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Connect Moderator

How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Hi there, as a Connect Moderator one of the most common things I help people with is that they notice that either

  • their points don't match their photo/video contributions
  • their photos/videos are no longer visible on Maps

Let me start with what you should do

  • Contribute great photo/video content
  • Pay attention to the look of the photos/video and ensure that they properly represent the place
  • Use some of the basic photography/videography guidelines (there are some great posts here on Connect) to ensure that your images/videos are of reasonable quality - no-one expects you to be Ansel Adams, Julius Shulman or Berenice Abbott but you should do your best
  • Make sure your camera lens is actually clean - this might sound funny, but most of us use our phones and they live in our pockets and quickly get dirty
  • Keep in mind the basics such as avoiding people where possible

First up, familiarise yourself with the Maps Community Contributed Content Policy in the Help Centre. Anything that violates this policy will be removed either because someone flagged it or it came through the normal review channels. I won't repeat that material here. The policy changes from time to time so keep it bookmarked for your reference.

 

It's ok to have some not so great images some of the time, but not all of the time.

 

Secondly, don't be click happy, in the case of photos and videos, less is always better. An average place (shop, park, business) needs only two or three images to properly convey the feel of the place and to help people find it.

  • The public entrance (make sure its clear and unobscured - not much use if its hiding behind a truck or bus)
  • The ambience inside
  • Products

When people ask for general help or ask me directly I usually ask for a link to their Local Guides profile for me to look at their contributions to get a feel for how they're contributing. This helps me to tailor some help directly for them. The kinds of things that I look out for that impact on someones quality or even in time their ability to actually add new material:

  • Photos/videos taken from a distance or from a car while driving - these are rarely useful or helpful (note an exception to this is the new Street View initiative which exactly works this way)
  • Photos clearly copied from a website or magazine
  • Blurry our out of focus images/videos
  • Tens if not hundreds of images/videos of the same place
  • Lots of contributions made in very short time frames

I'm not going to include any examples of poor contributions because I don't want to call anyone out. At the very least this sort of contribution doesn't help anyone, at the worst they could lead to restrictions on the ability to contribute new material from that Local Guide.

 

Always ask yourself, is what I'm about to post actually going to help someone or is just for the points. If it's just for the points, then I'd suggest that you have a think about it. People who rocket up in the points certainly get noticed in a hurry! The whole point of Local Guides from a community perspective is to help each other and make Maps the best product it can be for all of us.

 

At this point I'll give you some examples of good contributions not because their photographic genius (they're not) but because they're helpful - I'm going to use my own but only because I want to avoid violating anyone's privacy. I'm not an angel and at times I have contributed some images that I probably should have had a second think about so when you wander through my profile I'll bet you find some.... anyway here are a few that I reckon are helpful

  • This image of the inside garden at Gallery 314 is included because passers by would never see it and people thinking of hiring the venue might like to use the garden
  • At The Fish Market Burger Bar and Grill its obvious they have burgers, but they also have lovely fresh seafood - the image isn't a gem of a composition but it shows the freshness
  • Spencer's Store in Gembrook is a warm friendly ecclectic welcoming old world feel cafe this inside image shows you the ambience well and even that they've got a high chair
  • Recently I was shopping for a new couch, this inside shot at Plush shows how they lay things out and what styles of furniture you might expect there 
  • One thing that can be cool, if you've got special access to a place (I volunteer on this railway) and the place is ok with you sharing it can be great to show people what goes on behind the scenes that they can't normally get to
  • Another cool aspect is that if you get a high angle others can't generally get to it can help people find their way around an entire site like this one of the San Francisco Ferry Building which was shot from the deck of the Google offices in San Francisco
  • Sometimes an image is needed of the mundane, one of the most common questions of a camp ground is what connections are there in this one of Anthony Chabot Campground near Oakland in California you can see that they have sewer, potable water and power
  • While we're on campgrounds, sometimes it is important to share what the website or brochure doesn't mention - like this one in Oakhurst which is across the weed choked creek from a works depot where they start moving machinery and trucks at 5am - I would have loved to have known that little gem before I booked
  • Useful things like photos of toilets on a hike trail can be handy when you're in a hurry and need to know not only where it is, but what it looks like as you sprint for the finish
  • It can be useful to show what kind of activity happens in a public space like this guy climbing a cliff at Yosemite Falls - if you believed the signs you'd never try this
  • Judging by view counts people care more about the quality of the walking surface and amenities at Glacier Point than they do about the scenery!
  • When you're showing an image of a commonly photographed landmark give photographers an idea of what they can expect - show it during the day and after dark
  • One last thing you never know what will chock up the views but the 102K people who checked out the Cheeky Squire pub bar shot certiainly seem to like the place

One thing I have noticed when looking for images to share is that I've got a bad habit of leaning to the left when shooting indoors. I'll have to pay more attention to that so it doesn't happen anymore.

 

Regards Paul

34 comments
Level 10

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Excellent, Paul, thanks a lot for sharing your tips! 

 


@PaulPavlinovich wrote:

...

One thing I have noticed when looking for images to share is that I've got a bad habit of leaning to the left when shooting indoors. I'll have to pay more attention to that so it doesn't happen anymore.

 


I also have this bad habit (although both leaning to the left and right). So I have got used to shooting a bit bigger picture (leaving some space around) and only sharing photos from the desktop later. In Google Photos, I straighten the image, crop if needed, add some filter (usually "automatic" will do) and upload to the maps that way.

Level 6

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Awesome Post and very informative...

One thing that might help others to take a better photo or to adjust it for a better presentation is the understanding of the "Rule of thirds".

This does not have to be done at the time of capturing and can be modified later before uploading.

Connect Moderator

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Great useful tips @PaulPavlinovich thanks for sharing with us.

About me | Guiding Star 2020 | Guiding Star 2020 |  | Follow me on Instagram & Follow me on Maps |   | Happy to Help


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Connect Moderator

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

That works @Csaba 🙂 

 

Connect Moderator

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Indeed @RaveWolf knowing rule of thirds (or more importantly when to break it) is one of the cornerstones of good photography. There are so many keys to good photography that I deliberately avoided those items to keep a focus on Maps. There are awesome free photography tutorials that people can undertake such as

Or you can just join a camera club or online community like Photograph Melbourne.

 

On the lead up to the 2018 "36 Walk" I'll be posting a series of articles for beginners here on Connect.

 

Regards Paul

 

Level 10

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Connect Moderator

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Level 8

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

+1 on pinning this.  
Super informative.   and something I have frequently been wondering about,  you put words on a lot of things here.  thank you.

Level 7

Re: How to contribute photos and videos AKA How to avoid removal of your photos and videos

Thanks for great tips.