GuildWiki:Style and formatting/Images


 * These guidelines apply only to images used in articles unless otherwise specified.
 * Screenshots should generally be cropped to focus on the image subject.
 * Images without credits in them are preferred.
 * Images with natural lighting are preferred over images which have had their brightness or contrast adjusted.
 * Images without obvious compression artifacts are preferred.
 * The JPEG / JPG file format is preferred for screenshots.
 * The PNG format is preferred for icons.
 * Lowercase file extensions are preferred.

Cropping and Lighting
In making a cropped screenshot of an item for this wiki, you are should be aiming to take a clear, detailed screen of the item in bright, natural white light. The item should be shown on a contrasting background with as few distractions as possible. The image should also be cropped to the item only.

Settings
To take the most detailed screenshots, your should be running at the maximum full screen resolution (I think this is 1280x1024 for normal monitors, 1680x1050 for widescreen monitors) with all your Graphics settings on max (anti-aliasing will need to be set by hand as it isn't affected by the slider), but with post-processing effects off. Post-processing effects seem to add "atmosphere" to your screenshot (usually, this translates to glare which tends to obscure the details of your item). As well, you should be running the -BMP Command line switch to take lossless screenshots. This will significantly increase the quality of your images as opposed to taking them as jpegs, eliminating the blur they will already start with if taken in jpeg.

Location
By convention, screenshots are generally taken on the Isle of the Nameless which has bright, slightly yellow-tinted lighting. There are a few good spots here for taking screens, such as here using the sea as the background and some other places on the main beach using the sand as a background. While it may seem that location won't give good images being in the shade of a large cliff, the amount of light an item is shown in seems to be determined only by the angle it is towards or away from the light source, which is generally from the west. It isn't affected by being in the shadow of a large object.

While most objects are probably best screened here, an exception would be some items added in GW:EN which suffer from lighting issues, listed here. These are probably best screened on the far west beach with the sea as the background, giving a fully back-lit image which makes the item glow, or at some other locations which give a back-lit view.