Dear Open Rent - PLEASE PLEASE can someone help with this?
When you upload photos (portrait or landscape) they get cropped in the most unprofessional way & often have unflattering bold black lines to the sides. I’ve searched past threads on this subject & OpenRent repeatedly suggest its not actually a problem, however it most definitely IS a problem.
OpenRent previous comment: “The height-width ratio used is just an aspect of how photos are displayed on our website specifically - it isn’t a cause for concern and won’t affect how they appear on portals such as Rightmove.
Rest assured tenants can see the full image either in the thumbnail or by clicking to enlarge the picture.*
Most tenants will see the advert on other sites where the photos will be displayed differently and in full.*”
What I don’t understand is other Agents using the same portals (specifically RightMove) do NOT have this problem - so it must be possible to remedy,
Please can you do whatever’s necessary to resolve this - It clearly affects ALL OpenRent Landlords who choose to market their properties & undermines our credibility with a ‘nervous’ renter who naively wants the ‘professionalism’ of a high street agent for surelty.
Hi @lesley247 - Thanks for your post, we know photos are extremely important to tenants and the success of your advert.
We have a blog post outlining some tips for taking/creating photos for OpenRent here:
If you’re seeing black borders, or in fact borders of any kind, it’s because you’re uploading photos at an aspect ratio that is less common or the photos you uploaded had borders themselves. This can be a result of cropping photos, taking portrait photos, using panorama / other features that alter the aspect ratio.
If you are uploading landscape photos at the recommended aspect ratio and still seeing borders, please do post a link here (or email us) and we’ll definitely investigate for you.
We also do have a professional photography service that can be seen here:
This not only covers the cost of someone visiting your property with professional equipment, but also preparing the photos so they appear as you’d expect on the site (high quality / supported aspect ratio).
By way of example, here is an advert that you’ll see no borders and nice high quality photos on all but one of the photos:
As you can see, where the aspect ratio is within reason the photos look great. On the 4th photo, the landlord has supplied a cropped photo, and as such borders get inserted in certain places to keep the aspect ratio aligned with the rest of the photos.
I hope that helps, and if you’re still running into problems do supply examples to us and we’ll do our best to ensure your photos are looking at their best!
Thanks for prompt reply Daz, I’ll take a closer look over the weekend.
I guess part of my frustration is that as a Landlord access to the Property is not always easy, especially with an outgoing tenant. So when I want to upload my photos I find it challenging when they look ‘odd’, necessitating a further visit. I simply use the ‘standard’ setting on my camera - I don’t set any special aspect ratios, presuming this to be acceptable. I get the impression I need to put my camera on a ‘special’ setting, not the standard?
I’m clearly not the only one having problems - A simple search on RightMove of OpenRent adverts throws up many examples where this has also gone ‘wrong’ for other Landlords.
I hold my hands up - I’m not a techie by any stretch of the imagination, I just thought something so vital should be foolproof
I totally agree, it should be extremely simple and bulletproof. If you’re simply taking landscape photos from your camera and uploading them (without any editing), there shouldn’t be any issues. No “special” setting necessary.
If you want to point us to an advert to investigate, once you’ve uploaded your new photos, do let me know. I can look into your account and try to work out what’s happening. If there is an issue on our side we’ll definitely look to fix it ASAP!
Hi Daz,
Unfortunately I was unable to gain access to the property this weekend but wanted to take the opportunity to ask a couple questions in advance:
Are you saying that if I use my phone camera on it’s standard setting (Portrait 3:4 or Landscape 4:3) that I should have absolutely no problems when uploading photos?
And, if that’s the case there will be no ‘black stripes’ or strangely cropped houses/rooms?
It’s vitally important potential tenants see the whole picture as it’s intended when they FIRST click on the listing. First impressions count, so if they have to ‘click further/double click’ to get it to’ open in full’ they may not bother.
I really want to believe it’s this simple but if it is why are so many OpenRent listings on RightMove badly presented?
If you use your phone camera in landscape (specifically not portrait), you’ll have the best experience. Hopefully that mirrors the advice in our blog post linked to above. And yes, the standard aspect ratio is 4:3.
If you want a bit more detail, then specifically, doing the above will mean your photos shouldn’t have any black borders added in any scenario.
We do use your photos in a number of key places:
The search page (thumbnails)
Your listing page (thumbnails + full size + big slider)
Third party sites (sent images at full size)
Each of these pages looks slightly different on mobile / desktop, and as such, the precise aspect ratio used in any of the above places can differ slightly. But, as per the examples I provided before, a high resolution 4:3 landscape image will look good on all devices / pages.
Again, if you run into any problems after uploading your photos do let us know and we’ll take a look.
Thanks for this - I’m going to practice around my home first, so I can make the most of it when I’m able to gain access.
Where shots are really geared to be portrait (Eg 3 storey town house, hallways etc) can you give any tips? Is there any way to optimise the shot?
Many thanks
Just one clarification - If I crop a photo will it still present correctly on RMove provided I re-jig the aspect ratio to ensure it’s adjusted to 4.3? …or will that distort it in some way?
