Use this draft if you want iNaturalist to make the photo-merging options more visible to new users.
Title: UX Improvement: Make photo combining options more clear on the Web Uploader
Feature Request / Problem Statement:
When uploading multiple images at once via the web uploader, each image automatically generates its own observation card by default. For users who take multiple photos of the same individual organism, it is not immediately clear that these cards need to be manually combined before submission.
Suggested Solution:
Add a visual prompt or tooltip for multi-file uploads explaining how to group photos (e.g., “Drag cards onto each other or use ‘Combine’ to group photos of the same organism”).
Consider an optional toggle during file selection to import multiple files directly into a single observation card rather than splitting them by default.
Feature request details: Title: Auto-group photos taken within a close time threshold into single observations on upload
Feature Request:
When uploading batch photos on the web interface, images taken within a short timeframe (e.g., within 1–2 minutes of each other at the same location) are currently split into separate observation cards. Manually dragging or selecting and combining dozens of photos can be tedious.
Suggested Solution:
Implement an option in the web uploader to automatically group photos into the same observation if their EXIF metadata shows they were taken within a customizable time window and location range.
Agreed, combining takes a lot of time and can be frustrating at times.
No. Please do not. Then photos of a plant will be auto grouped with photos of insects on them and then I have to manually split them out again, which will probably negate any benefit the suggestion has. Same problem when I take photos of ants with larvae or different species of birds grouped in the same area.
I do agree that the current combine function is at best clunky. There are options for better features such as keyboard shortcuts, putting the remove button on the right so I do not accidentally remove images instead of combining them (aaargh!) and maybe choosing images to combine on the upload instead of waiting an age for metadata to upload and then selecting and combining (it goes faster if all the metadata is uploaded). As for dragging images across, there are lag issues so it is better to group and hit combine.
This proposed ‘solution’ would lead to a much worse problem of lots of photos of completely different organisms being combined into a single observation with the splitting apart of that combined observation even less clear than the relatively simple matter of combining a few photos into one observation.
I’d rather have people making the mistake of not combining observation than I would of them combining ones that don’t go together.
Personally, what I’d really like is a way to combine observations after they’ve been posted.
I think this is a good start, but I will second that any automating here will cause a ton of issues. What if, instead of the blank page you get when you first hit upload where it just gives you a button that says “Choose Files”, you already have a blank page that looks like what you posted, but instead there is a blank card for an organism and it says something like “Add Observation, Files related to one organism”. There would of course still be the option to batch upload and stack manually like there is now, but I think the starting page for uploads could do better to address what you’ve brought up. It definitely is not clear that you can stack things and maybe a template for uploading a stack all at once to a single observation should be an option! Here’s a mock up of what I have in mind
I share the sentiment that any automated grouping of photos from a similar time frame should absolutely not be implemented, not even as an option. That said, there is a need for some tool tip guidance on that upload page for multiple images. Keeping/allowing the flexibility of choosing the image sequence is often crucial for displaying an observation for maximum ID advantage.
I have occasionally wished there was an “Undo” button when I’m grouping multiple photos, but there isn’t at present. The only way to undo an erroneous or undesirable lumping is to delete all the images and start the reload anew–very inconvenient.
in the web uploader, you can actually ‘pull’ images back out of a combined observation; just use the arrow buttons on the observation to page to the one you want, pick it up with the mouse, and drag it off the observation and onto the background
