| PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A few general notes about photos:
1) Note that copyright for all photos on E-Fauna BC remains with the photographer.
2) Note that at E-Fauna BC we do not provide permissions to use photos. All photos come with a contact form so that inquiries about permissions can be sent directly to the photographer.
3) Note that all photos that appear in the E-Fauna BC photo galleries are automatically reduced in resolution and number of pixels per inch as an aid to discouraging photo theft (maximum resolution of 600 by 600 pixels).
For more information about photos on E-Fauna BC, see the Photography Page and our Photo Use FAQs.
General Info
I have forgotten my password, what do I do?
How can I correct or update one of my photos?
How do I find out the Photo ID Number of my photo?
How can I keep track of my photo submissions on your site?
Creating digital images
Which image formats do you accept?
Which color mode should I use?
How can I improve the quality of my scanned photos?
Is there someone who can scan my slides for me?
What software can I use to adjust my digital photos?
How do I resize my photos?
Uploading photos
What's the maximum size photo I can upload?
I get an error when I try to upload the image, what does this mean?
The image starts uploading but never completes
The upload form doesn't seem to work
Taxon, types and other descriptive
text
Why do I need to provide descriptive data about my photos?
What should I enter for the "habitat" field?
What's up with the "Type of Photo" field for plants?
Why is the wrong common name being displayed with my
photo?
I have forgotten my password, what do I do?
If you've forgotten your password,
please send us an email and we'll reply back shortly.
How can I keep track of my photo submissions on your site?
You can view all of the photos you
have previously uploaded to the site by logging
in and then clicking on the "edit my photos " button on the photo upload page.
How can I correct
or update one of my photos?
If you want to correct something in
the photo details of your photo, or add additional information
to the details, this is easy. Log in using your password and user name, and then click on the "edit my photos " link at the top of the photo upload page. Click on the photo
you wish to edit and this will take you to the photo editing page. Edit as needed and then click on "submit'.
If you
to delete one of your photos, we will need to do
that for you. Please send us an email with the photo
ID number of the photo you wish to have deleted.
If you want to replace one of your photos with a better
shot, or if a photo you uploaded was incorrect, please
simply submit the new photo with all the correct info,
and then send us an email with the Photo ID for the incorrect
photo so we can delete it.
How do I find out
the Photo ID Number of my photo?
The Photo ID Number is found with each thumbnail in the photo gallery. Use this number when refering to a specific photo.
What's the maximum
size photo I can upload?
There is no limit to the size of photo you can upload into our databases. However, note that it takes a long time to upload oversized photos, and your web browser may time out before the entire image is uploaded. If this happens, you will get an error message. We recommend that you upload smaller images to prevent this problem.
The maximum dimension
for a displayed image on E-Fauna is 600 by 600 pixels. If you
upload a photo that is larger than 600 by 600 pixels,
our computers automatically reduce the size. So there is no advantage to uploading larger images.
We have restricted the displayed dimensions of the images on E-Fauna in order
to prevent unauthorized use or theft of the images (that is,
while they display nicely on a computer screen, they
cannot be used for print publications).
Which image formats
do you accept?
Photos uploaded to E-Flora BC can be
in a variety of formats, including .jpg, .jpe, .jpeg,
.bmp, .gif, .img and .png. Unfortunately we cannot accept
Kodak Photo CD files (.pcd) as this time. However, there
are programs (available for free) that can convert PCD
files into a format that we do accept (see Is there someone who can scan my slides for me? below for details).
Which color
mode should I use?
Images must use RGB color mode - this
is the only color mode that web browsers can handle. For
example, CMYK color mode is often used for high-quality
printing, and PhotoShop will create and display CMYK images,
but color information may be lost in web browsers.
How can I improve
the quality of my scanned photos?
Most of our current contributors are
using high quality digital cameras, and these produce
the best results when viewed on a web page. However we
do have some contributors with photo collections from
the days before digital cameras. Here are some of the
problems we have seen with scanned photos:
scanned prints vs. scanned slides
or negatives
We recommend not scanning prints because it usually results
in a poor quality digital photo. If you have slides or
negatives available, scan those instead, or have them
converted to Kodak PhotoCD at a photo lab. . If scanned prints are the only way
you can provide photos, you may be able to improve the
quality by increasing the resolution of the scan. Never
enlarge the size of a digital photo once it's been scanned
-- this will make the resolution even worse by stretching
out the pixels.
high-end scanner vs. econo-model
In general, the better the scanner, the better the resulting
digital photo will be. If you don't want to invest in
a high-end scanner, and you have high quality slides that
you'd like to include in E-Flora BC, there are several
options available - see Is there someone who can scan my slides for me?
below.
flatbed scanner with transparency
unit vs. film/slide scanner
Transparency units for flatbed scanners often result in
blurry photos with poor contrast. Slide scanners produce
better scans. An example of a slide scanner is Nikon's
Coolscan series.
too much compression
Another possible problem is compressing the digital photos
too much, and reducing the quality of the photo in the
process. Most photographers upload photos that are in
the range of 50-200KB for the enlargement size (not the
thumbnail). If your large format JPEG is less than 50KB
you may be compressing it too much.
too much correction to color, contrast,
etc.
We don't recommend doing any correction to digital photos
using your scanner software or an application like PhotoShop.
This often can make the photo look even worse. We find
that even if the "correction" corrects one part of a photo,
another part will look oddly colored or fuzzy. If your
scanner yields a much darker photo than what you scanned,
you might try lightening them a bit, but it's usually
best to make no other adjustments.
Is there someone
who can scan my slides for me?
We do not scan photos for you. If you can't or don't want to scan
your slide collection yourself, here are some options:
Kodak PhotoCD: Most photo labs
can scan your slides using Kodak PhotoCD technology and
put them on a CD. This produces a very high quality digital
photo. You will need
to convert them to JPEG format using software like PhotoShop
before you upload them to E-Flora BC. The free program
IrFanView can
batch convert PCD files to JPEG files, and is the program
we use at E-Flora BC to convert PCD files.
What software
can I use to adjust my digital photos?
There are several applications that
can be used to make changes to digital photos. The one
most commonly used is Adobe's PhotoShop. You can download
a free trial version with limited functionality by going
to the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/. The free version
will allow you to do simple functions such as changing
the image's size or converting it from one format to another.
Two other free programs that are extensively used (and
have many features) are IrfanView
and GIMP.
Additionally, Flickr offers editing capabilities for your photo via PICNIC. See How can I improve the quality of my scanned photos?
above.
How do I resize
my photos?
You can use the free trial
version of PhotoShop to change the size of your photos.
These instructions apply to both the free limited version
as well as to the full version:
go to "Image"
go to "Image size..."
change the height or width there
I get an error
when I try to upload the image, what does this mean?
When you are unable to upload a photo, the usual problem is that your image
is of an unacceptable format or is too large to upload quickly before timeout occurs. Convert your file name, and/or reduce the size of the image you are uploading. See What's the maximum size photo I can upload?.
The image
starts uploading but never completes
The problem may be that your image
is too large for us to receieve, and/or your network connection is relatively
slow. For example, if you are on a dial-up connection or are using a cable modem during
high-traffic hours this could slow the uploading process. It might take a very long time for
the image to transfer over to our server. In the worst
case, your web browser might "time out" while waiting
for the image to transfer. Try reducing the size of your
image, or wait to upload it during off-peak hours, or
try uploading from a friend's computer that has a faster
internet connection.
The upload form
doesn't seem to work
It is possible that some web browser
will not work with our upload form; for example, Firefox, Internet
Explorer and Netscape work as far as we know, so please
use one of these if you are experiencing difficulties
in uploading your images.
If nothing happens when you click on
the Submit button, and other links don't work either,
then your browser may have entered a fugue state! We don't
know why it happens but we've had the experience before
too. The only thing to do is to exit from Firefox, Netscape or
IE ( File->Exit ) and then fire it up again.
Contact us if you are having difficulties.
Why do I
need to provide descriptive data about my photos?
When you upload a photo, we ask that
you provide details such as the year the photo was taken,
the location, and a taxon. This is partly because the
photos are managed by a database, so we need some text
information ("metadata") to be able to store the photos
and retrieve them later.
However, a more important reason is that the photo database
has many different uses, and we want to be able to support
the widest possible variety of uses. Many scientists who use the photos are very
interested in the location information. They appreciate
specific location descriptions such as "Trout Lake" and
"Okanagan Valley" rather than the more general "British
Columbia". Also the month the photo was taken has meaning.
For birds, for example, some species are more likely encountered during summer months, and vice versa, and it is very useful to know the exact data for photos of nestlings and eggs. Precise location information (coordinates) are used to map species occurences.
Why is
the wrong common name being displayed with my photo?
Generally there are no accepted common names for some species, and where common names are commonly used, sometimes these vary from location to location. Some interest groups, however, have attempted to standardize common names used, and where these available, we generally follow them.
What should
I enter for the "habitat" field?
The habitat field is a free-form
field and you may enter whatever short description you
think best applies to your photo. There is no a standard
list of habitats. Most photographers enter one or two
words to describe the habitat, such as "hemlock forest"
or "coastal waters" or "desert", but detailed descriptions are useful.
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