SiteCapture offers an array of options for configuring photo quality; this allows you to customize your own compression and resolution settings to meet the needs of your workflow.
Photo Quality and Sync Times
When a user captures a photo on their SiteCapture app, it gets sent back to your microsite and vice versa when the user first opens a project. This process is called syncing. The higher quality a photo is, the more time it will take to sync.
Learn more about Syncing here: Syncing, Sync Status Screen, and Sync Settings
Changing a Field's Resolution Setting
You may have certain fields that need extra clear photos, such as labels or serial numbers. In your templates, you have the option to set the photo quality of individual fields. To do this, you will need to modify your template in the template editor, for more information on how to use the template editor, see these articles:
Navigate to the template editor and select the field you wish to include high res photos for. Click the drop-down menu next to 'Photo Resolution' and select the desired setting.
Lowest: 640px, This is a good setting for photos where fine detail is not necessary. If a field needs many angles taken of a single object or area this setting will do a lot to reduce loading times.
Low: 1024px, This setting will capture more detail than Lowest, making it ideal for situations in which the Lowest setting is too blurry but fine detail still is not needed.
High: 2048px, Use the High setting when fine details need to be captured such as house numbers or a close up on a label.
Highest: 4096px, If you still need more detail in your photos than the High setting, you will want to set the field to 'Highest'. This is the setting you would use if trying to capture a lot of detailed information in one photo, such as multiple serial numbers or a document such as a utility bill.
By default, newly created fields will be set to 'High'.
How to See the New Resolution Settings on Your Projects
Once you've set the new resolution settings on your template, you will need to publish the template (see: Managing Templates). If you have any existing work that needs to be updated to the new resolution settings, you will need to follow the steps outlined in the Managing Templates article to copy the existing project to the new template. Please know that the existing photos within the project will not be updated to a higher resolution and will need to be re-taken if necessary.
Before your mobile users will be able to add the photos with the new resolution settings, they will first need to refresh their app's configuration. Below are articles for both iOS and Android with instructions on how to accomplish this, you can send these articles directly to your users:
Once you have ensured that your projects have been created from the latest template version and that your mobile users have refreshed their configuration, they can start taking photos in the project with the updated resolution settings.
Viewing Photos at Full Resolution
You may notice that in the SiteCapture mobile and web-app that photos look blurry even when the resolution is set to high or highest. This is because you are viewing a thumbnail of the real photo instead of the original full quality version. To view the full quality photo on the web app, go to the photo viewer and click on the "open image in a new tab" icon. The high res photo will open up in another window.
To see how to enable full resolution on photos in PDF Reports, please see this guide:
Compression Settings
When photos are uploaded to SiteCapture, they are automatically compressed to reduce sync times. This is separate from your photo's resolutions, and cannot be adjusted on a per-field basis. If you have followed all of the aforementioned steps and the quality of your photos is still too low, you can adjust your compression settings to increase quality.
- To set photo compression on your microsite, click the gear icon and select Settings
- Scroll down to Mobile Photos>Compression photo quality.
- Select the drop-down under Compression photo quality.
Lowest - 0: This is the highest level of compression, meaning the lowest photo quality. Fine details captured at this level of compression will be hard to read.
Standard - 20: Microsites are automatically set to this compression level, this keeps sync times low while still allowing for readable detail on most photos.
Medium - 50: This level allows for finer detail while still keeping sync times relatively low, if you are running into issues with readability try this level.
High - 80: For extremely fine details like small print, this setting should allow for clear photos while keeping reasonable sync times.
Higher - 90 & Highest - 100: These levels of compression will further increase clarity and sync times, this can be used if extraordinary clear photos are needed. We recommend only using these compression settings temporarily when needed.
FAQ
What's the difference between resolution and compression settings?
Resolution is set per field in the template editor and controls how much detail is captured in that field's photos. Compression is a single, account-wide setting under Mobile Photos that applies to every photo synced to your microsite and can't be adjusted per field.
Which resolution setting should I use for something like a house number or label?
High (2048px). Reserve Highest (4096px) for fields that need to capture a lot of detailed information in one photo, like multiple serial numbers or a utility bill, since it adds the most sync time.
Why do my photos still look blurry in the app even with a high resolution setting?
You're likely viewing a thumbnail rather than the original file. On the web app, open the photo viewer and click the "open image in a new tab" icon to see the full quality version.
Will existing photos update automatically if I raise a field's resolution setting?
No. Existing photos in a project won't be updated to the new resolution. You'll need to copy the project to the updated template and re-take any photos that need the higher quality.
What do mobile users need to do before they can use a new resolution setting?
They need to refresh their app's configuration first. See the iOS or Android Refresh Configuration articles for instructions you can send directly to your field users.
What's the default compression setting on a microsite?
Standard (20). It keeps sync times low while still keeping most photos readable.
Best Practices
- Check Resolution Settings for PDF Report. The resolution and compression settings in this article control what's captured and stored in SiteCapture, but PDF Reports have their own photo settings that determine what is generated. When file size or a downstream reviewer's ability to read fine detail matters, check both settings together to ensure that the correct quality is being used for reports. See PDF Report Configuration for the report-side settings.
- Capture photos within the SiteCapture mobile app rather than importing them from elsewhere. Imported photos may already be compressed or resized before upload, which produces inconsistent quality no matter how the field's resolution setting is configured.
- If the default Standard (20) compression setting isn't giving you clear enough detail, move to High (80) before trying Higher or Highest. High (80) offers a noticeably clearer result without a meaningful sync-time cost, and Higher/Highest are better reserved for occasional, temporary use given their bigger impact on file size and sync time.
- When exporting or downloading photos in bulk (ZIP), make sure the high-resolution option is selected when needed. Otherwise, the export defaults to lower-quality versions regardless of what resolution and compression settings were used to capture them.
Comments