Before adding photos

Fotopedia Quality Guidelines

At Fotopedia we like great quality photos that document the world. They inspire us to build products with beautiful visual experiences.

The Fotopedia Quality Guidelines shares our high quality requirement. It presents basic criterias that will help you chose photos to add or not to add.

You don't need photos to add photos

Fotopedia enables you to select photos from a large pool of Creative Commons licensed photos which are reusable. You can also reuse photos already in Fotopedia.

If you don't want to add your photos or don't have any to add we make it easy for you to still contribute in a big way.

Set your license by default

To set the default license of the photos you are going to add, go to your profile on the website, and click edit on the left of the header. Set the default license for your photos to the license you prefer.

Changing the license of a photo is difficult. Make sure you get the setting right from the start. This setting will not modify the license of photos you have already added to Fotopedia.

Be objective

Your photo might be great because you took it on this fabulous trip and suddenly the light was so beautiful. You had just a second to take the shot and you made it. Congrats! But is your photo a great illustration for this article?

Adding photos

You have set the license for your photos? You have read the quality chart?

1. Open the article you want to add photos to and click on the photo button with a "+"

The Media Selector opens.

2a. Chose a pool of photos to add photos: yours or the Community pool

 

You can add a photo you have already uploaded to Fotopedia or Flickr and add photos from the Community pool that are already on Fotopedia or under Creative Commons licenses on Flickr. So if you don't have any more great photos to add you can still contribute by adding great photos by other photographers.

Use the search box to filter the photos. This is especially helpful when adding Community Pictures on Flickr or on Fotopedia.

2b. Upload photos of yours

To upload a photo press "Upload Pictures" on the bottom right of the same window.

You can then select one or several photos on your computer. Press "Open" to upload them.

You will see a green progress bar next to the upload button. Don't close the window during the upload.

Once uploaded the photos will be visible in your Fotopedia pictures pool.

3. Select and nominate the best and most relevant

Click on a photo to select/deselect it. You can select up to 5 photosper article. 

To help you choose the right images to add to Fotopedia, the media selector warns you when photos are not big enough for Fotopedia (the red exclamation mark means there is a size problem on this photo and the green tick means you can use it). To avoid this problem, upload photos at their original size.

Once you have chosen great quality photos that are relevant, click on "Nominate pictures" to add them to the article.

You can press the "i" button on the photo at any time in order to see the photo in a larger size and in a new tab.

Daily quota

When you first join Fotopedia you are given a quota of 5 nominations a day. Submit your most beautiful and relevant photos and you will gain nomination quota thanks to our reputation system.

Article quota

You can add up to 5 photos per day per article. Select the best.

 

What happens once I added a photo?

Once you have added a photo to an article, members will vote on your photo, positively and negatively, and give it a score to decide how good it is for that specific article.

Your photo will then fit in one of these 4 scenarios (tip: aim for the first one):

• Congrats your photo made it to the featured photos! Your photo reached a certain score and has been promoted by our editorial team to the featured photos section of the article. It will then be visible on the main section of the article.
• The uncertainty zone. Your photo hasn't made it to the featured photos. Maybe it just needs a little more time or maybe it is good but not enough for the article.
• Negative photos are removed. Ouch! Your photo has a negative score. The community decided it wasn't a good photo for the article. It can happen to the best. Your photo will be removed within a week if the score stays negative. Be aware that this removal is automatic. You won't be informed about it. 
• Please respect the Quality Guidelines! Members can report a photo as inappropriate because it is irrelevant or doesn't respect the Quality Guidelines. Our moderators will check the report and forward it to you when it is correct. Your photo might get automatically removed or the report will ask you to remove it.

 

Removing and deleting photos

Removing and deleting is different in Fotopedia. You can

• Remove a photo from an article. The photo will remain in other articles and in your photos
• Delete a photo definitely. The photo will be removed from all articles and deleted from Fotopedia

Make your choice carefully!

Removing a photo from an article

To remove a photo from an encyclopedia article use the action menu on the left side of the window, and click on  Remove this photo.

This will remove the photo from the article. The photo may still be in other articles. If a photo isn't in any article it will only be visible to you on your profile.

You can remove any photo you added to an article, whether yours of from the community.

If the photo was added by another member, you won't be able to remove it.

Definitely deleting a photo

To definitely delete a photo from Fotopedia got on your photo's page and click "Delete photo" in the "Actions" menu.

Deleting a photo will remove the photo from all articles it belongs to and can't be undone.

To delete all of your photos please contact us.

 

FAQs

Editing the title and description of a photo

The title and description are great to tell people more about a photo and its story. It will also help people find it (the main search criteria being the articles a photo is in).

You can add a description and change the title of your photos from a photo's page. Click on the action menu button and on More details about this photo to get to a photo's page.

When on your photo click on the title or the description and you'll be able to edit it.

Changing the license of a photo

You can change the license of a photo using the client. Open the photo's page in the client with a double click on the photo. Click 'Edit' on the bottom bar. The license field is now editable. Chose the license you prefer and press edit again to exit the edit mode. The license is changed.

Batch changes of licenses are not possible so make sure you set your default license well.

Note on reverting license from Creative Commons to All Rights Reserved

When you set a photo to Creative Commons you should be aware that it is for life. You can change the license back to all rights reserved in the client. Yet anyone who reuses the photo respecting the CC license still has the right to use it and anyone can actually keep reusing it.

How can one become featured curator or photographer on the homepage?

Featured photographers and curators are chosen every month. It is an editorial choice made by the Fotopedia team based on the contributions of the members and their activity during the past month.

How can I add photos to the Fotopedia Heritage application?

The Heritage application is built upon the World Heritage sites project. To have your photo in the application, add it to one of the articles in the project. If the photo is at least 1920x1080 (remember the bigger the better) and makes it to the top, it will be added to the app within a couple of weeks.

Downloading photos

Photos under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded from Fotopedia. There is a download button on the photo's page. Click on the action menu button and on More details about this photo to get to a photo's page.

Download isn't available for All Rights Reserved photos.

Protecting photos

We do our best to stop people from copying all rights reserved photos and to make them respect the license of the photo and the photographer.

You can't for example save the photo or drag and drop it to your desktop. The attribution and license information is always mentioned.

We do our best, but we can't stop all forms of illegal copying and usage of photos.

I joined after seeing some of my Flickr photos were already there

Welcome :-) and thanks for using Creative Commons licenses.

Your Flickr and Fotopedia identities will be automatically merged. Your Flickr photo will be attached to your Fotopedia account once you have entered your Flickr information. To do this click add photos on an article and then select Flickr. It may take up to a week for the photos to be attached to your Fotopedia account. If you want to modify the license on your Flickr photos already on Fotopedia, follow this quick "how to".