Adjusting Cover Photo? Resize, recenter, crop?

[Robert137]

Hi, does anyone have tips on adjusting the cover photo so it shows up properly on the listing page?  I have uploaded six versions of the same photo and each time Airbnb's system stretches it out in a way that ruins the look of the cover photo (cuts out key parts and shows too little of the overall photo).  I have uploaded a 2MB 2448 × 2448 photo and it got recentered/zoomed in on my listing.  So I tried several cropped, adjusted photos and each time Airbnb skewed it in a way that made it look crappy.

Any suggestions or tips?  It would be AWESOME if they had an "adjust" photo or way to customize the photo on the listing... just like Facebook or Twitter has for photos on a profile's landing page.

Thanks,

Rob

Issaquah, WA

[Matt-And-Jeff0]

Hi Rob,
If you're not already doing so, take the photo in landscape or horizontal mode. This is what Airbnb recommends.
Jeff

[Alex202]

I have to say, this new layout makes the photos look appauling, no matter what I upload, the default crop is all wrong. They could at least let us reposition.

[Kurtis3]

+1 the default crop size on cover photos is awful. airbnb, please add functionality that allows re-size/cropping of cover photos.

[David494]

OK I just got this figured out!

After uploading a pic, ABB always crops it to 1024x684 at a 3x2 aspect ratio.

It'll cut off whatever is outside that aspect ratio by the minimum direction (eg if the image is 1200x1200, it'll end up getting cropped to 1200x800, and you'll lose the top and bottom 200 pixel rows.

The cover photo will crop at a wider frame, but again cutting off whatever is outside the aspect ratio in the minimum direction.  I find that the AR for the cover photo on a laptop is between 3x1.1 and 2.1x1.  So for that 1200x1200 image, it'll become 1200x440 to 1200x570, losing the top and bottom again.

If you have wide images and want to keep all the info, you need to fill in the top and bottom so you have the default aspect ratio.  For tall images, fill in the sides to the default aspect ratio before uploading.  So for the 1200x1200, if you want to see it all, make the canvas 1800x1200.

I created a Photoshop template with borders drawn for all the sizes, then I edit a photo there and fit it so it looks good for each view.  This is especially useful for the title image.

Hope this helps.

[Lizzie]

Great information @David494, thanks for looking into this and sharing it here in the Community Center.  🙂

[Ornuma0]

That's it? nothing else?
@David494 is more useful than yours. I thought Airbnb will come and give us some photo cover template. or at least the ratio.

make me start to believe, Airbnb make this new appalling way of showing picture so we can hire their professional photo service they have offer

[Rebecca951]

It is ridiculous that we have to follow complicated technical instructions (but thank you to @David494 ). This is not a solution. The solution is for Airbnb website interface designers to make it easily possible for me to move the photo around. All of my photos look like **bleep**, even the ones I did landscape. This is unacceptable. I do think another user was correct in presuming Airbnb makes it impossible for me to do this myself, so that I will be *forced* to hire their professional photographer. I AM A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER. Fix it. Who is listening? I am LOSING MONEY BECAUSE OF THIS. Nobody wants to rent a casita where all 10 photos are showing the sky and not the casita. This is ridiculous.

[Morgan118]

Hi David, Are you able to send me these photoshop templates? or upload a link for us all to download? 

Many thank,

Morgan,

Lower Barn Farm Glamping.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Robert137 @David494

Cover photo is acctually the first photo in your gallery. It will be croped depends of the size and shape of your browser window and device used. If you resize your window your photo frame/shape will change too. If you have large monitor your cover photo will be blured more than on laptop.

The only thing we can do is to upload sharp, large size, horisontal photos and for cover photo chose one where celing - walls - floor are equaly high and each take arround 1/3 of the photo hight.

[Aidan2]

airbnb still dont seem to have added functionality to choose how your cover photo is displayed.  Appreciate the workaround but we shouldnt have to do this surely !?

[Karen-and-Kym0]

Hi, we are just trying to set up our listing but are having the same challenges sizing photos....

Thank you for all this information but we still can't size any photo to fit our cover page without it blowing out completely and becoming usefuless. We have confirmed all our photo sizes as recommended in the above informtion and are using a landscape format. 

We note the last comments on here are over a year ago, would anyone know if there is any further update or if there is anything more recent please?  

Thank you in advance!

[Rebecca951]

There is no update because Airbnb doesn't give a **bleep**.

[Marc574]

Having same issues as well.

[Elaine318]

OK...it's 2019... and I am wondering too if there are any new developments in this size-ratio discussion?