Guidelines

A Spot is an exact geo-position where a photo was taken from. If a photo was taken from nearly the same position into the same direction, then a photo must be added to this spot to prevent duplicate spots because having multiple spots for the same perspective is just not helpful for anybody. This implies that if a photo was taken from somewhere else it's important to create a new spot, even when the subject of your photo might be similar. We know that this results in more effort but without that others can't find the exact place where a photo was taken.

The same is true for filling out some details about the spot. Especially travel information is often crucial to find a place. If English isn't your native language and you have issues writing something, you can simply use tools like DeepL to translate your text from your native language to English. Additionally, you can add markers for parking (blue marker) and the direction the photo was taken (purple marker) directly on the map, which helps a lot when planning a trip to this spot.

Locationscout is like Wikipedia for photo spots which means that anybody can edit any spot to improve the content, making it easier for others to find the information they need. Having one spot that contains all the details to find it with photos from various daytimes and seasons from different photographers is in our opinion the most valuable content for everybody. Writing the texts as if you would try to go there for the first time is the most helpful thing you can do and something that is highly appreciated by other travelers. Try to write about what would help you when you haven’t been at this spot yet instead of writing the texts solely about your photo.

• don’t create a new spot if the exact same spot is existing already
• don’t upload a photo to a spot that’s taken from a different place
• don’t upload all photos you took from a bigger area into one spot
• don’t use daytimes or artistic words as a spot title, name it based on the geography instead
  (keep in mind that others can add images to this spot that might be taken at a different time)

A Photo is always attached to a spot and can be uploaded by creating a new spot or by adding it to an existing spot. When to do one or the other is explained above in "Creating a spot". The easiest way is to always create a new spot, upload the photo, mark the exact spot on the map where the photo was taken and if there are possible duplicates, the uploader will show you suggestions within 200m radius.

Important to know for you as a photographer is: The visibility for your photos on the platform is always the same. The photo lists within Locations and Countries are already ordered in a way that a photo that was added could be in front of the initial photo, so adding a photo to a spot won't harm your photo being seen. Quite the opposite is the case. While your photo on other platforms will never be seen again after a few days when you shared it, your photo might be seen again and again when somebody else adds a photo to the existing spot.

The perfect photo is 2048px wide in landscape format or 1400px high in portrait format. It should not have a border or drop shadows because then your photo will look weird in the preview gallery or the home feed where recently uploaded photos are shown. That said, having huge copyright logos on a photo is allowed, but keep in mind that this will lower the quality of your photo because it grabs a lot of attention. A subtle logo or copyright in an adequate size is fine of course. If you want to advertise for your website, just add it to your profile and it will be shown directly below the photo as a clickable link, which is also great for your ranking in Google.

• don’t upload generic and location independent photos like food, the moon, random stones on the ground, letterings in the sand of a beach etc.
  (a beautiful food market that is at the same place every week might be a good exception)
• don't upload photos that you didn't take yourself
• don’t upload photos from people that don’t want to be shared online, especially photos of children are a No-Go in general and will be deleted immediately
• don’t upload nude photography since this platform is also used by underage children
• don’t upload multiple almost identical photos and only upload more than 2 photos to a spot if they would really help somebody else
  (very helpful are different daytimes/seasons or just photos taken with different lenses)

Locations are names of cities, rivers, bridges, buildings, places or even regions. When creating a spot, you are asked to add locations based on where you took the photo and on what is visible from this place. If you took a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge from Kirby Cove beach, you might use San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco Bay California Kirby Cove.

Bad examples for this spot are Beach SF USA New York because they are either no location names, incorrect or the name of the country which is added automatically to the spot anyway.

Photo Themes are photography topics that are great to take photos from your spot. What would you search for when you would like to find this spot? This way other photographers can find spots where they can shoot bridges or skylines etc. more easily. Good examples for the photo of the Golden Gate Bridge are Skyline Bridge Beach Bay Ocean.

Bad photo themes for this spot are San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge "Your Name" since these are either locations or simply not describing a photographic theme.

"Behind the Scenes"-photos can be added to existing spots via the "Add photo"-button to show the spot itself where the photo was taken from. This will help others to find the spot, to get a better feeling about the amount of space you have, which type of equipment you need or maybe even how safe the area is. The most helpful photos usually contain the tripod with the surrounding scene or important places that help finding the spot.

• don’t upload selfies or simply other photos you took nearby