Picture editing guide

Whiskybase picture editing guide

For moderators and admins helping out on the photos on whiskybase.

In the following guide, you can find some useful information on work routines, picture formats and where to start with your new task.

The list of pending photo uploads can be found here:

https://www.whiskybase.com/admin/sendaphoto

You can also access the list through your ‘Specialist: To do’ widget. Oldest pictures will be processed first, so check the end of the list to ‘claim’ a bunch of uploaded photos you want to work on.

• Before you start
• To avoid wasting time, you should check a few things before you dive into Photoshop and start working on the image.
• Are there already pictures available for the bottle entry you are working on? If the upload does not provide any new information (close-ups of the label, packaging or extras) or superior resolution/image size to replace a poor quality bottle image, reject the picture with a short ‘thank you’ message. I use to have a little file with all kinds of ‘standard replies’ that I just copy/paste depending on the situation, to save some time.
• Are image resolution, quality and background suitable for editing and upload? Pictures that do not cover the whole bottle or are of poor quality should be rejected with a kind reply that we need better quality, or whole bottle images.
• Check for copyright violations: If an image looks very professional or has a poor resolution, google the bottle entry’s name to spot copy/pasted images that are downloaded from other sources and are not made by the user. Reject upload with a comment on copyrights.
• You can use the search function to check if there are other photos waiting to be processed for the same entry to pick the best photos available.
• Picture editing routine
• After you have decided that an image fulfils the above criteria, you can download the image, open it in Photoshop and follow Menno’s guide on ‘how to edit pictures’:
• http://static.whiskybase.com/storage/random/Editingimages.pdf
• When you have removed the background, scale your bottle image in accordance to the actual size of your bottle:
• 70 cl        Set picture height to 1600 px. Adjust width of the workspace to 800 px.
• 50 cl        1230 px height. Adjust workspace to 1600x800 px with image ↓
• 20 cl        1120 px height. Adjust workspace to 1600x800 px with image ↓
• 5 cl           600 px height. Adjust workspace to 1600x800 px with image ↓

Save the image as png-file and click ‘upload and replace’. Now you can accept the image to add it to whiskybase. You can adjust the picture order (click admin tools on the bottle entry page).

Whisky labels and packaging photos do not need removal of background and can be saved as png-file with 1600 px height. Mark photos that are not bottle images as ‘contains a whisky label’ (admin tools).

In case of questions, please do not hesitate to contact BeatF or Slàinte Mhath via a message on whiskybase.