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Taking Custom Pictures (Walk-ins) for eSIS

eSIS photo format requirements

  • Resolution 400 x 528 -or- 240 x 320
  • 24 BPP
  • 96 dpi
  • File size 26.39 kb (Approx).
  • No jpg quality compression
  • File type JPEG
  • Baseline JPEG format
  • File format must be <student_id_number>.jpg - lowercase extension required. Example: 123456.jpg
  • For eSIS upload, one or more cd’s of all the district student photos in a single directory on the cd. (for Vendors only)

When using a digital camera for taking eSIS photos keep in mind that the photos should be in portrait format. Some digital cameras have a portrait mode that basically resizes or crops the edges of the display to only capture a portrait sized photograph without having the move the camera. If your camera does not have this type of feature, you can try turning the camera 90 degrees and taking the picture this should keep the photo in portrait mode. If you still can’t get the pictures to come out the way you want, you can use software to post process the image and crop it to the correct size.

All the size information above is how Lifetouch adjusts their images for eSIS loading. The 400 x 528 pixel size is the preferred size, however we have found that 240 x 320 works well, just not quite as clear. When it comes to clarity of the pictures, the amount of pixels is your biggest component.

Most cameras have preset pixel size and resolution settings, and some are adjustable. Try to find the settings on your camera and get them to match a 400x528 pixel size as best you can. You can crop the images later if you can’t get them in this exact size, remember always take the picture in a higher pixel setting and crop down, don’t take the picture in 240x320 and scale up using software later.

Software to use: Most cameras come with some sort of software package, usually not very good, but effective for getting the pictures off of the camera and onto the computer. You can optionally use Photoshop or some OEM flavor of Photoshop to resize and crop pictures and get them cleaned up how you like. However, Photoshop (full version) is really expensive and kind of overkill for something like this. If you have Photoshop LE or something like it, you can usually do most of the same features at minimal or no cost.

A Mac shareware application can be used, GraphicConverter X v5.4 - www.lemkesoft.com

This has most of the features of Photoshop and some the Photoshop doesn’t have like cataloging and some unique batch processing features at a fraction of the Photoshop prices. Gimp is an open source image processor as well and has lots of features like Photoshop. I think it is a little slower at processing files, but that is my opinion, the nice thing is that it is free! Can’t argue with that. GIMP can run on a Mac or PC. Also on a PC you can use Paint which comes free with the operating system.

Here are the basic steps:

  1. Find the settings on your camera that work best for the esis size we talked about earlier.
  2. Take the portrait picture(s)
  3. Load the picture(s) to your computer using the cable or card reader for you camera / smart card
  4. If you have the picture in a the size that eSIS needs, simply rename the files to the student id format mentioned earlier and send them to me in email
  5. If you have to do some post-processing with software to get them in the correct size, resize the image and save it with the correct student id number format mention earlier, then send them to me in email

Example Steps with Paint:

  1. Take the portrait picture (by turning the camera sideways) with a resolution setting of 1280 x 960
  2. Offload the picture to your computer
  3. Open the picture with Paint
  4. Select Image -> Rotate so that image is right side up
  5. Select Image -> Stretch and enter 41% for both vertical and horizontal
  6. Save the image as student#.jpg (ex. 123456.jpg)