The BackpackGearTest.org Bylaws
v. 0609

Chapter 11: Including pictures in your reports and reviews

General policy

1. You are encouraged to include at least one image of the item in your report.
   1. OWNER REVIEWS
      1. You are not required to include an image in any Owner Review, however you are strongly encouraged to do so.
      2. Any image in an Owner Review must be the Reviewer's own image, and cannot be taken from any other site.
   2. TEST SERIES
      1. You are required to include one image of the item in your Initial Report.
      2. You may take the image from the manufacturer's website, so long as you credit the manufacturer.
      3. This image should appear near the top of the report.
2. You may include a maximum of fifteen images in your report.
   1. This limit is inclusive.  Because the Initial, Field, and Long-Term reports are all on the same page, the combined report can contain no more than 15 images.
3. Each image must be 100 kilobytes or less, and not more than 800 pixels wide.
   1. Images displayed side-by-side must not total more than 800 pixels in width.
4. Allowed formats are .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .gif files. 
5. Each image in your report must provide an ALT tag.
6. Images should add to report content.
   1. Include pictures that make a specific point in your report, such as problems you might have had or solutions to those problems. 
   2. Pictures of any features you really like are also desirable.
   3. Pictures of the gear in actual use under field conditions are highly desirable.
7. Do not use pictures that you did not take yourself, or that you otherwise do not have specific permission to use.
   1. Pictures that you get from other sites are the copyrighted property of others and BackpackGearTest.org does not have (and is not interested in obtaining) permission to use them.
8. You must secure a model release from any persons other than yourself used as models in your photographs, and produce that release if required by the Moderators.
9. You can get help reducing the size of your images, and other help related to photographs, at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BGTFileUploadHelp/.

Recommendations

1. Please consider the size of the images you upload. Smaller pictures can convey the same amount of information without taking up as much file space as a larger image. Also, large images may be too time consuming for people to download and will therefore be useless to those people without fast connections. We want these images to be as accessible to as many people as possible.
   1. One way to reduce the size of your images is to save them in one of the common compressed file formats. Pictures with the .gif or .bmp file extensions can take up significantly more space than files with a .jpg or .png extension. Most image processing programs let you change the file type using a pull down menu at the bottom of the Save As dialog box.
2. A lesson with complete instructions on how to use photographs in your reports will be forthcoming.