What gets a photo accepted

Two things happen to a photo. The first is automatic and happens the moment you press Add: if something's missing it never reaches the queue, and you're told exactly why straight away, with everything you typed kept. The second is a person looking at it.

Before it can go in the queue

The file

HEIC, HEIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF, WEBP files are taken as they are.

Camera raw files (ARW, CR2, CR3, DNG, NEF, ORF, PEF, RAF, RW2) are taken too. A raw file isn't a finished picture yet, and developing one needs more memory than this site has, so Airframe uses the finished JPEG your camera tucks inside every raw - the one it shows on its own screen. If that picture is smaller than 1280 pixels across, which happens with some older cameras, the file is refused and you're asked to export a JPEG instead. Between that and 2560 pixels it goes up, with a note that it will look softer than usual.

A raw file is converted to a JPEG, and the raw itself isn't kept. What goes up, and what Download your original gives you later, is that JPEG. Exporting a JPEG yourself from Lightroom or similar gives a better result - your own colour and lens corrections, at full size from every camera. But if you're putting a photo up now to replace with an edited version later, it doesn't really matter.

A photo can be up to 50 megapixels. That covers every phone and every camera short of medium format. A stitched panorama bigger than that is too large for the server to open, however small the file.

Room on your account

The largest-photo limit is about the file you send, raw files included. Plans explains the rest.

What you have to fill in

• Civilian or military, for every photo. It's a real choice about the picture, so nothing guesses it for you.
• A photo of an aircraft also needs an aircraft type and an airport.
• A photo of an airport - a tower, a terminal, a ramp - needs the airport, and no type code, because there isn't one.
• Something else to do with flying needs nothing more.

Military aircraft

A military aircraft doesn't have a registration. It has a serial the military gave it, and that goes in the Registration or military serial box, written in full: 88-0123 for the US Air Force or Army, 166693 for the US Navy or Marines, ZK301 for the RAF. The tail often shows a shortened version - "AF 88 123", or just "80123" - so it's worth finding the full one.

• A painted "AF" in front of a US serial is dropped for you.
• Hyphens don't matter: 88-0123 and 880123 find the same aircraft.
• The Manufacturer's serial (MSN) box is a different number: the one the builder gave it at the factory. Leave it empty if you don't know it.
• A side number or squadron code painted big on the side, like "NF 100", goes in Remarks.
• A military photo is never questioned for having an unusual serial.

Tails are often shortened. US Air Force tails drop zeros, so "60-012" is 60-0012, and often the first digit of the year too, so "30490" is 83-0490. Add zeros until there are four digits after the hyphen. When only one digit of the year shows, the aircraft type usually tells you the decade. Airframe points out a serial that looks shortened when you add or edit a photo.

Not sure? Search the painted number together with the type, like "30490 LC-130", or look it up in Joe Baugher's serial number lists, which cover every US Air Force, Army and Navy serial.

Not already here

• An exact copy of a photo that's already waiting in the queue or already up is refused straight away.
• A photo that was turned down can be sent again. Each file gets 3 goes in total, counting the first, and after that it's blocked from being sent again.
• A file that has been blocked is refused whoever sends it.

Keeping it to yourself

A photo marked just for my logbook skips all of the review below, because nobody else will see it. It still has to pass the checks above. Publish it later and it goes through review then.

What review looks for

One question, the same one on the About page: is it aviation? Sharp or soft, a long lens or a phone through a fence, perfect light or grey cloud, a tilted horizon or a wingtip off the edge - none of that is a reason to turn a photo down here.

These are the reasons a photo is turned down, and what each one means:

Not aviation

There's no aircraft, airport or anything else to do with flying in it.

Can't tell what it is

There's no making out what the photo shows at all. Blurry is fine, and so is far away - this is for a picture where there is simply no telling what it is.

Already posted

The same shot is already on the site. An exact copy of the file is refused automatically before it gets this far; this catches the same photo saved again, resized or cropped.

Details are wrong

What's typed doesn't match the picture: a registration or serial that isn't the one on the aircraft, a type it clearly isn't, an airport it wasn't taken at. Correct the details and send it again.

Not your photo

Somebody else took it. Only post photographs you took yourself.

If it's turned down

You're told which of those reasons it was, in your notifications, and on the photo's own page along with any note the reviewer left. Fix whatever it was and send the same photo again, up to 3 times in all.

If you think the decision was wrong, say so and a person will look again.