Guide to Photographs
   

Include 4 photographs on your property listing

Use the best images possible - poor quality images provide a poor impression of your property

Avoid wide format or panoramic images - these are not compatible with our page design.

When taking interior shots, use flash and as much extra lighting as possible - avoid shooting directly at 'sunny' windows as this artificially darkens the image

Don't take interior pictures at night or with curtains closed as this looks uninviting

 

 Digital Photographs

The ideal image size for uploading is 640 x 480 pixels.

Images are automatically adjusted by our system so the precise size is not critical, but reducing your image sizes before uploading will avoid excessive transfer times or possible failure of the upload.

Set the right size on your camera BEFORE taking the photographs:

Use the SMALL setting on your camera

Small, VGA, 640 x 480 pixels

Once the images you wish to use are saved in a folder on your computer, you can upload these to your listing using the editing facility on your account page (Modify Listing).

Having upload difficulties? - this is probably because the images are much too big but is not a problem. Simply send your pictures to us as an ATTACHMENT to an email. Pictures sent should preferably be in landscape format not smaller than the recommended size.

e-mail images to: photos@thelittlehousecompany.co.uk

 
Conventional Film

You can post ordinary film photographs to us for scanning and we will add them to your property details for you at no extra charge. We can only scan ORIGINALS - please do not send images copied and printed on ink-jet printers as these will not scan at sufficient quality.

All materials will be returned to you by normal post (at owner's risk). See our Contact Page for address.

 
Recommended Images

For houses, the main photo should be an exterior view of the building. The other three photos can depict either interior rooms (kitchen, living room etc), grounds, gardens or views from the premises.

For flats or apartments, an interior for the main picture can be used if this presents the style of the interior particularly well, although we recommend that an exterior building view is used as a minor image to show buyers the context of the property.

For most 'average' properties, we recommend:

  • Exterior Front
  • Kitchen
  • Living Room
  • Rear Garden or view (looking away from the house)

Keep all images the same format (standard landscape) for best presentation. Avoid turning the camera on its side for narrow rooms as this doesn't work so well for online pictures. It is better to have large 'close-up' images showing part of a room, rather than a small narrow image of the whole room.

 

Troubleshooting

Q Where are the buttons for adding photographs?
A
These appear on the online property registration form AFTER you have registered the basic details and obtained a reference number (property ID) for your record. Once you have this, to add images, click on the "Amend Property" button on the final registration screen to re-open the record and four "Browse" buttons will appear at the bottom of the form below the main description entry boxes. Alternately, logon to your account and click "Modify Listing" to access the editing form and add photographs anytime later.

 
Q What do I do with the "browse" buttons
A

Click on the first browse button and a small file directory box will open, showing the contents of your computer (like Windows Explorer). Search through the folders to locate the image file you want to use as your main photograph. Select this image file and then click on “open” or just double click on the image file – either action should, after a few seconds, close the pop up box and enter the file name and path (computer address) of the image file in the “browse” box. Repeat the same procedure in the remaining boxes for any other photos you want to add then click on “next step” at the bottom of the page to load the images.

 
Q Nothing happens after I click "Next"
A

It may take several minutes for your computer to send the images to our website and in the meantime our system is 'waiting'. For this reason we strongly recommend that images are reduced in size to reduce sending times. Broadband users should see a delay of only 10-15 seconds unless the images are excessively large. If you see a "Time Out" error message, this means that your system security settings are preventing the operation in which case, refer to our main Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for more help.

The next screen is a preview page, which shows your listing with the photographs in place. YOUR IMAGES HAVE NOT BEEN SAVED at this point, so make sure you click “next” at the bottom of the page and select “I agree” on the final submit screen.

 
Q File Upload /File Invalid Error
A

Usually due to over-complicated image naming or trying to upload a file which is not recognised by our imaging system.

Give your images simple one-word names and ensure that the file ending is *.JPG. Image loading software sometimes has difficulty recognising files with certain characters or spaces in the file names so it is best to ensure your images have simple names, i.e. no unnecessary spaces, full stops, commas, hyphens, underscores etc., for example images called "100.345.12_67.jpg" or "front garden 2004.jpg" may both result in failed uploads. Try renaming each image simply as "house.jpg" or "garden.jpg".

Make sure that the images are true JPEG format straight off a digital camera or "Saved As" (type JPEG /JPG) with photo software. Just renaming the file ending of a non-JPEG image will not work. Our systems cannot extract images from Word documents so do not try to add images contained within a Word file (*.doc).

 
Q Photo uploaded is 'blocky' or blurred
A

Our image uploading software optimises the size and slightly sharpens the image to improve display quality, but does not otherwise re-process the picture. If the final result looks blocky or blurred, this is either because the original image is poor quality (which is not improved) or most probably that the image uploaded is TOO SMALL - thus looks poor due to being enlarged to fit our page frames. Make sure that the images used are not SMALLER than our recommended width (W) in pixels, before uploading.

 
Q Picture has 'crazing' distortion
A

Areas of regular patterns in the picture such as brickwork or roof tiling will often become 'crazed' due to the compression of the pattern when a large image is reduced in size. This is normal and is most often encountered with very large images (1600 x 1200 pixels or 2 megapixel+ pictures), but can be improved by setting the camera to take the original picture at a lower quality or smaller size, so that final sizing reductions are less. The basic small picture setting of most cameras is 640 x 480 pixels (or VGA) which should give good results and is easy and quick to upload over a standard modem connection.

 
Q How can I easily resize my images?
A

For re-sizing images quickly and easily try the "Image Resizer" tool available free from Microsoft PowerToys (Windows XP only):

 
Q How do I use the Image Resizer?
A

First you need to download and install the tool from the Microsoft PowerToys page.

Once installed, open your photograph directory in Windows Explorer. Then simply right-click on the image and select "Resize Pictures" the new menu option. Select "small" and click OK. This will create a small version of the image ideal for uploading to your property listing.

 
Q
I have tried to upload new images but the old ones still show?
A


When uploading new images over old, your browser may default to showing you the original images it retains in memory rather than the replacements - this is a 'feature' of your internet software not our website. To see the replacement images, click on your browser 'refresh' button or hold down CTRL and press F5 to force your software to display the new image(s)
   
   
 
   
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