Photography Guidelines

Photography Guidelines#

When reporting a Sighting, photographs can be submitted to Codex to identify Individuals. Here are the guidelines for a greater chance of successful identification:

  • The Individual in the photo is distinguishable (i.e. is free-standing or clearly in the foreground).

  • The Individual occupies the majority of the frame.

  • The Individual is located near the center of the photograph.

  • The Individual is in focus and has good image resolution.

Here are what you need to AVOID for a successful identification:

  • The Individual is part of an overlapping herd or group of animals.

  • The Individual is obstructed by more than 25% by other animals or objects.

  • The Individual is relatively small.

  • The Individual is blurry and out of focus due to being too far from or too close to the camera.

  • The Individual is located around the edges of the image.

  • Part of the Individual is outside the edge of the frame.

Codex caters to multiple species. For best results, visit their Codex platform and navigate to Learn > How to Photograph on the menu bar.

Image Formats and Sizes#

  • Codex accepts photographs in a variety of formats, including .jpg, .jpeg, .png, and .bmp. (Note: .tiff format is not supported)

  • Use photographs between 480px and 1600px.

  • When running detection and identification, photographs smaller than 480px are sized up which may cause blurriness. Photographs bigger than 1600px put a strain on the server and cause identification to take longer.

  • A compression ratio of 90% is sufficient. Uploading photographs with a higher compression ratio will not influence the identification process.