Taking Pictures

Did you know that QMs used to have to do a whole-ass, multi-paragraph blog after every quiz? It's true. Uphill, in the snow, both ways, and within 24 hours of the quiz start time. 

These days, your only post-quiz requirement is the event report which consists of scores and, yes, team pictures. This little section will break down some best practices for taking team pictures during your quiz. 

Why are they required? Simply put, they go up on geekswhodrink.com and are supposed to help promote your quiz by showing off how fun it is. So don't take or post crappy pictures. 

If you have a quiz with a modest but steady team count of 10 or fewer teams, you should have time to try and hit all of your teams up for a picture. 

If your quiz is 20+ teams, try and get a healthy sampling of 7-10 teams. 

If you have a dog-friendly quiz and you're a dog-friendly person, take some dog pics. Those are always popular. 

DO NOT just take crowd shots from where you're hosting. 

DO NOT just take pics of the top two teams. 

Remember, the pictures are supposed to help promote your quiz by showing off how fun it is. 

Most QMs tend to take pictures during the break (usually after R3) or while teams are working on the visual round (R5 for GWD and R3 for SBT/DNB). 

There are advantages and disadvantages to each: 

• Con: Taking pictures during a break means some team members may be missing, prompting players to ask you to come back later. 

• Con: Making the rounds during a visual round may mean players are busy playing the quiz, especially during video rounds. 

• Pro: Breaks mean you're not busy. 

• Pro: Visual rounds mean players are usually at tables and there's plenty of time to loop back. 

Mix it up. The person writing this hosts an outdoor quiz. I'll take pics of some of my regulars before the quiz while the lighting is still pretty good. Other techniques that work pretty great: 

• Take pictures of bonus prize winners

• Get pictures of the winning teams with their prizes

• If you host in a small space, take a pic or two in between questions while you're hosting. This works especially well for SBT and DNB quizzes

Yes! (Sorry, old timey QMs with actual cameras. Phones have come a long way.)

Always ask before taking a picture!

Some people don't want their picture taken. Respect that. It doesn't hurt to announce before coming around to take team pictures, e.g. "During the break, I'll come around and take team pictures. They will appear, with your scores, tomorrow on geekswhodrink-dot-com. Please let me know if you don't want me to take your picture. 

Keep your file sizes 1.2 MB or smaller

If your file sizes are too large, you can run into issues uploading them to your event report.
Two easy fixes:
1. Email them to yourself and re-size them in the process.
2. Change your phone's settings to take photos at a smaller file size so you don't have to mess around with re-sizing. 

Pay attention to file type!

OYQ currently only accepts JPG and PNG files

Yes, HEIC is a dope format. OYQ will accept it eventually but does not currently (as of March 14, 2023). 

Take your pictures in landscape!

If you take pictures in portrait on most phones, they will flip on their side when you upload them to OYQ. 

Watch out for lighting. Bars tend to be dark. 

Check your phone's settings for a "night" setting. Take pictures before it gets dark. Use a flash. You may have to play around with this a bit but these are pretty solid tips on how to make sure your pictures don't look like you have a bunch of Cheshire Cats playing your quiz. 

Double check your pictures after you press save and publish. 

Are they on their side? Are they upside down? Are they blurry as hell? Are they just plain bad? Unpublish the report, adjust or scrap the bad photos, and republish. We can't emphasize this enough: The pictures are supposed to help promote your quiz by showing off how fun it is. The bar owners and taproom managers look at our website and if they see a bunch of cruddy or missing photos, that's not a great look.