How can I get a list of all the photos I've submitted?
What is my "bio" page? Where is it? How do I correct it?
Every photographer for CalPhotos has a biographical page so that
users can get a little information about the photographer who took the
photo they are viewing. Most photographers entered their own biographical
information
when they signed up to submit photos. For others, the organization that
contributes photos on their behalf, such as the California Academy of
Sciences, entered the biographical data.
To get to your bio page, either click on your
name on the Detail page for one of your photos or do a query to the CalPhotos Contributor
Database.
If you want to update or correct information on your bio page,
log in, then click on update photographer account.
Many photographers have given us photos of themselves to include on their
bio page. We think this is nice for our users, since it makes the photo database
more personal. If you'd like us to include your photo, email it to us. If you want to
change your photo, please email us the new photo you'd like to use.
How can I get my password?
If you've forgotten your password, go to the log in page, click "Forgot your password?",
type your email address you used when you registered for a CalPhotos account, and press "send email." You'll
receive an automated email with a link to reset your password.
If you no longer have access to the email account you used when you registered with CalPhotos,
send us an email
and we'll reset your password.
How can I get a list of all the photos I've submitted?
There are different ways to do this, depending on what you want and how
many photos you've contributed. Here are a few examples:
Find out the total number of photos you've contributed
Check your "bio" page; it has a count of total photos. It is updated nightly,
so the photos you sent in today will not be there. See above for how to
get to your bio page.
View all photos you've contributed
You can use any of the CalPhotos forms. Select your name from the list
of photographers. For example: All photos, Plants, Animals.
Or you can go to your "bio" page (see above) and click on View all photos.
Just view a list of the photos you've contributed (not the photos)
This is a good option if you have contributed a lot of photos and you don't want to page
through them 12 at a time. You want to use the Custom Query form here:
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/custom.html
Here are some examples of lists you can get using the custom query form:
(1) get a text list of all photos I've submitted
Under "Query options": Photographers - select your name
click Search
(2) get a list of photos I've submitted since Nov 1, 2002:
Under "Query options": Photographers - select your name, Index date - type "2002-11-02"
click Search
(3) get a list of all my photos sorted first by submission date, then by taxon:
Under "For text display: choose fields ...": select index_date as one of the fields to display (taxon is already there)
Under "Sort results first by": choose index_date then by taxon
click Search
Note: if you want to see the photos too, check Display results as photos at the top
How can I correct or update one of my photos?
If you want to correct something in the text description, change the
name of the plant or animal, or add additional
information about the photo:
- Make sure you're logged in.
- Go to the Detail page of the photo you'd like to edit.
- Click on the "Edit Image" link to the right of the photo thumbnail (see screen shot).
How do I delete one of my photos?
If you want to delete one of your photos:
- Make sure you're logged in.
- Go to the Detail page of the photo you'd like to delete.
- Click on the "Edit Image" link to the right of the photo thumbnail (screen shot).
- At the top of the next page you'll see a link to delete the image.
How do I replace one of my photos?
If a photo you uploaded was incorrect, or you want to replace it for
some other reason:
- Make sure you're logged in.
- Go to the Detail page of the photo you'd like to delete.
- Click on the "Edit Image" link to the right of the photo thumbnail (screen shot).
- At the top of the next page click on the "Need to replace this photo?" link near the top of the page.
Note that sometimes after you've
replaced the photo you may still see the old photo. This is because
your browser has cached (saved) the old image and is not loading the
new one from the server. Make sure your browser is not loading
the image from its cache.
How do I find out what the 16-digit Photo ID is?
The 16-digit Photo ID can be found on the "detail" page for each photo.
Use one of the query forms to find the photo(s) you are interested in,
and then click on more information under the photo. This will
bring up that photo's detail page. The ID is at the top, to the right of
the thumbnail.
What's the maximum size photo I can upload?
You can upload any jpeg under 25 MB. As of 2018, you have the option
of storing high resolution jpegs in CalPhotos. If your jpeg is larger than 1200 pixels
in width or height, you'll see this option after you initially upload the image:
Keep and display
high resolution
version of this image?
It is set to "no" by default; change it to "yes" if you'd like the high resolution
image to be saved.
Which image formats do you accept?
Photos uploaded to CalPhotos must be in JPEG format.
Which color mode should I use?
Images must use RGB color mode -
this is the only color mode that web browsers can handle. Of the different RGB choices,
sRGB is best for web viewing.
CMYK color mode is often used for high-quality printing, and PhotoShop
will create and display CMYK images, but web browsers can not display CMYK images.
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. Or, spring for a digital camera.
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 CalPhotos, 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?
If you can't or don't want to scan your slide collection yourself, here
are some options:
California Academy of Sciences donation:
You can make a tax-deductable donation of your slide collection to the California Academy of Sciences'
slide library and they will permanently store them, index them, and make them available digitally.
The Academy has
contributed more than 62,000 photos to the CalPhotos database, and continues to add
more each year.
See Academy Library on the Academy's website or contact
the California Academy librarians
here.
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 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. Note we don't recommend that you make other adjustments
to your photos such as the color, sharpness, contrast, etc. 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:
change the height or width there
The image starts uploading but never completes
The problem may be that your image is very large and your network connection
is relatively slow, such as a dial-up connection or a cable modem at high-traffic
hours.
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" 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.
Why do I need to provide descriptive data about my photos?
When you upload a photo, we ask that you provide at minimum the year
the photo was taken, the location, and a taxon for photos of
plants, animals, etc. 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 novice users access the photos using
the common name, so it's helpful if you can provide one, and we will
try to get one from ITIS, AmphibiaWeb, or some other source. Novice users
are particularly interested in seeing informational notes
about your photo that you add using the "Photographer's Notes" field.
A photo of a toad is more meaningful
to a grade-schooler working on a homework assignment if you added a
note that the toad was found under a rock by a pond, and that it is
shown calling in the photo.
Many scientists who use the photos are very interested in the location
information. They appreciate specific location descriptions such as
"Tilden Park" and "Contra County County" rather than the more general
"California". Also the month the photo was taken has meaning. A photo
of a blooming shrub is more meaningful to library users if they can see
that it was taken in April.
The habitat the plant or animal is found in is very informative to
experts and novices alike (see What should I enter
for the habitat field? below.)
Other nature photographers are very interested in knowing
information about the camera and film you used, so it's useful to include
that. So, add as much information as you can about your photo - someone
out there will really appreciate it!
Why has the scientific name I used when I uploaded my image been changed?
Unfortunately, taxonomy is constantly changing.
CalPhotos reserves the right to update species names with updated taxonomic
information from trusted authorities, eg. AmphibiaWeb, the Reptile Database,
the Index to California Plant Names. If you have a question or problem
with any name changes, feel free to contact us.
Why is the wrong common name being displayed with my photo?
There are no standard common names. The common or vernacular name for a plant or animal
can vary widely depending on the part of the country or the part of the world you live in.
Not only that, but the same common name may be used for many different species, such as "blue bells" or
"gull". The scientific name is the one
that clearly establishes a particular species, and that is the main name we store. However
the common name is important too, since so many of our users know plants and animals
by their common names only.
Therefore,
we accept whatever common name the photographer gives us, but we also attempt
to find other common names from one of our reference sources. When you upload a
photo, we will look up the scientific name at ITIS, AmphibiaWeb, and
other sources to
see if a common name is available for that taxon. (See References
for the sources we use.) If other common names are found, we add them to your photo.
The photos's detail page will display all common names and their sources, including
the photographer's common name(s).
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 not a standard list of habitats.
Most photographers enter one or two words to describe the habitat, such
as "redwood forest" or "coastal waters" or "desert". There are some lists
of habitats that you can check.
The Jepson Manual
includes "ecology" in its treatments, and you can use this for California
plants.
There is also a CNPS "Manual of Vegetation" online at
UC Davis here: http://endeavor.des.ucdavis.edu/cnps/
There are many other sources for other species. For example,
AmphibiaWeb has habitat
information for worldwide amphibian species, and
Mykoweb has habitat descriptions for
California Fungi. Landscapes and habitat photos in CalPhotos are
listed by habitat on this page: CalPhotos
Habitats and Plant Communities
What's up with the "Type of Photo" field for plants?
The Type of Photo field includes only a few basic types of plants such as
fern, tree, vine, etc.
The category "annual/perennial" is our default catch-all for plants that don't
fit one of the other categories. We recently changed
the default to "annual/perennial" from the former "flower", which was even less accurate and
an artifact of earlier days when the photo database was "California wildflowers" only.
The Type of Photo is there for novices to use who want to make a query like "trees in
Alameda County". So it is purposely not very scientifically exact. We suggest that
you use "annual/perennial" if your photo is other than a tree, vine, fern, etc. The category
"unavailable" is being used for automatically-uploaded photos from organizations that
give us large sets of images in bulk. Eventually it will be phased out.
What happens to my photos if I pass away?
CalPhotos' policy is to continue to host photos even after a photographer passes away, unless the photographer, or person delegated
to handle the photographer's photos, wishes otherwise and lets us know in writing. We recommend current photographers take a moment
to think about how they would like their legacy photos to be handled. Profile pages– contact information and bios– and image
licenses can be updated to reflect photographers' wishes after they pass away.
If you have higher resolution files that you would like to share (higher resolution than the web-resolution images
and thumbnails online on CalPhotos), we recommend contacting one of the archives of the Berkeley Natural History
Museums to see what arrangements could be made. Images could be deposited with the archives where they are appropriately
cataloged and a legacy plan be worked out. Many of the Berkeley Natural History Museums already use and have close ties
with CalPhotos. The CalPhotos team is happy to suggest a contact for one of the archives that best suits your photography
or natural history interests (eg. for plants, contact the UC & Jepson Archives; for vertebrates or ecology, contact the
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology; for fossils, contact the Museum of Paleontology; for entomology, contact the Essig Museum of Entomology).
How can I contact you?
Click Here to send us an email.