Streamline Your Site Photos
Creating high-quality site photos and detailed photo logs used to be tedious. Field work and delivery relied on paper forms, film photography, and paper photo logs to complete projects. Marginal benefit was derived from the next evolultion of form apps and digital photos, but transcribing and copy/pasting photos into log templates was still time consuming.
Fortunately, the next era of quality capture and fast delivery offers consolidation of digital data recording, photo capture, and automated logs within one platform, accessible via mobile device and web browser.
Workflow Simplified
Ecobot photo capabilities enable a streamlined experience for all stakeholders:
- Taking photos directly within each data point automatically links them to that point.
- Metadata such as lat/long, direction, and elevation are automatically captured and stored for display on logs.
Optimal Photo Quality
Photo quality is getting better over time, which means file sizes are getting larger. Most mobile device cameras take high quality photos that take up a lot of space (12MB - 48MB per image) and are slow to transfer in large batches. This is beneficial for advanced editing and printing large format photos, but it becomes cumbersome for day-to-day business.
For submission to a client or USACE, a photo with about 250 pixels per inch (roughly 1MB of storage) is sufficient for printed or digital crisp photos in a photo log for delivery.
To ensure a great experience for customers without sacrificing on quality deliverables, Ecobot scales photos to about 1MB of storage per image. This achieves an ideal middle ground with the benefit of timely syncing of images between mobile devices and the cloud, while simultaneously retaining enough of the image to create a crisp photo log for digital and print delivery to regulators and clients.
Creating Effective Photo Logs
An organized photo log is a valuable visual companion to a field data sheet. Including vital standardized information with each photo expedites reviews, informs colleagues and clients, and builds a reputation for quality thorough project delivery.
Logs are delivered as PDFs in Ecobot, and can be downloaded or printed as needed. There are two formatting options with the following inclusions:
Consider Your Audience
Establish team standards for what to capture to ensure consistent quality. These could change based on the project type, client, etc. but it’s great to have a baseline of what to include by default.
Key elements to capture
- All Projects
- Cardinal directions at each sampling point (label clearly)
- Manmade structures, roads, debris, wells (note location relative to site)
- Unusual or unexpected site features valuable to clients or regulators
- Wetland & Stream Projects
- Key hydric soil/hydrography indicators
- WOTUS connections
- Prominent wetland vegetation species
Great field photos can prevent repeat site visits! Erring on the side of caution and capturing more than the minimum can come in handy later.
General Photo Composition Tips
Some required photos have little room for optimization or creativity. But small tweaks to technique can make a standard observation pop, and better photos lead to more informed colleagues, clients, and regulators.
Use these basic tips to boost your field photos (and level up your next t-ball game or vacation shots too)!
Lighting
Sunrise & golden hour. Site visits happen when scheduled, and the light you’re dealt with is what you get. But if you have control over taking photos on arrival vs. before departure, choose the one closest to dawn or dusk.
Colors love clouds. It may seem counterintuitive, but colors appear richer on cloudy days or in the shade. If you’re trying to communicate the hue of something, try to cast a shadow over the area or wait for a cloud to pass - this is true for using AI to identify a wildflower too!
Single Subject Focus
Identify one clear subject per photo to communicate effectively. Whether it’s vegetation, a landmark, or site features, make your subject the star.
Rule of Thirds
Position your subject using a 3x3 grid overlay—place the subject at intersections rather than centered.
Horizons look best placed at one-third from the top or bottom, rather than dead center.
Foreground Interest
Include a foreground element to provide context, scale, and visual interest in landscapes or broad site overviews.
Perspective
Move Yourself
Adjust your position to capture better lighting, clearer subjects, or more compelling perspectives.
Subjects in Motion
Allow moving subjects room within the frame to create natural and dynamic photos.
Contrast
Make it pop. Leverage contrast in color, tone, or texture to add visual interest.
**Focus. **Use your device’s portrait mode to blur backgrounds, emphasizing your subject—especially useful for AI identification.
Vertical Alignment
If vertical elements dominate the scene (trees, columns, buildings), align your frame to one clear vertical to stabilize the shot.
Diagonal of Perception
Humans naturally view images from top-left to bottom-right, making compositions along this diagonal feel harmonious (e.g., famous paintings like The Starry Night). Reverse diagonals (bottom-right to top-left) create tension or drama.
