Submissions/Taking Quality Images with Cheap Cameras

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2013.

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Submission no.
2082 Sunday, August 11 14:00
Subject no.
W1
Title of the submission
Type of submission
workshop
Author of the submission
Ralf Roletschek, Daniel Schwen
Country of origin
Germany/USA
Affiliation
E-mail address
wikimania@schwen.de
Username
Ralf_Roletschek, Dschwen
Personal homepage or blog
Abstract

Over the years the quality standards by which uploads on Wikimedia Commons are judged (FP,QI) have increased to levels seemingly unattainable with cheap consumer cameras. This creates a conflict between the need for adequatly illustrating the growing pool of articles in Wikipedia and its sister projects, requiring a large influx of images, and the perceived necessity of having (bulky) high priced equipment to participate. In this workshop we will demonstrate how to create high quality photographic material for the illustration of Wikipedia articles with low cost compact cameras. We will discuss several workarounds that mitigate technical shortcomings of compact cameras.


Detailed proposal

Over the years the quality standards by which uploads on Wikimedia Commons are judged have increased considerably. Projects like Featured Pictures and Quality Images demand image qualities seemingly unattainable with cheap consumer cameras. This creates a conflict between the need for adequate illustration of the ever growing pool of articles in Wikipedia and its sister projects, requiring a high volume influx of images, and the perceived necessity of having (bulky) high priced equipment to participate. In this workshop we will demonstrate how to create high quality photographic material for the illustration of Wikipedia articles with low cost compact cameras. We will discuss several workarounds that mitigate technical shortcomings of compact cameras, and we will point out what good conditions (lighting, moving vs. stationary subjects) for taking pictures with cheap cameras are. These are cases where the the quality of the photographic equipment does not have a particularly large influence on the outcome of the images. We will contrast this with difficult conditions, where the quality in equipment wil impact the quality of the resulting significantly. On the technical side a lack of resolution and high image noise can for example be overcome by stitching multiple images. We will give a short introduction on free software that can be used for the postprocessing of the photos.

If there are enough people interested we can have an additional photo excursion during the off-hours of the conference. HK should have plenty of amazing photo opportunities. Especially for night photography (skyline, night markets, harbor, etc.).

Track
Cultural and Educational Outreach
Length of presentation/talk
45 Minutes
Language of presentation/talk
English
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
Special requests


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  1. Frank Schulenburg (talk) 16:21, 24 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Marcus Cyron (talk) 20:52, 25 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Yes, among the first things I was told about Commons offline is that you don't need a DSLR camera to upload great work, which I didn't have at the time. CT Cooper · talk 00:21, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Daniel Mietchen (talk) 00:45, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Bellayet (talk) 17:09, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Mitchan14 (talk)
  7. Waldir (talk) 18:44, 21 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Ovedc (talk) 09:32, 28 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Matthias Süßen (talk) 16:03, 26 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  10. SandisterTei (talk) 19:31, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Poco a poco (talk) 10:04, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Smuconlaw (talk) 11:03, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]