While GLAM-Wiki collaborations have focused on edit-a-thons and engineered collaborations between staff of museums and Wikipedia editors, I wanted to further the idea of covering GLAM-oriented events as a member of the media. This extends the definition of GLAM beyond just institutions such as museums and libraries, and embraces significant cultural activities and events such as book festivals, artistic performances, craft shows and the like. There has been a good track record of Wikipedia contributors attending book festivals to capture photo head shots of notable authors and celebrities.
I proposed to attend the Hay Festival in Wales as a member of the accredited media to experiment in event coverage as a form of GLAM engagement. Wikimedia UK was helpful in contacting the Hay Festival organizers to arrange for press credentials.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of event coverage, I decided to hone in on portraits for biographies of artists and speakers at the event. This required an assessment of the biographical article images before the festival, and after. I crafted a simple five point scale to evaluate the basic quality of headshots, with 5 being studio quality, well composed and high resolution shots, down to 1 for barely acceptable. If there was no image, a 0 was given as the rating.
After spending two days photographing 24 different authors and artists (well-lit on stage and in outdoor lighting) only new photos evaluated at grade 4 or higher were used.
Of the 24 individuals I concentrated on at the Festival, 21 had biographies already and three had no Wikipedia article. A further breakdown:
8 of the 21 existing articles had no head shot at all, so they were significantly upgraded with the addition of a high quality portrait.
5 were improved by two grades
7 were improved by one grade
1 was unchanged and stayed the same
3 of the individuals had no Wikipedia article, but will hopefully have articles created soon
Find the complete table below showing the image rating before and after, with links to diffs that show what was changed in the article.
Lighting, focus and composition are all excellent. Studio quality pose or top notch documentary photo standards. Subject is either looking at the camera or in a meaningful environment. Background, gestures do not distract from the photo.
4
High quality
Slightly short of top quality - may have some issues of lighting, focus or resolution, but otherwise the subject is captured well
3
Good
May have issues of composition or image quality. Subject may not be captured in the best pose, or may not be cropped well because of other picture elements. Still usable as an infobox portrait
2
Acceptable
Provides a rendition of the subject, with suboptimal lighting, composition or background, but still proves useful
1
Barely acceptable
Provides some crude rendition of the subject, but may not be a clear shot from the front. May suffer from blurriness or being mixed in with other content.
Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) reporting on and shooting photos at the Hay Festival 2016.A headshot photograph is the first thing people notice when loading a Wikipedia biography. As more Wikipedia visitors arrive by the mobile web or the app, it is even more important, as nearly half of the space on the screen is the algorithmically cropped head shot.
Metadata is sometimes hard, and always tedious. It's tedious to keep it consistent and useful over dozens or hundreds of similar but different items, which can seem like an arduous task. Finding methods and tools to assist is incredibly important. But when it's done right, the payoff is huge -- people can find things that would otherwise be lost in the depths of Wikimedia Commons.
With most mass uploading tools, you really only get one shot to get it right. A botched or incomplete process can cause real headaches if you're not an administrator who can clean up the pieces of a suboptimal bulk import.
I used Pattypan, which lets you fill out an Excel spreadsheet with the filenames to upload, and description, categories, etc. It's a bit perplexing at first, but it's much easier for small sets of photos than bigger tools like GLAM Wiki Toolset.
Organizations seem to respond positively to media requests for "Wikipedia" or a Wikipedian to cover events, as it is now one of the most recognized brands in the world and there is not very good understanding from the public about how content gets added and maintained in Wikipedia. This type of engagement also opens a conversation with the organization, with the organization possibly donating imagery and digital assets. This was the case with the Hay Festival, as they had stock photos of the event from their own photographers that they were willing to release under a free license.
Canon EOS 80DCanon EF 70-200mm F4L IS USMCanon EF 50mm STM
The main camera I used was a Canon EOS 80D, which is a 24 megapixel crop-frame camera with usable ISO up to 6400. I used three main lenses:
For basic documentary photos around the grounds, I used a Canon 18-135 USM nano f/3.5-5.6 lens. This is the newest version of the lens and is extremely quick and quiet for focusing. It is nearly inaudible, which makes it good for video.
For shooting subjects on stage, I used the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS. The bright stage lighting and lens image stabilization meant I could shoot at 1/100 second shutter speed and get good results without flash.
For portrait photography outdoors and in the bookstore tent with natural lighting, I used a basic Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM prime lens.
Unused: I brought a Canon Speedlite 580EX flash but never used it, as there were generally good lighting conditions, very little motion of the subjects and a very high usable ISO on the Canon 80D. I also had an EF-S 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens, but rarely mounted it, as I found I wanted more closeups than wide shots.
Storage: I used a Pelican 1510 wheeled travel carry-on protective case with foam inserts to transport gear on the plane. This is a heavy case, even when empty, so be in good shape when you lift this! For walking around, I used a Lowepro ProTactic 450 AW backpack which was a tad smaller than I'd liked, but still very well made and useful.
Formats: I shot using JPG+RAW written to SD cards. I used a Lexar 1000x UHS-II/U3 128 Gbyte card, which gave plenty of space for storage for a whole day's shoot. It also has extremely fast write speeds, so that the camera buffer was the only limitation. Because this was not action photography, I never felt the buffer as a problem. There were two Lexar UHS-I/U3 64 Gbyte cards as a backup for more space. For fastest transfer speed, the Kingston Digital MobileLite G4 USB 3.0 Multi-Function Card Reader (FCR-MLG4) reads UHS-II cards even faster than the internal SD reader of a modern Macbook Pro Retina. If you're looking for the fastest speed, the reader is only $9 on Amazon, so it is a great bargain and being all metal, it is built like a tank.
Settings: The Canon 80D has a nice "silent continuous mode" that makes the camera less noisy and distracting in quiet environments. Instead of 7 frames per second, it runs 3 frames per second. I tried to keep ISO down to 3200 unless absolutely necessary to go higher.
(As an aside, this type of activity is something I've recommended as a way to re-factor Wikinews into a more active project, and to focus on original content and event coverage.)
Welcome sign just south of Hay-on-Wye
Traffic in the town of Hay during festival
A couple at the castle in Hay during the festival
Workers prep books for signing at the bookstore
Tent at the Hay Festival
Attendees inside the tent
Professor Timothy Garton Ash on stage
Salman Rushdie and others on stage
Storyteller explaining Egyptian exhibit at British Museum
Strawberry vendor
Newspaper rose, given to each artist after their presentations
Halls of the festival
Attendees line up to meet authors at book signings, immediately after each session
Hay Festival sign at the entrance
Performer Fleur Alexander leads a session for kids at Hay Days
Writer Caitlin Moran enjoying interacting with fans after her nighttime talk
Crowds reading between sessions
Band at the BBC tent
