Real Estate Photography JPEG’s on MLS question

Moderator please move if this belongs in digital darkroom...wasn’t sure where to put it.

Moderator Note - I have moved this conversation to Digital Darkroom, from Business of Photography because although it is a business related question DD should reap responses addressing the technical aspect.

Notwithstanding the above, responses related to the business aspect of the thread, are encouraged.

I delivered photos to a client yesterday in which I did everything the same as I always do (most importantly export settings in LR...I double checked these a bazillion times) delivered them to her the same way on Dropbox but I got a call from agent saying they looked “grainy” on MLS. It looks like MLS compressed the ALOT. MLS CSR told her that the files were too big and that’s why but my understanding is if file is too big for MLS agent will get an error message while uploading. Anyone out there with experience dealing with technical problems and MLS. My images are sized 2048 X 1536 and while they exceed the 12K limit of MLS uploads (they are around 2.4-3.5 MB) MLS has never had problems compressing them without losing so much quality.

Not commenting on the technical aspect of what happened or why - on the business aspect of this matter, I suggest you send the agent smaller files ASAP - I assume (hopefully) you've done that already.

WW

(BTW It was I who moved this thread)

I'm baffled - how does one resize an image from 2048 × 1536 to 1242 × 1138 or 1242 × 1067? That's a substantial change in aspect ratio from 4:3 to almost square - and obviously, there is no crop involved. I tried this in PS and even when saving the image as lowest quality JPEG (3), I can't reproduce the effect seen in the images above - I only get skewed images - which it appears the resized images above are not. Some weird resizing/interpolation going on here.

PS: when I downloaded your files, only the first was larger than 1200K, the second one is less than 1000. Though not sure what photo.net does to the upload.

on the business aspect of this matter, I suggest you send the agent smaller files ASAP

Sage advice. I wonder what the specs are they ask for?

I shared this post with a friend of mine that is a photographer and a real estate agent. Here is his summary about how to avoid jpeg artifacts:

The MLS that the agent belongs to is the Canopy MLS. The maximum photo size is 2048 x 1536. When you upload to the MLS you need to get the images down to a reasonable size before uploading otherwise you end up with jpeg artifacts. We are faced with the same problem when uploading 4K video clips. HD clips look great. 4K clips are not pretty. What I have found that in Adobe Lightroom you set the download to 80% and the photos are very crisp yet are below the limits of the MLS.

Not commenting on the technical aspect of what happened or why - on the business aspect of this matter, I suggest you send the agent smaller files ASAP - I assume (hopefully) you've done that already.

 

WW

 

(BTW It was I who moved this thread)

I did that of course but they uploaded with the same problem

As a first step, I recommend you resize your photos to meet the specifications of the publisher. With such a dramatic loss of detail, MLS may be resizing to a much smaller size, then upsizing to fit a certain format. Photoshop and Lightroom have better algorithms for resizing which retain more detail. There are sharpening methods tailored to the final size which help even further.

Yep, I had my Lightroom settings the same as I always do when exporting to deliver to client for MLS and never had a problem before, although those settings are for the maximum MLS requirements so maybe I’ll change them in the future to be a little less than maximum limits

Good that you now know the cause of the malfunction - thanks for posting that the matter is now resolved.

. . . The day after I posted the agent was contacted Through mass email by our local MLS saying that on the particular day there was a technical issue with all photos uploaded.

Was the 'technical issue' described in detail?

WW

Good that you now know the cause of the malfunction - thanks for posting that the matter is now resolved.

 

 

 

Was the 'technical issue' described in detail?

 

WW

I did not receive the email from MLS about the technical issue on that particular day as I’m not a member of MLS and the agent did not share it with me, she simply said there was indeed a problem on their end. After I posted this question on photo.net (I was frantically exhausting all research options on what was causing this to happen) I had a three-way call with myself, the agent, and our local MLS support. It really made me look bad in front of my client because at that time the MLS CSR insisted that my files were too big and MLS had to compresss them, but I knew they were no different size than any files I have ever delivered for MLS purposes without any problems, and I even sent the agent smaller files to try with no different result. Luckily my client knows now that it was a problem on MLS’ end.

Thanks. The three way phone call experience that you had is unfortunate.

Probably useful to note here - When attempting to resolve or explain an issue to a Client, any Vendor whose first volley is to Attribute Blame, rather than collaborative seeking 'The Answer' usually ends up in a poor light, if not immediately, eventually.

Most 'intelligent' Clients reckon something like: "sheesh if they're so intent on handing out blame and not simply wanting to ‘fix it’ - what does that say about their Customer Service Disciplines when I need assistance?"

I make that comment because a relation of mine was involved in a Doctoral Study focusing on Client Awareness and Reaction, (both conscious and unconscious) to Vendors’ Methods of Problem Solving - it was a large sample group > 5000.

WW

Thanks. The three way phone call experience that you had is unfortunate.

 

Probably useful to note here - When attempting to resolve or explain an issue to a Client, any Vendor whose first volley is to Attribute Blame, rather than collaborative seeking 'The Answer' usually ends up in a poor light, if not immediately, eventually.

 

Most 'intelligent' Clients reckon something like: "sheesh if they're so intent on handing out blame and not simply wanting to ‘fix it’ - what does that say about their Customer Service Disciplines when I need assistance?"

 

I make that comment because a relation of mine was involved in a Doctoral Study focusing on Client Awareness and Reaction, (both conscious and unconscious) to Vendors’ Methods of Problem Solving - it was a large sample group > 5000.

 

WW

Exactly! My client shared with me that she did email the local MLS support to share the experience and note that she was disappointed in the customer support she received from the MLS CSR and that she was not at all helpful. In the end it all worked out and the agent hired me for another job that I’m actually heading out to now.

This community is very helpful. If you notice my first post a couple of years ago when I was starting out on the real estate photography venture you can see how much I’ve learned and how far I’ve come. Thanks for the feedback!

I'm baffled - how does one resize an image from 2048 × 1536 to 1242 × 1138 or 1242 × 1067? That's a substantial change in aspect ratio from 4:3 to almost square - and obviously, there is no crop involved. I tried this in PS and even when saving the image as lowest quality JPEG (3), I can't reproduce the effect seen in the images above - I only get skewed images - which it appears the resized images above are not. Some weird resizing/interpolation going on here.

 

PS: when I downloaded your files, only the first was larger than 1200K, the second one is less than 1000. Though not sure what photo.net does to the upload.

I think it’s something the algorithm in LR does automatically when export settings are set to output for screen.