ben_hampel's profile

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8.5K Points

Friday, April 12th, 2019 4:24 PM

11

Images Guidelines question: What to avoid

I was looking at the FAQ section for Photo guidelines. There doesn't seem to be anything listed regarding the following issues. (Not sure how you can retrain contributors who don't look at the guidelines. (maybe a one time only email to all contributors like you do for the "year in review to contributors email" that you put out thanking us for our help. You obviously have out contact info. Do you have contact info for major event photographers, syndication agencies and studio contacts?)

First: contributors who get images from screencap sites need to know that those sites generate dark images. They need to brighten the images to match how they really should look. Without doing so you tend to get a gallery of dark muddy images. Also size matters.

DVD menu pages: Someone with access to French language DVDs has been uploading menu pages. This seems unnecessary. Sometimes you can't even tell what the film is. 


DVD back page: This seems unnecessary. Sometimes you can't even tell what the film is. The quality of these tend to be not good.


DVD multi-pack ads: This seems unnecessary. 


Actor selfies with co-stars: Usually background or kid actors trying to fill out their galleries. However these tend to clutter up the movie gallery. Maybe avoid tagging the film so it's just in their gallery? This tends to happen at the premiere events also.


Sequencing redundant images: Why tell a story in four images when you already told it with one image?


Behind the scenes images that tell you nothing about the film. Usually no actors or directors etc.  Can you even tell this is for the new Terminator film? 

Event photos that are redundant or duplicates: Event photographers need to edit themselves. This is an extreme example. Marvel films tend to put up an excessive amount tof very similar but not duplicate event photos. Also whoever uploads event photos (either the photographer or the studio) needs to make sure they are not uploading duplicates. There are a TON of event duplicates.


Letterbox images: Images that already have the black bars when uploaded tend to make for a crappy looking gallery. The system already formats full frame images with the black bars so these are now double letterboxed. 

10.6K Messages

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225.3K Points

5 years ago

The software and the corresponding models could definitely stand to be much more advanced.

982 Messages

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29.2K Points

5 years ago

I don't submit images like the ones above, but I still like all of them, except the letterboxed ones and the ones with low image resolution.

For one thing, it doesn't matter to me that you can't tell from the image what film it's from. That's what the title tag is for. That's why it's in the image gallery for that movie and not another.

I especially like the DVD menus, the back covers for DVDs, and the sequencing images. The pictures are data, and the data is useful. The more data the better.

i'm ambivalent about the large number of similar event photos. Maybe they're too much, but I always favor more data rather than less.

The image galleries are often sloppy, but the fix is to organize them better, not reduce the number of pictures.

481 Messages

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8.5K Points

5 years ago

Just ran across another example of excessive gallery making. :)

2.7K Messages

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82.6K Points

5 years ago

I don't see a problem with DVD menu pages or DVD back page or the letterbox photos. The same goes for behind the scenes pictures. They give an impression on the work the crew of a film does, or in which circumstances. I feel that can be quite interesting.

I feel the DVD multi-pack ads should go. The posters shown here are already on the title's page and the information that a certain title has been multi-packed on DVD can be mentioned in the trivia section for said title.

The selfies with actors don't bother me, except for the fact that quite a bit of them are of low quality. These should be deleted I feel, but not because they are selfies, but because of the lack of quality.

I'm ambivalent about the Sequencing redundant images. They aren't dupes, but they are annoying as hell sometimes. But where does one draw the line? How many picture should remain from your original example? The first and the fourth? Or also the third?I think this has to be dealt with on a case by case basis, but that will always result in people disagreeing with a decision I'm afraid.
When it comes to almost duplicated event photos, I feel IMDb should delete more near-dupes. The example of the pics for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman while promoting Eyes Wide Shut is an eye-sore to me.

Hopefully, a staffer will respond to this thread.

(for the record, I don't submit photos to the database, I just correct/edit/delete them)

481 Messages

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8.5K Points

5 years ago

Also another thing that would be great is to be able to put the images in a bit of order. When I upload screen caps I try to upload all of one actor, then another, etc. So they are grouped together. Plus having all the posters together, all the event shots together etc. would make the galleries more pleasing.

481 Messages

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8.5K Points

5 years ago

Another thing worth mentioning regarding photos... If you are uploading the first image of someone you need to be aware that it will become that person's headshot. So you need the person centered in the image but also is the image worthy of being a headshot. Someone in Star Trek makeup or being bloodied in a horror movie might not want that image to be their headshot. I tend to Google a more appropriate headshot image, upload that and once it's in place then go back and upload the screen cap of them being in makeup or bloodied. (and this goes for low level people who only have a few credits, not a big name star with a publicist.)

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225.3K Points

Well, that is what happens with images uploaded through Title Scorecard or the long-deprecated Publicity Photos program, but not with regular title image gallery uploads. The important thing also to note is the provision found in the IMDb Image FAQ:
However please note that any headshot change requests for the correct individual raised for purely stylistic reasons will not be actioned.
So, the thumbnail variations of these special placeholder images become stuck where the primary image of a name page would otherwise be unless the person is nowhere to be found at all within the frame of the thumbnail rendition of a screen capture or photograph.

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8.5K Points

So if I come across a headshot thumbnail that doesn't have the person in it do I report it somehow?

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225.3K Points

It may be best to create a new GS topic for each case, and your request would basically be to ask the IMDb staff to assign an image that would contain the person in the thumbnail form of the image.

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225.3K Points

The IMDb Image FAQ states,
If an image is of a different individual and is incorrectly assigned to a name page then you may report these cases via our contact form by selecting the options IMDb Fan/Contributor questions > Images & video > name page images > remove images and our staff will aim to help out. However please note that any headshot change requests for the correct individual raised for purely stylistic reasons will not be actioned.
My thoughts are that if the IMDb Community can be of any assistance at all in the matter, then the report should be made on this forum instead, unless somehow personal information needs to be shared.

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8.5K Points

Thanks. I followed your suggestion but Selena rejected the request. Should I leave it alone?