You must avoid uploading duplicate image. Each image you upload must be significantly different from images already in your image library. The difference must be obvious when viewing thumbnails of the images.
If you accidentally certified duplicate images as different, you should merge the duplicates together. Organization Competition Managers may elect to do this if they detect duplicate images in your Image Library.
If you need to revise an image, edit the image from your Image Library. This might be necessary if you need a larger version of the image for a new competition.
If you want to submit the same image to more than one competition, upload the image only once. Make your additional submissions from your Image Library.
Pixel Identical Images
The system will automatically block any attempt to upload images that are identical on a pixel by pixel basis. There would be no need to search for duplicates of this kind.
Find Duplicate Images Using Creation Date and Time
On the "Merge Duplicate Images" page, you can select to search for duplicate image using the image creation date and time. Typically, each image uploaded will contain metadata information in the image file that was added by your camera. A summary of that metadata, which includes the image creation date and time, is stored with your image in your Image Library.
Duplicates are detected when two images contain the same metadata summary values. This works well for most images. Sometimes this metadata is missing and you must use other methods of detecting duplicates.
Monochrome and color images are automatically detected as different images and are processed independently from each other.
Find Images by Approximate Title Matching
Another way to search for duplicates is by comparing image titles. Exact matches are automatically blocked by the system and duplicates get an Image Id added to the title to make the titles unique for an author.
The approximate match method compares only certain characters in the title or uses a "soundex" algorithm. This creates a lot of false matches, but can be helpful in identifying duplicate images that lack metadata values.
During the title compare, you can alter titles to avoid having them match. The title changes for the page are saved when you click "Save".
Merging Images
When you run the query to display duplicate images, the page displays each set of duplicates in a group. There could be more than two images in that group. You only want to preserve one image.
Check "Keep this image" for the image to preserve within each group. When you click "Save", the image data will be merge and the unchecked images will be deleted.
The merge process preserves all competition values, awards, critiques, votes, and image usage for the images being merged.
Blocking Compares
An additional option can be set on an image to block it from participating in compares of duplicate images by date and time. This is usually needed when the same image has been processed or cropped to be significantly different.
You can optionally ignore the "block compare" flag on images when searching.
Selecting the Image to Keep
The image you want to keep when merging duplicate images must be selected by considering the actual differences between the images. Typically, the largest image is the one yo keep unless you have performed important cropping or corrections, making the thumbnails look different.
If an image is displayed with "No Full Size Image", you do no want to select that image. Select a copy that has a full size image file.
You can only select one image to keep in each group. If you do not check a "Keep this Image" option in an group, the images are not merged or altered, except for a possible flag for "Do not compare".
The latest version of your image is listed first. It may not be the largest version of the image. You usually want the largest size copy so it can be used in other competitions that may allow larger images.
Notifications
If a Competition Manager merges your images, you will receive an email notifying you that the merge has taken place.