clockwise (or Counterclockwise) > File > Close or Share. You also can
open the file in the Preview app > click Tools > Rotate Left
or Right > File > Save.
You can use free third party image editors for Windows or Mac such as Google
Photos,
Helios Paint,
or IrfanView; or
FastStone Image
Viewer for Windows for additional editing features. You
also can resize, rotate, flip or crop an image in your browser by using
an online image editor such as the free
FlipMyPhotos.
To convert a large number of photos, see "15
Useful Batch Image Processors". For
advanced, professional image editing, see the popular but expensive
Adobe Photoshop CC
program. To edit videos, you can use digital media editor-converter programs
such as the free VLC Media
Player, or purchase Apple's "QuickTime
Pro."
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You should upload high quality, but not super high resolution,
original photos through CTI Navigator
Web II for best viewing, printing, and emailing results in the MLS. (Navigator Desktop
cannot upload and process as high resolution photos as Navigator Web
II or Web Silverlight can.) In
general, save your original photo at your camera's highest resolution. This will
allow you to crop and print larger photos locally than those that are used in the MLS. It is not
necessary, but if your camera provides the option to set image resolution, set it to 1280 x 800
if this is offered. This setting should produce approximately a 1 MB
size image file to upload into the MLS (which will reduce the file to a
maximum size of 300 KB as described above).
Uploading image files larger than 1 to 2 MB, or higher resolution than 1280 x 800,
wastes bandwidth and processing time with information that will not be saved in
the MLS, and can greatly slow down (and sometimes complicate) the process
of adding (or replacing) photos for listings. If you must send large, very high resolution
photos, do not upload all 24 simultaneously. Instead, send about 8 to10 (or
fewer) images at the same time for optimal transmission speed and reliability.
Using the universal JPG standard format for photos, resampling
necessarily results in some loss in resolution. The higher the original
resolution, the more difference there will be between the original and the
re-sampled image. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable and means that MLS
photos cannot display as sharp or detailed as the original higher resolution
image on your computer. Naturally, if you enlarge re-sampled images they
also tend to get more blurred and digitized quicker than higher resolution
originals. Images that have already been significantly compressed (to
smaller file size) and/or saved at lower resolution before uploading into
the MLS have already lost much of their image detail information, and
consequently may appear blurred after being re-sampled to fit in MLS
reports.
Email programs often resample images to reduce the size of the image
file (which results in some loss in resolution/quality). In general, select
"Large" (rather than small or medium) if available when emailing
photos to a computer for uploading into CTI Navigator.
Blur also can be caused by a dirty camera lens or by movement that is faster than the camera shutter speed. If
the camera was moving when the shutter was released and the subject was
stationary, usually the entire image
is blurred to some degree. If an object or person in the image area was moving
and the camera was not moving when the picture
was taken, usually just the moving object is blurred and the background is
clear. If an object or person in the image area was moving
and the camera was also moving to keep the moving object in view when the picture
was taken, usually the background is blurred and the image of the moving object
is clear.
Blur also can be caused when the camera is not properly
focused. Partial blur within a stationary image can result when the camera's focal point and resulting depth of field
in the photo are somewhat off. This is most noticeable when there is a long
visual field depth with some objects relatively far away (such as outdoors or
in large open space rooms) but other objects are close up in the same image. When the
camera focus is not set just right (approximately one-third the
distance between the closest and most distant object in view), the transition
from the close-up object to its background tends to be blurred
as if the background is a continuation of the foreground. Typically this
happens when the photographer focuses on the farthest object rather than
in-between the near and far objects. When such images are then re-sampled
(resulting in loss of some image details), such mildly indistinct or
unclear areas are exacerbated, especially when compared to the
original.
The best fix for image blur in an original photo is to retake the photo with the correct camera
settings, shutter speed and focus. If this is not practical, you may be able to clear some
of the blur using an image editing program (such as
Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or
Google Photos). Beware however, that editing photos may cause other
problems if code other than standard JPG is inserted in the photo file. See articles on various ways you can try to fix image blur
in the Related Articles at the end of this web
page.
If your office has its own website or you have access to a website that will
host higher resolution or larger size photos for you (such as
Dropbox,
Flickr,
Google+,
Google Photos (which
replaced retired
Picasa
Web Album),
Photobucket,
Snapfish, or
Shutterfly), you can link higher resolution photos to your listing under the "Internet Links"
tab in Add/Revise Listings in CTI Navigator. Enter the Internet
Address-URL to those photos in the "Other" field and
something like "Click here to see High Resolution Photos" in
the Description field beside the URL. These linked photos do not replace
the normal MLS photos (that are stored, sized and formatted to fit
standard reports and off-line usage in CTI Navigator), but would be available
as supplement photos for MLS members
who desire to view them.
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Agent photos can be uploaded onto the MLS server through
CTI Navigator Web (II or Silverlight). Click on "Agent Web" in Navigator
Web's frame menu, select "Images" on the Agent Control Panel, and
click the Upload button below "My Website Photo". An agent
photo must
be a jpg (jpeg, or jfif) photo format file. For best results, the
photo should be a headshot in portrait mode (slightly taller than wide) that
is approximately 167 pixels wide by 181 pixels high at 96 dpi (or better).
For professional photographer tips on taking professional
head shots, see "How to Take a Good Headshot
" in the Related articles section at the bottom of
this web page.
Office management can upload an office logo into the
MLS server through CTI Navigator Web (II or Silverlight). Click on "Agent Web" in
Navigator Web's frame menu, select "Images" on the Agent Control
Panel, and click the Upload button below Logo. The office logo must
be a jpg (jpeg, or jfif) photo format file. (The logo file cannot
be a gif, ico, png, ps, or tiff image format, or an AI, CDR, EPS or SWF
vector file format.) For best results, the image file should be in
landscape mode (moderately wider than tall) that is approximately 75 pixels
wide by 58 pixels high at 96 dpi (or better). All office logos are
automatically cropped to this 1.29 width-to-height ratio when uploaded so
they fit properly in Navigator Web reports, address book, and Agent Website.
Width Warning.
Extra wide logos (such as banners of stylized text) may become tiny and
illegible when they are proportionally resized to fit in the space allocated
in Navigator Web. To avoid this, it is advisable to upload logo images whose
width is not greater than 1.5 times the height.
Photos. Most image files (such as
bmp, gif, png or tiff) can be easily converted into the jpg photo file
format simply by opening the file in the basic
image editing program from your computer operating system manufacturer
(Microsoft or Apple), and changing the file type or format when you save the file.
- In the Windows Paint program click "Save As" and select "JPEG" as the
File Type. Do
not leave the original file type extension (bmp, gif, png or tiff) in the
file name.
- In the Apple Preview app, click File, select Save or
select Export,
click the down arrow beside Format, check JPEG, and click the Save
button.
You also can use a free online file conversion service in Windows or Mac,
such as http://convertonlinefree.com/ or
http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-jpg .
Documents. To convert a
document file (such as .doc, or .pdf format) into an image format
(such as JPEG format) in Windows, open the file in the appropriate text
processor (such as Word for docs and Adobe Acrobat Reader for pdfs),
and highlight and copy the contents of the text file to the Windows Clipboard.
Next open Windows Paint and paste the text into Paint. If
desired, use the "Select" function to make
formatting changes or graphical additions to the selected text. Finally, click File, select "Save As" and select "JPEG" as the
File Type.
In Apple open the document in the Preview app, click File,
select Save or select Export,
click the down arrow beside Format, check JPEG, and click the Save
button.
Image in Document File.
To extract and convert an image (or text) from a document file (such as .PDF
or .Doc) into a separate image file, open the document in the appropriate
text processor (such as Word for docs and Adobe Acrobat Reader for pdfs).
Then
- In Windows: highlight and copy the image (or text) using the Windows Snipping Tool,
and save the snapshot as a .JPEG file type (.jpg format). Type
"Snipping tool" in your Windows Search box to open this tool. For more
information, see CTI's General Tech Tip "Capture
Snapshot Using Windows Snipping Tool ".
- On Mac: Press Command-Shift-4
keys, depress the mouse button and drag the cross-hair pointer across
the image area to copy, and release the mouse button to save the image area
to the Desktop in PNG format. For more information, including
changing the image format. see CTI's General Tech Tip "Capture
Screen Shot on Mac OS X".
Automated PDF Converters.
Following are links to free online PDF file converters:
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rev. 12.03.2016