Every edit page has an MLS disclosure control, and it is set to Off by default. It offers two labels, Digitally Altered and Virtually Staged, and one of them can be on at a time. Pick one before you apply and the result is saved with that label and a disclosure stamp burned into the image itself, so it travels with the file through every download and share. Left off, nothing is labeled.
Because the default is off, the decision is yours on every edit. Disclosure rules vary by market and by board, so check what your MLS requires and turn it on for the edits that need it. Virtual staging is the usual case.
The stamp on the photo is not the whole job. Most boards ask for the disclosure as text in the listing, in the photo description field, and a mark burned into the picture does not fill that field for you. Our label travels with the file. Typing the disclosure where your MLS asks for it is still yours to do.
The California statute. Assembly Bill 723 added section 10140.8 to the Business and Professions Code. It asks a broker or salesperson who puts a digitally altered image in an advertisement to include a statement that the image was altered, plus a link, URL, or QR code to the unaltered original, and where they run the website, to include the unaltered version in the posting. The statute separates the two kinds of editing. Adding, removing, or changing fixtures, furniture, appliances, flooring, walls, paint color, landscape, facade, or the view through a window falls under it. Lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, and exposure do not, so long as they do not change how the property is represented. You can read the text at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
How one MLS has written it up. CRMLS covers this under Rule 11.5.2 and publishes its own guidance. Three things in it are worth knowing. The original unaltered photo belongs in the listing right before or right after the altered one. The label goes in the photo description field, and CRMLS states plainly that a watermark on the image is not what it wants. And breaking the rule brings a warning first, then a 250 dollar fine if it is not put right. CRMLS also does not allow AI-generated landscaping in the MLS at all. Other boards write their own rules, so read the ones covering your market.
Virtual staging only ever adds furniture and decor. Walls, floors, windows, ceilings, and every architectural detail come through identical to the source photo, and so does the camera position, so the room you are showing stays the room that exists.
Custom Edit is the exception worth flagging. It is the one place you can change the property itself rather than just dress it, which is the point of it. Treat those edits as disclosure candidates by default.