Geograph - photograph every grid square

Geograph publishes photos that illustrate the geography of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

For the first six years and 2 million images, Geograph contributors have been required to choose a primary geographical category for each of their images. They could either select one from a list or create a new one if what they wanted didn't exist. Some contributors limited themselves to a small number of very general categories (moorland, lake, buildings...) while others preferred to create much more detailed, often unique, categories (church (Roman Catholic) (former), artificial fish farming pool, bat hibernaculum...). The list grew to an unwieldy 9,000 categories, mostly of detailed photograph subjects. The primary geographical categories – which offered a broad-brush way of organising the archive – had got lost.

The system showed its limitations as the archive grew. For example, in this subject-rich photo http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1579473 the short title and description and single category (Watercourse) mean that other features go unrecorded, so will not be picked up in a search. Similarly in http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/716196 the category selected was Lake. A search on Lake would return over 25,000 images – not very useful. The interesting detail in the description would only be found by a very specific search. In a third example http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/514710 the category Artificial fish farming pool is unique, although the image would be found by a search for Fish farm. All these images would of course be seen in browsing their respective gridsquares. Photos with the minimum information will tend to be invisible to searches because searches are text-based. The solution is to enable contributors to choose multiple categories – tags – and one or more primary geographical categories – geographical context - that describe the content of the photo.

Of course, submitter knows best. The new system asks submitters to choose at least one geographical context from a fixed list of 46 very general options. If several of them apply, all their boxes can be ticked. At the same time, detail is encouraged with free-form tags which would previously have cluttered up the category list, and which can now be put to good use in narrowing down searches. So, geographical context and tags together should do all that categories used to, but without their limitations. In the Askern example several context boxes could be ticked: Lake, Village, Open space, Leisure; possibly Mining. From these alone a picture forms in the mind. Tags would fill in details of the birds, the tree, and the vanished historical features. The more information that can be attached to a photo the greater its value to the archive.

[edited by Robin Stott]

(this is referring the 'at most one image from each [...]' option in the 'Advanced Search' function)

The software that drives our search can only at this time return one image from a particular 'group', such as grid square or month. So at this time, can't select multiple images per group.

Also note there is no control over which image is selected, at the moment it's pretty much chosen at random.


Can use the 'Image Browser' (just called 'Browser' in the links on the side) - in the 'Grouped' Mode, can now select multiple images per group. E.g. can get it to show say 4 images per square.
That has much more controls for configuring the sampling.

You can submit all your photos under a pseudonym by changing the name on your Profile http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile.php (link top write on most pages). Note that by doing this, the name will be changed on all photos you have previously submitted from the account. These may already have been used elsewhere, crediting the name originally shown.
You can change the credit on an individual image, for instance if you asked someone else to take it for you, but the name on your profile will still be shown on the photo page and the photographer name will still link back to your profile.
You can open another account under a pseudonym but this will need to be done from a different email address and you will have to take care which account you are signed in with before submitting, making changes or posting in the forums.

Open the folder containing the images you want to upload but resize it so it doesn't cover the whole of your screen, you need to be able to see the box on the page below you are going to drag-and-drop into. Select* the images you wish to upload then click on one of them and, keeping the mouse button pressed, drag it to the box on the webpage. Then click ["Start Upload"].
* If you want to upload all images in the folder Ctrl+a will select them all. To select a group of adjacent images click the first and, while holding down the Shift key, click the last. To select by individual image highlight each by clicking on it while holding down the Ctrl key.
NOTE: there is a limit of 100 files in any one upload and each file must be smaller than 8MB.

Geograph is primarily for documentary photographs, not works of art. If your photos clearly show the subject, are well-lit, straightened-up, in focus and if possible visually appealing, you're doing fine. In the Collections area of the site there are many examples: see any of the 'Stellar examples' in Themed topics and illustrations of Geographical context at http://www.geograph.org.uk/tags/primary.php

Light
Generally speaking, sunshine gives best results, but time of day and time of year impart their own qualities to a photo. In bright summer light in the middle of the day, subjects are unavoidably top-lit, often reflective, while shadows are short, intense and below the subject. In the early morning and from late afternoon the sun is lower in the sky, subjects may be side-lit, the light is less harsh and shadows may be attractively long, revealing the form of objects they lie across. Similar conditions prevail in the middle of the day in the winter months. Photographing into the light is not recommended. 'Contre-jour' effects are expressive but may not convey much geographical information. Sometimes, however, you should ignore advice such as this and just respond to the subject and the conditions. For very bright surroundings such as snow, beaches and expanses of rock or concrete, consult your user guide.

Shadow
Subjects and scenes in shadow may sometimes have to be photographed "ready or not". The sun goes in or clouds merge. Pointing the camera more towards the ground will make auto-exposure adjust for a darker subject. If you prefer more control you can change the camera settings: look in your user guide for topics such as 'ISO speed', 'Metering mode' and 'Exposure compensation'. There may be less control with a camera phone: photos taken in poor light are likely to be dark or dull. To salvage something from a disappointing photo, see the answer to the question 'How can I improve a photo?' On the other hand dull days provide opportunities for photographing other subjects, such as details. Exploit the 'flat' light with zoom shots of distant subjects.

Night photography
Photographs taken at night are often classified as supplementals. That is fine; they can reveal geographic and cultural realities not evident during the day. There may be multiple light sources. Again, consult your camera's user guide. Experiment — and stay safe.

edited by Robin Stott

You can use multi-submit as your submission procedure http://www.geograph.org.uk/submit-multi.php , which allows you to upload up to 20 images in one go by dragging them into tab A. You can upload multiple batches of images using this procedure. Once all your uploads are finished, switch to either of the two 'B' tabs, depending on whether you prefer the remaining three steps of the submission process (locate, describe, license) on separate pages (version 1) or on a single page per picture (version 2). In tab B, select one image at a time and complete the submission process as usual. You've got a week to fill in the details and license your images before they disappear from multi-submit.

Instead of switching each time, you can set your preferred submission method in your profile http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile.php?edit=1 .

Certainly - the points system is there to encourage people to make that extra effort to capture squares we don't have photos for yet, but we welcome additional images, perhaps showing a different subject, or a different time of year. You could be gaining yourself a personal point too.

Everyone sees things differently - feel free to give us your take on any square. Some squares have been done in considerable detail, helping to more fully document and add depth to a square. In particular, watch out for things others may have missed - the coverage maps can help with this.

Long term, multiple images taken at different times, even of the same subject, help to document change or the lack thereof.