Photographs

This topic has 27 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 2 months ago by Central Office.

Viewing 21 reply threads

Author

Posts
- 26/02/2015 at 8:24am #1242
  Central Office
  Keymaster
  baljit wrote
  ________________________________________
  Quite a few landlords/agents require photographs to be printed/embedded in the inventories. This can be time consuming. To add captions to the photos, they have to be imported to word for example, resized, moved, etc.
  As a lot of clerks are doing this, are we losing out on potential business?
- 26/02/2015 at 8:28am #1243
  Central Office
  Keymaster
  Clearly a hot topic!!
  
  prue_clifton
  ________________________________________
  I have found I have always add photos at check in to the inventory : the agents now seem to require everything photographed : even close up of the shower heads : it can be a lot of photos : and it does take time to re size etc : does any one know of a good software / programmer to format the pictures separately with captions with out having to inset each one : I at the moment click on the photo and reduce it so I have approx 6 per page?
  
  jvpropserve
  ________________________________________
  Hi – another question. Prue – Since adding on all the photos, the cost of your ink must have gone up considerably. Do you charge extra to cover the costs of printing all the photo’s?
  
  Personally I take lot of photographs but don’t put them in the inventory yet. It has not risen as a request from my agents as yet, but I have avoided it thus far for cost reasons. As we are in a recession, I have not put my prices up in two years although the cost of everything has gone up. If I have to start including photo’s I will need to push up my prices – any thoughts? What do others do? I am trying to push my agents gently towards electonic copies only, but I have some die hards who want 3 bound copies of each inventory. Any advice, thoughts would be appreciated.
  _______________________________________
  
  aliasrichmond
  ________________________________________
  Been resisting this for a while, time taking them isnt a problem, its the uploading and formatting into the make is the problem. It doubles typing up time and effectively reduces profitability by a chunk, as no-one wants to pay extra for it.
  Is it still true that digital photos cannot be used in a dispute? (manipluation etc…) as thats the excuse I generally use.
  
  pattieb
  ________________________________________
  For new inventories we take general room shots, inside of ovens, gardens and keys – that’s about it! I draw the line at photographing meters as if the client cant trust me to read numbers we are all in trouble…. There is no real need to take hundreds of photos of every little thing – it is the written word that counts, as confirmed by the TDS rep who attended our recent AGM. If you weren’t there you should have been, he was very interesting – especially his comments about signed photos and even signed inventories. the TDS view on this seems to differ from what our agents would like us to believe. Still no harm in dotting I’s and crossing T’s I guess.
  
  prue_clifton
  ________________________________________
  HI Pattieb I would have like to have been at the meeting unfortunately I could not BUT would love to know his comments about the signed photos and even signed inventories and the TDS views generally on this and the photos if they cannot be used in dispute?
  Also if any one knows a good software for down loading so that they can be resized captions etc
  
  thomasyule
  ________________________________________
  Hi prue_clifton
  I’ve really resisted photos too but being asked more and more. They take so long. I’ve tried this software (free) http://download.cnet.com/Free-Picture-Resize-Starter/3000-12511_4-10297789.html
  It is pretty good as you can do batches. Takes a bit of work to understand but saves a good hour or so. Let me know how it goes.
  
  fizzydog
  ________________________________________
  Hi everyone
  
  I have a Microsoft Word template that I use which is basically a grid of 5 across and 8 down with a space to above to type in the room name. You click in the first larger space and then click on insert from your top task bar then select picture it will take you to the picture folder on your computer where you have already uploaded your photos from your digital camera. Either double click on the photo you want to insert or click the photo and hit insert and it will insert your photo for you to the size of the grid. This seems to more than satisfy my clients especially when I explain they can have the photos on disk at any point in the future should they need them. We are now so adept at doing it that we insert 5 or 10 at a time by holding down the control key and clicking each photo you wish to insert then just moving them into the next space in the grid. Really easy to do. If anyone would like a copy of the “Photo sheet” as we call it I am more that happy to send it across by email or upload here.
  I have tried all of the freebie software but having been caught out with viruses in the past I will only used software we purchase under license now and as this works and is also free you could always give it a go
  
  fizzydog
  ________________________________________
  Also we have attached the sheet to our Inventory/Check Out templates so its always there, just need to add the photos at the end of typing the document
  
  thomasyule
  ________________________________________
  Thanks Fizzydog
  
  Perfect solution!
  
  The document is 1st class and will be used right away. Thank you for sending it through. Deleting the free software I was using as your document does the job much better and quicker.
  
  prue_clifton
  ________________________________________
  HI Fizzydog would love to have the template : thanks pclifton@oneoak.co.uk : downloaded the software for free picture will have to spend some time on it thanks
  
  baljit
  ________________________________________
  I agree with pattieb. Taking photos of meter readings & keys is ridiculous. For instance with keys, where do you draw the line, for what keys to include. We would have photos for front doors, garden door, windows, garages etc.
  
  jvpropserve
  ________________________________________
  Hi
  
  I am afraid I must disagree with regards photgraphs of meters and keys. It is not for the benefit of the client or agent that I photograph the meters, but to put idiotic utility companies in their place when they dispute a reading. A photo is usually indisputable. I photograph keys and remotes that I am handing to the tenant at check in if there are a lot of keys to account for, otherwise I don’t.
  
  Fizzydog – please could I have a copy of our photosheet if possible.It sounds brilliant and easy to use. MY address is jvermeulen@jvpropertyservicesltd.co.uk
  
  imbruce
  ________________________________________
  Hi,
  
  I actually use a program called Serif Page Plus for my photos there is 6 photo boxes to a page it automatically re-sizes the photos too,I then convert this to a PDF file & attach it to my report.As to bound inventory reports I charge £10 P&P as all my agents get a PDF version it also means that they don’t have to have loads of reports taking up room in filing cabinets it makes sense to do this. I also keep the master copy on file and can use this for check outs etc and saves time going to the agents to get their copy of the Inventory.
  
  elainewarne1619
  ________________________________________
  Hi
  
  I have been asked if it is a legal requirement that we include time and date stamped photographs with Inventories and check out reports?
  
  I am not sure if we are legally required to do this or whether it is recommended should photographs be required for evidence at any point in time.
  
  Hopefully someone can help clarify this please?
  Thank you.
  
  imbruce
  ________________________________________
  Hi,
  
  I have read various feedback comments from the adjudicators with regards to photos & they prefer time & date stamped photos. I have always done this for check in/outs & include meters as it prevents any disputes with the energy suppliers.
  Hope this helps.
  
  elainewarne1619
  ________________________________________
  Hi imbruce
  
  That does help to confirm that I am doing the correct thing and time/date stamping the photos I take. Can I assume then that there is no “legal requirement” for such photos to be time/date stamped but that it is just “preferred”?
  
  lynne
  ________________________________________
  Hi,
  
  Perhaps a little missunderstanding here.
  It is not a legal requirement to include photos in an inventory or check out/in report.
  Agents and owners like them as they think it means the tenant cant argue with a photo. What they dont realize is that photo’s dont show many of the problems we are looking for.
  
  TDS dispute adjudicators use photos as a back up to the written word. But they want the written word, and pure photographic inventories are difficult to deal with simply because its difficult to show damage unless its a major problem.
  When photos are used they need to be high resolution, and of a resonable size. Thumbnails are useless. You really need to have something like a 8+ megapixel camera to enable it to be blown up to A4 so that sufficient detail can be seen. Unfortunately, often camera phones are being used that just dont provide sufficient resolution or size.
  
  Where the missunderstanding occurs is that if you are going to include photos they should be date stamped and clearly identified as to what they refer to.
  For a photo to be used in a legal situation, eg court case, they must be date stamped.
  
  All the 3 dispute resolution organizations give guidelines on the use of photos. If you go on to their websites you can see the various guidelines leaflets they have. They are all more or less the same. Probably because they copied each other, and all are based on guidelines we gave them when we had a meeting with MyDeposits several years ago.
  
  hilary
  ________________________________________
  Hi FizzyDog
  Realize that I am about a year behind the posts on this one, but I would love to have your photograph template if possible isis.inventory@btopenworld.com. Many thanks
  
  jessbanks
  ________________________________________
  Hi FizzyDog,
  We currently add all our photographs at the end of the inventory (using word) in column format. Feel your photograph template may be a lot quicker. Would be extremely grateful if you could send it to me. many thanks.
  - 20/05/2015 at 7:31pm #1562
    richard-griffiths
    Participant
    Hi FizzyDog,
    You seem to have cornered the market!
    I’d be grateful if you would send me your photo template please. Richard@jadeinventories.co.uk
    Many Thanks
    Richard Griffiths
    - 20/05/2015 at 7:47pm #1563
      Anonymous
      
      Hi FizzyDog
      
      Please can I take advantage of your photo template also. ann@bpp.uk.com
      
      Many thanks
      
      Ann Barber
- 27/02/2015 at 8:55pm #1267
  Anonymous
  Hi all
  I include a large array of photographs in all of my reports.
  I image all keys, meter readings, photographs of front, side (if there is a side 🙂 and back of properties.
  I did a 2 bed furnished inventory this morning, a total of 5 rooms plus hallway. I took 346 photographs. Everything is covered.
  In the report, I include all appliances, sanitaryware, a selection of cleaning oversights and damage plus 2 pictures of each room.
  The photo’s that are not embedded are stored for 6 years and I store them in the cloud along with the dictation.
  
  Photographs are very important and widely used when assessing disputes.
  I have never yet been in a situation where I was unable to produce photographic evidence to back up the written word, slide bolts are often called into question as are cleaning oversights to appliances.
  
  I do not offer printed copies only PDF’s which agents / landlords can print themselves to their hearts content.
- 09/05/2015 at 5:51pm #1534
  Urban Dwell
  Participant
  Hi FizzyDog, please would you email me a copy of your word photo sheet, would be most grateful –
  ladydecor@hotmail.co.uk
  I currently use photoshop to resize my pics in batches, I name and save each one and then insert into word doc under photos section. This is time consuming though and although I use a good quality camera, I feel that the quality is not as great once resized and inserted onto the doc. Would like to try your method to see if it can improve the quality of my reports. Many thanks 🙂
- 19/05/2015 at 12:31pm #1553
  Anonymous
  I have to share this with you:
  I’ve been resizing pictures to fit into my Word documents inventories. I managed to streamline the process but then moved to Mac, that’s when it all went wrong (can’t Insert more than one image at a time into Mac Word document, drag and drop just reverted picture to old large format).
  
  I used the grid idea (set a table to restrict the picture size) but it was too fiddly and time consuming (I like to have complete control on the way the picture sit together, a little OCD)
  
  If you need to resize/ rename/ edit picture you must try this software: GraphicConverter9.
  It lets you change batches of pictures in one go (amongst million other things it can do), very easy to use and fast.
  Now this sounds mad, but I emailed the developer a question about resizing and he just added a batch that lets me convert the pictures to exactly the size I need in centimetres (regardless of original size) without the quality of the picture being reduced to a blur.
  Just like that. Some people are so clever.
  
  I’ve been struggling with this for so long, thought others may find this useful.
  I have no relation to this software company just very greatful 🙂
  - 19/05/2015 at 2:51pm #1556
    bruce-thomas
    Participant
    For Re-sizing photos I use power toys for Windows it is really easy to use and you can re-size all photos at once then discard the re-sized photo or keep it. Not sure what to use for Mac.
- 19/05/2015 at 3:03pm #1557
  Anonymous
  Hi Fizzydog, I would be grateful if you could email a copy of your word photo sheet, resizing each photo is so time consuming your template could just be the answer! info@firstinventoriesuk.com Many thanks
- 19/05/2015 at 4:22pm #1558
  diana-ramsden
  Participant
  Hi Cambridgelan, like you I’ve struggled enormously with my photos when I changed over to a Mac and tried every option I could think of (not to mention lots of visits to the Apple shop to ask their Trainers) and for a long time deeply regretted buying it!! I’ll definitely pay for the download but before I do, please can you tell me what size of photos do you insert and how many can you get on 1 page? Any further information about the software will be gratefully received please as it sounds just perfect and will save me an enormous amount of time.
  Many thanks in anticipation.
- 19/05/2015 at 10:20pm #1561
  Anonymous
  Hi Diana
  Yes, transfer to Mac was not fun, and the abuse you get on Apple chats if you only mention Microsoft… but once you get it it’s worth it.
  Anyway, this software completely solved this problem, I can now drag and drop from ‘finder’ into the word document.
  I have an average of 300 pictures per report and it takes less than a minute, it will do full folders and keep the structure of your folders it also lets you save in other locations, so I save the resized photos in a specific folder that way also keeping the originals.
  
  I size my pictures to 3.5cm long-end and manage to fit 4 in landscape in a row (with narrow margins).
  
  Most of my pictures start at 88cm long and around 1MB (dowloaded from camera)
  After conversion: 3.5cm long and 78KB
  So it doesn’t bog-down and slow down the document.
  
  I think you can try it for free from their website lemkesoft.de, but it might not have the batch the nice German developer added for me, which he simply called ‘scale (long edge)’ so it doesn’t matter how big your picture was to start with or if your picture is landscape or portrait, it’s so simple it’s brilliant.
  Try emailing him he is very responsive.
  Hope this helps.
  Anat 🙂
- 26/05/2015 at 11:19am #1573
  Anonymous
  Hi Fizzydog.
  I think we have been trying to do our pictures in a similar way but have never managed to do more than one at a time and moving them was a little tricky. I would be very grateful if you wouldn’t mind emailing a copy of your photo template to larissa@aiinventories.co.uk
  Thank you
- 26/05/2015 at 12:32pm #1575
  Anonymous
  Hi all,
  
  I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to compress/resize my photographs and its so simple, quick and easy. It takes around 30 seconds to do about 150 photographs on average and they size to 768 x 1024.
  Inserting them into a word document is very easy but you just have to know how to set your word document. I have taught myself, designed my own templates and have been using this method for over 2 years now.
  If anyone wants some help then just email me and I will be happy to show you how to set the document boxes in Word.
  Debbie
  - 26/05/2015 at 4:48pm #1577
    Anonymous
    Hello Debbie
    
    I would be interested to learn how you set you set up the template / boxes for photos once they have been re-sized.
    Kind of you to offer this information.
    Thanks
    
    Len
    - 26/05/2015 at 5:18pm #1578
      Anonymous
      
      Hi Len,
      It wont let me put my email here!
      - 26/05/2015 at 5:25pm #1580
        
        Anonymous
        
        debbiestavrou@btinternet.com
- 26/05/2015 at 3:12pm #1576
  nick-barwick
  Participant
  Hi Fizzydog
  
  Would you be kind enough to send me a copy of your photo template inventoryservices@btinternet.com
  
  Thank you in advance
  
  Nick
- 26/05/2015 at 5:19pm #1579
  Anonymous
  Hi Fizzydog
  
  I would also be grateful for a copy of your photo template.
  
  info@estateinventories.co.uk
  
  Many thanks in advance,
  Annie
- 03/06/2015 at 5:59pm #1597
  Anonymous
  Hi Fizzydog
  
  I’d also be really grateful if you could send me a copy of the photo template.
  
  paulawren@sky.com
  
  Thank you
  Paula
- 18/07/2015 at 10:12pm #1653
  Anonymous
  Hi Fizzydog,
  
  Would it be possible to send me the photograph template. My present way is so time consuming… I would be most grateful- info@starletinventories.co.uk
  
  Kind Regards,
  
  Yasmin Bailey
- 22/07/2015 at 2:20pm #1666
  emma-glencross
  Participant
  can i also get the template if anyone is sending one out please to emma@professionalresidential.co.uk. Thanks.
- 22/07/2015 at 5:12pm #1668
  harvey-cohen
  Participant
  Hi
  
  would be grateful if you could also send me the template
  harvey@hcinventories.co.uk
  
  many thanks
- 22/07/2015 at 6:03pm #1669
  Anonymous
  I also would be grateful of any templates sarahroberts@btinternet.com
  
  Thank you
- 22/07/2015 at 6:41pm #1670
  Anonymous
  Hi I would also like the templates if possible thank you so much
  
  pclifton@oneoak.co.uk
  
  big thank you
- 22/07/2015 at 6:52pm #1671
  Anonymous
  Hi, Could I also join the list of people requesting your template? jan@tudorinventories.com
  
  Thank you for sharing!
  
  Jan
- 22/07/2015 at 7:32pm #1672
  Anonymous
  Hi all,
  
  If you are asking me for help then please email me. Not sure if it’s myself or FizzyDog you are asking….. don’t want to duplicate.
  Email is debbiestavrou@btinternet.com
  I will do my best but right now I am hugely busy with student properties so please give me time to reply.
  Thanks
  Debbie
- 23/07/2015 at 4:14pm #1674
  Scott Dawkins
  Participant
  This solution looks complex but will take just a few minutes. If you’re creating your inventory with MS Word you don’t have to buy additional software to add photos. I created the start of a table with one row and the amount of columns I wanted (for me it’s two as I use portrait for A4 with 6 photos per page). When you’ve created this, right click in the first box of the table and select table properties. Click on the ‘row’ tab and set it to the height you want (7.3cm will give you 3 rows on A4 – play around with it until it gives you what you want). Make sure the box for ‘Allow row to break across pages’ is un-checked. Then click on the ‘column’ tab and type in the width (8.4cm for me). Then click on the ‘cell’ tab and enter 8.4cm again and select how you want the photo to be placed in the box (ie centre). Click ok and you’re set. You’ll have a small table of two columns and one row. Before you enter your photos use the tab key to tab across the fields to create a larger table with as many boxes as the photos you’ll enter. What should now happen is that when you place your photos in the boxes they will be limited to the size of the table as you’ve fixed the height and width. I chose the height so I can enter large portrait photos as not all photos can be landlscape and if the height was set to less these photos would be very small.
  Someone above mentioned a problem with a large file size of the finished Word doc once it’s got all the large file size photos. If you’re saving as a pdf the size may come down okay for email but if it’s still a bit large, try one of the following. This is what I’ve done when using Word 2010: When you’ve finished adding all your photos to your Word doc click a picture once and look at the ‘Picture Tools’ tab in the Word header. On the left of this there is a little icon next to ‘Corrections’. This is the ‘compress pictures’ function. Click and select the quality that’s good for your purpose (150ppi still gives clear results with small picture size but experiment). You get the choice to apply this to one photo at a time or ALL your photos in that document. This will reduce the file size of the whole document – dependent upon ppi selected. If you want to reduce it further there a few websites which reduce pdfs etc. upload your file and you get a reduced one back. Make sure you choose a safe one! Most impressive with large files (I had to reduce a file with a load of scanned pages from a 21MB and this came back as 6MB).
- 24/07/2015 at 9:56am #1683
  Central Office
  Keymaster
  Dear members
  
  As we have been receiving a large volume of requests, one of our members has very kindly provided us with their photo sheet which we hope will make inserting your photographs a little easier!
  
  Our member has advised as follows:
  
  The only instruction they need is to use the insert tab on the taskbar of Word DO NOT COPY AND PASTE or it will not work. I insert 6 images at a time by putting the curser in the first box, click the insert key and find the folder where the images are saved. Select the first image, hold down the control key and at the same time click on another five images then tap the insert button. All of the images will appear in the first box, it may take a few seconds for the computer to load them. Move each one to a box on the page.
  
  The headers and footers are completely editable if clerks wish to add their own details.
  
  To download this document, please go to the Essential Reading Page where you will find a link called ‘Photo Sheet’
  
  Hope this helps
  
  Kind regards
  
  Helen Bone
  Central Office
Author

Posts

Viewing 21 reply threads

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.