Skip to content

Taking Pictures

Taking a photo usually doesn't need much explanation: open your phone's camera and snap a picture. However, for litter photos, consider the following:

Set your phone to store GPS Location

We accept photos without GPS, since those photos can tell a story as well, but including a location adds extra value. Set your device to save GPS with your photo. Date and time are automatically saved.

Photo guidelines

During the process of adding characteristics to the photo you will use the photo to see what is on it. This 'tagging' as we call it, may happen the same day where you might still know what the picture is all about, but it might also be 1 of many pictures, that you are tagging after a few days. In order to still be able to add the right characteristics, try to follow these guidelines:

  • Make sure the item is clearly visible in the picture (get close to your object)
  • Unless you want to show how you find the object, feel free to grab it and then take the picture
  • If there is a brand on the item, feel free to move the item so you capture that brand as well
  • if relevant, feel free to add the background as well, just try to exclude recognisable people on the photo (privacy etc).

Rule of thumb: 1 picture per litter item

The main goal is to photograph individual litter items, however, there are valid reasons to take pictures with more than 1 item on it:

  • Several similar items in 1 pictures so you can tag faster, for instance several butts in 1 picture
  • Litter that belonged together, for instance a cup and a lid that is lying next to it
  • A broader shot of the environment with a lot of litter in it, if you want to tag it as 'polluted area' or for instance take a picture before and after you clean up the area so you can show your impact and use one of our special tags
  • 1 picture of many full bags of litter. That is a nice way to start your adventure, not by taking pictures of all litter, but simply taking a picture of 1 or more bags of litter. In that case we don't know what the litter was, but the photo tells a powerful story anyway.

Rule of thumb: If you take a picture of litter, you also pick up that litter

While our goal is to clean up the world, there may be valid reasons not to pick up the litter, for instance safety concerns or the item being too big etc. In that case you might still take a picture of it because it still tells a story. In that case you can use the tag 'not picked up'.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us!