California · Bus. & Prof. Code § 10140.8(b)
California’s definition is unusually specific — it names fourteen categories of element by hand. This page classifies every common listing-photo edit against that definition, and says plainly where the statute does not answer the question.
Business and Professions Code § 10140.8(b)(1) defines it as an image created by or at the direction of the broker, salesperson, or person acting on their behalf that has been altered using photo editing software or artificial intelligence to add, remove, or change elements. The statute names fixtures, furniture, appliances, flooring, walls, paint color, hardscape, landscape, facade, floor plans, and elements outside of or visible from the property including streetlights, utility poles, views through windows, and neighboring properties.
Read them together. The definition is broad and the carve-out is narrow, and the carve-out closes with a limiting clause that does most of the work in a hard case.
“Digitally altered image” means an image, created by or at the direction of the real estate broker or salesperson, or person acting on their behalf, that has been altered through the use of photo editing software or artificial intelligence to add, remove, or change elements in the image, including, but not limited to, fixtures, furniture, appliances, flooring, walls, paint color, hardscape, landscape, facade, floor plans, and elements outside of, or visible from, the property, including, but not limited to, streetlights, utility poles, views through windows, and neighboring properties.
— Bus. & Prof. Code § 10140.8(b)(1)
“Digitally altered image” does not include an image where only lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, exposure, or other common photo editing adjustments are made that do not change the representation of the real property.
— Bus. & Prof. Code § 10140.8(b)(2)
The limiting clause is “that do not change the representation of the real property.” It is attached to the carve-out, not to the definition. So an edit is outside the statute only if it is both one of the ordinary adjustments listed and leaves the representation of the property unchanged. A crop is a crop until it crops out the transmission tower on the lot line.
Each row says whether the statute names the element outright or whether the conclusion follows from the general “add, remove, or change elements” language.
| Change to the image | Digitally altered? | Basis in the statute |
|---|---|---|
| Add furniture to an empty room (virtual staging) | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)§ 10140.8(b)(1) names “furniture” among the elements whose addition makes an image a digitally altered image. This is the ordinary virtual staging case and it is squarely inside the definition. |
| Remove furniture or clutter from an occupied room (virtual decluttering) | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)The definition covers images altered to “add, remove, or change elements,” and names furniture. Removing is treated the same as adding. CRMLS states the same conclusion for its own rule: virtually clearing a room of furniture that will not be included at closing is a digitally altered image. |
| Change flooring (carpet to hardwood, retile a bathroom) | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Flooring” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Note the separate MLS question: CRMLS treats changes to a real part of the property that will not match at closing as something not to publish at all, disclosed or not. |
| Change wall paint color | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Walls” and “paint color” are both named in § 10140.8(b)(1), so recolouring a room is covered even though nothing structural moved. |
| Swap or add appliances | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Appliances” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Whether the appliance conveys is a separate contract question; the image question is settled by the definition. |
| Change or add landscaping, grass, or plantings | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Landscape” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Greening a lawn is a change to a named element, not an exposure adjustment. |
| Change hardscape — driveway, patio, walkway | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Hardscape” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Regrading a driveway, adding a patio, or resurfacing a walkway are all changes to a named element. |
| Alter the building facade or exterior finish | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Facade” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Re-siding, re-roofing, or re-colouring the exterior in the image is a covered alteration. |
| Remove utility poles or power lines | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)§ 10140.8(b)(1) expressly reaches “elements outside of, or visible from, the property, including, but not limited to, streetlights, utility poles.” This is one of the clearest lines in the statute and one of the most commonly missed edits. |
| Remove or replace streetlights | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Streetlights” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1), in the same clause that reaches elements outside of, or visible from, the property. |
| Improve or replace the view through a window | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Views through windows” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Adding an ocean or skyline that the window does not actually show is inside the definition — and, separately, is the kind of edit most likely to support a misrepresentation claim. |
| Edit out or obscure a neighboring property | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Neighboring properties” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Blurring or deleting the house next door is a covered alteration, not a cleanup. |
| Alter a floor plan drawing or generate one that does not match the property | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Floor plans” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1), so a plan that has been edited — or generated to a layout the property does not have — is covered. |
| Change fixtures — lighting, faucets, cabinet hardware | Digitally altered | Named in § 10140.8(b)(1)“Fixtures” is named in § 10140.8(b)(1). Fixtures ordinarily convey with the property, which is why swapping them in an image misstates what a buyer is purchasing. |
| Sky replacement | Digitally altered | Not named — follows from the definitionThe statute does not use the phrase “sky replacement.” Replacing the sky adds and removes elements visible from the property, which is what the definition describes, and it is not one of the adjustments listed in the (b)(2) carve-out. Treat it as covered. |
| Add fire to a fireplace or water to a pool | Digitally altered | Not named — follows from the definitionNot named, but these add an element to the image that is not present in the original, which is the definition’s own test. They also change the represented condition of a named fixture. |
| Erase a stain, crack, or visible defect | Digitally altered | Not named — follows from the definitionRemoving a visible element changes the representation of the property, so the (b)(2) carve-out — which applies only to adjustments that “do not change the representation of the real property” — does not reach it. This edit also raises disclosure duties entirely separate from § 10140.8. |
Ordinary photographic adjustments, so long as they do not change the representation of the property. This is the part of the statute that lets normal real estate photography continue without a disclosure on every frame.
| Change to the image | Digitally altered? | Basis in the statute |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness and exposure adjustment | Not a digitally altered image | Named in the § 10140.8(b)(2) carve-out“Lighting” and “exposure” are both named in the § 10140.8(b)(2) carve-out, so long as the adjustment does not change the representation of the property. |
| White balance and color correction | Not a digitally altered image | Named in the § 10140.8(b)(2) carve-out“White balance” and “color correction” are both named in § 10140.8(b)(2). Correcting a colour cast is not the same as recolouring a wall, which is covered. |
| Sharpening | Not a digitally altered image | Named in the § 10140.8(b)(2) carve-out“Sharpening” is named in § 10140.8(b)(2) as one of the common adjustments the definition carves out. |
| Cropping and straightening | Not a digitally altered image | Named in the § 10140.8(b)(2) carve-out“Cropping,” “straightening,” and “angle” are all named in § 10140.8(b)(2). The limit is the same as for every carve-out item: it must not change the representation of the property. A crop that removes the neighbouring structure filling half the lot line is doing more than cropping. |
| Lens-distortion correction and perspective straightening | Ordinarily not a digitally altered image | Not named — follows from the definitionNot named, but it is the same family as the “angle” and “straightening” adjustments the carve-out lists, and it does not change what the property is. Ultra-wide framing that makes a room read materially larger is a different question, addressed by general misrepresentation law rather than by this section. |
| HDR blending or flambient compositing of multiple exposures | Ordinarily not a digitally altered image | Not named — follows from the definitionCombining exposures of the same scene is an exposure and lighting technique of the kind § 10140.8(b)(2) carves out, provided the composite does not add, remove, or change an element. Compositing a different sky or a different window view into the frame does change elements and is covered. |
| Adding a watermark, logo, or the disclosure label itself | Not a digitally altered image | Not named — follows from the definitionAn overlay identifying the image or the brokerage does not add, remove, or change an element of the property. Reading the statute to cover its own required disclosure would be absurd. |
No resource should manufacture certainty here, and § 10140.8 has been in force for months rather than years, with no published interpretation to lean on. These are open.
| Change to the image | Digitally altered? | Basis in the statute |
|---|---|---|
| Rendering a property that has not been built (new construction) | Not expressly addressed | Statute does not address itThe definition describes an image that “has been altered,” which assumes a source photograph. A pure architectural rendering of an unbuilt home is not obviously an altered image. That is a statutory-scope question the section does not answer, and MLS rules address pre-construction imagery directly. Confirm with your broker, your MLS, and counsel before relying on either reading. |
| Removing a person, pet, or car from a photograph | Not expressly addressed | Statute does not address itThe statute lists property elements, not people or vehicles, and the carve-out turns on whether the edit changes the representation of the real property. Removing a parked car arguably does not; removing a car to conceal that the driveway fits only one is a different matter. Where the edit is about the property, treat it as covered. |
For an unusual case, the conservative path is the cheap one: disclose the edit and link the original. The statute never penalises an unnecessary disclosure.
Business and Professions Code § 10140.8(b)(2) excludes images where only lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, exposure, or other common photo editing adjustments are made that do not change the representation of the real property. The final clause is the limit: an adjustment that changes how the property is represented is not excluded, whatever it is called.
Yes, with disclosure. Virtual decluttering is a digitally altered image under Business and Professions Code § 10140.8(b)(1), which names furniture and covers removing as well as adding elements, so it requires the disclosure and the original-image link. CRMLS reaches the same conclusion for its own Rule 11.5.2 where the removed furnishings will not be included at closing.
Under state law, yes with disclosure — flooring, walls, and paint color are all named in Business and Professions Code § 10140.8(b)(1), so the edit is covered and requires disclosure plus the original image. Your MLS may go further: CRMLS instructs subscribers not to publish images that change a real part of the property unless the property will match the image at closing, which is a restriction on publishing, not merely on labelling.
Only as a disclosed alteration, and it is a poor idea. “Views through windows” is named in Business and Professions Code § 10140.8(b)(1), so changing one produces a digitally altered image requiring disclosure and the original. A fabricated view is also among the most direct routes to a misrepresentation claim, because a view is a priced feature a buyer cannot verify from the listing.
A reasonably conspicuous statement on or adjacent to the image saying it has been altered, plus a link, URL, or QR code to the original. The main AB 723 guide has the full requirement list, and the pre-publication checklist is the operational version.
Last reviewed: