Picture Gallery Uploads

Contents

How to submit pictures and videos
Guidelines
Legal Information

The Picture Gallery of IRFCA.org has been set up with the aim of collecting a wide variety of images and videos pertaining to Indian Railways and related subjects. To this end, we invite railfans (whether or not members of the IRFCA group) to submit their pictures.

NOTE: For submissions of other material, such as documents, articles, etc., for the IRFCA.org web site, please write to the webmaster@irfca.org address.

How to submit pictures and videos / Adding comments

Unregistered users: If you do not have a user id for the gallery, use this link to submit items for the gallery:

Uploads by unregistered users

Please provide appropriate captions with all relevant details of the subject, dates, places, etc., and your name (or the photographer's or copyright holder's) name and your contact e-mail address for the items you upload. E-mail addresses will be removed before the items you upload are made available for public view. Uploaded items not meeting the guidelines for the gallery laid out below will be deleted. Accepted items will be moved to the public Uploads album at first, and later, if found suitable for inclusion in the IRFCA gallery permanently, will be moved to other albums in the gallery.

You are encouraged to use the link above in all cases, however, if you experience trouble with that, you can send images to the webmasters by e-mail at webmaster@irfca.org. Please zip the images into one zip file and send it as a single attachment to your mail message and do not send the images as separate attachments or multiple mail messages. You may send up to 10 images in one zip file in one e-mail message in this way. You must include information in your e-mail for the image captions, including dates, locations, and details of the pictures. The webmasters will upload your images to the uploads album and may also give you feedback and comments on your pictures. Not all images submitted will be uploaded -- images should meet the guidelines provided below in order to be accepted for the gallery.

Registered users: If you have been issued a user id for the IRFCA gallery, you can upload your pictures at the Uploads album when you are logged in with your user id to the gallery. From the Uploads album, select the 'Add Items' link on the left to begin uploading your files. All uploads must adhere to the guidelines below. Uploaded material may be deleted if it is not found to be acceptable for the site.

User ids for the gallery are issued only if there is an expectation that a lot of pictures will be uploaded, and only after the webmasters have had a chance to examine submitted examples of photographs to determine whether they are appropriate for the IRFCA site.

Also, please review the legal information below.

Comments in the Gallery

Adding comments to the photographs or other material in the gallery is also restricted to registered users. Unregistered users may post their comments to the IRFCA mailing list, or submit them to the webmasters by e-mail at webmaster@irfca.org. A user id for comments will be issued only if there is an expectation of a lot of comments being posted. Comments in all cases should be brief, and provide additional clarifications on one or two specific points regarding the photograph or other item. Anything more extensive should be posted to the IRFCA mailing list.

Guidelines for submissions

Please write to us at webmaster@irfca.org with any questions regarding these guidelines.

Images, videos, etc., submitted for inclusion on this site should pertain to railways in India or neighbouring regions. Although occasional items pertaining to other parts of the world are accepted, it should be understood that the primary focus is on India, both present-day and British India.
For images, JPEG (.jpg), GIF, or PNG files are acceptable. For videos, MPEG1 format files are acceptable. Please contact us to discuss uploading other formats. Please do not upload uncompressed AVI video files. There are many good and free MPEG1 encoders available. See the video conversion guidelines or contact us at webmaster@irfca.org for help.
Please provide full information about the picture you are uploading: include a clear and concise description of the subject, the date, and the photographer's or creator's name. Pictures without this information may be rejected.
- Loco details, train names and numbers, etc., are very desirable.
- Avoid station codes like 'SBC', or acronyms and abbreviations that may not be widely understood.
- Mention loco classes like this: WDM-2, not like WDM2, or WDM 2, or WDM/2, etc. Mention loco numbers preceded by # like this: #20219. This helps searching in the gallery.
- Keep dates in the format yyyy-mm-dd, e.g., 2004-03-19. Again, this helps searches.
- Additional descriptive details such as background information, photographic equipment used, etc., are also welcome, however please keep it concise; larger reports should be mailed to the IRFCA list.
Please ensure the image pixel dimensions are between 800x600 and 1024x768 for images as this range is best suited for viewing on most common computer screens. Video resolution should be 320x240 or less. Video files should be of about 60 seconds footage or less. Longer sequences can be split up. Image files should not exceed 150KB; video files should be kept under 4MB, and preferably under 3MB. Videos should keep the video bitrate to 300kbps or less and the audio bitrate to 64kbps or less. Please follow the video capture and conversion guidelines before uploading video files. Large images may be resized when uploaded, and large video files may result in broken links. Contact us if you have any files of an unusual nature with different size requirements.
Picture Quality -- Photographs and videos should follow these guidelines, with rare exceptions:
- Subjects (trains, locos, etc.) should be framed properly and clearly visible without excessive shadows or obstructions.
- Photographs should not be blurry, unfocused, grainy, overly dark or bright or of bad contrast, excessively distorted, or be badly exposed
- Subject outlines should be discernible in timed exposure or low-light photographs.
- Photographs with level horizons are preferred as opposed to tilted viewpoints.
- In addition, for the best appearance, it is preferable that there be no extraneous matter on the photographs: clean your prints or slides, remove traces of adhesive from photo corners or tape, (gently) erase smudges. It is best to avoid writing anything on the front surface of any print. Also avoid using the automatic date/time stamping feature of your camera as this can sometimes distract from the main subject.
- Avoid excessive shake and swaying in videos by using a tripod or restricting the use of high zoom.
- For videos, the soundtrack should have good quality, be in sync with the video, and should preferably be just the sound of the subject of the video with perhaps an occasional voiceover comment for information. Excessive voiceover or background music, etc., are to be avoided.
- If you have a print or slide that is worn, damaged, or composed badly, it may still be acceptable provided you crop it and level it appropriately after scanning it.
- Some of these criteria may also be waived for old and rare photographs or images of unusual subjects, but please contact us first about these.
Please avoid repetitive pictures of the same subjects. Attempt to introduce some variations, such as taking pictures from different vantage points, to make the pictures more interesting.
Most importantly, remember, quality is far more important than quantity! One good picture is better than a dozen poor ones.
Copyright Issues: Please upload only those items which you are allowed to submit to the site: you should be the photographer, videographer, or creator, or you should have permission from the original owner. Do not submit images from web sites, magazines, etc., for which you do not have copyright permission! Please understand that you jeopardize the very existence of this web site by engaging in copyright violation, by opening the web site up to legal action. The maintainers do not have the resources to verify copyrights, nor to engage in lawsuits; therefore, the policy will be to be as conservative as possible in terms of rejecting images for which copyright permission cannot be easily established.
Restricted material: Please DO NOT submit any images or videos of illegal activities such as footplating locomotives without official permits, or trespassing on railway property. Please DO NOT submit any material which may place railway staff in compromising situations and subject them to disciplinary action or harassment by their superiors. Any such material will be deleted. In addition, any material deemed to be offensive in any way to our site's usual web-viewing audience will also be deleted.
Lastly, please note that submitted material will be accepted only at the discretion of the webmasters. Not all items may be used on the IRFCA.org site, and items uploaded here may be deleted without prior warning, at the sole discretion of the webmasters and without any reason necessarily being assigned. You should keep a copy of any submitted images for your own purposes and not expect the copy on the server to be available indefinitely.

Legal

Photography Permits

Please read the section on railfan photography for information on when official permission is needed for photography (including still or video/movie recordings) of railway subjects, and how to obtain permission from IR for photography in such cases. In most cases, photography on railway premises such as at stations requires a permit. Stringent restrictions are applicable at sheds, yards, workshops, etc. Also, there are generally legal restrictions surrounding photography of structures such as bridges and tunnels in India. You must comply with all applicable regulations and laws when taking photographs of railway subjects, and ensure that you obtain an official permit or appropriate permission from the authorities where needed. The webmasters of the IRFCA.org site assume all photographs or other material sent to us were taken in compliance with regulations and laws governing photography. The webmasters cannot carry out any verification of such compliance, and do not take responsibility for enforcement of such regulations or laws nor accept liability resulting from non-compliance. Please see the legal disclaimers regarding material on the web site as well as the following conditions for uploading material to the site.

Please note: The webmasters of IRFCA.org are unable to provide assistance in obtaining any photography permits from any branch of Indian Railways. You must obtain appropriate permits or permission yourself.

Disclaimer, Licence, and Copyright

By uploading any image, video, or other material here, you are certifying that you own the copyright for the material or have secured written permission from the copyright owner for the use of the material on this web site (IRFCA.org). You also certify that the material is not proprietary information or a trade secret that is not available for or suitable for public dissemination. You take full responsibility for all violations of copyright law, of laws governing trade secrets and proprietary information, or of any laws related to the publication or dissemination of material deemed inappropriate, obscene, or illegal in any jurisdiction applicable, where such violations are caused by your upload of material to this web site. The maintainers of this web site are not liable for copyright violations, violations of laws governing trade secrets or proprietary information, or any other laws governing publication or dissemination of inappropriate or illegal content, caused by the upload of material to this web site.

By uploading any material you are also giving IRFCA.org permission and licence to make it available to the general public and use it in any manner on the IRFCA.org web site, in the picture gallery, or on other sections of the site, in its original form or transformed or edited in any way. You are also giving IRFCA.org permission to transmit the material in its original form or after editing and transformations, by electronic mail, postal mail, facsimile, or any other means to mailing lists, discussion forums, or to any specific individuals whether or not affiliated to IRFCA and the IRFCA.org web site; and to archive, store, copy, circulate, or re-publish it in any medium including but not limited to print and electronic media, in original form or after editing and transformation.

In particular, material uploaded here may be mailed to the irfca or irfca-derailed mailing lists, or other mailing lists reasonably connected with topics of railways (e.g., any mailing list of the Indian Steam Railway Society, mailing lists on IR modelling, etc.). Re-publication or distribution of your material outside the IRFCA.org web site and mailing lists such as irfca will occur only in cases where, in the judgement of the webmasters, such publication or distribution aids in spreading information on railway topics to railfans, furthers the cause of the hobby of railfanning, or where the parties who will further re-publish or distribute the material are serving the railfan community in a bonafide manner. For instance, if a railfan group asks for permission to host a copy of a photograph from the IRFCA site on their own web site, we will generally allow it. Likewise, if an online encyclopaedia or a print magazine requests some material for an article on railways we will generally allow it. In all cases we will try to get your permission specifically before allowing such republication by third parties, but we cannot always reach the submitters of material because of invalid e-mail addresses or other problems.

In particular, please note that images, video files, or other material may be edited, annotated, compressed, resized, cropped, or re-formatted for placement on various web pages on this site or for publication elsewhere. Text captions may be embedded in the material itself in some cases. In some cases the images or videos may be manipulated to improve the quality for presentation. The material may be presented with hyperlinks to or from other sections of the site and may be placed along with other images, videos, or text on the site at the discretion of the site maintainers.

In all cases you or the owner of the material retain copyright to the material you upload, and as far as possible the material will be attributed to you. Please contact the maintainers at webmaster@irfca.org with any inquiries about the use of your material.

You also certify that you understand that by submitting any material to this web site (IRFCA.org) you are making it available to the general public and that your material may be downloaded by anybody from the web site. The maintainers of this web site (IRFCA.org) are not liable for any misuse or copyright violation carried out by any third parties who happen to download material from this web site or who obtain it from any transmittal of the material to mailing lists or publication in any medium.

Thank you for your submissions!

Upload some photographs now!