It seems like iNat has at least these groups of users with respect to photo quality:
- High quality enthusiasts - more resolution, higher quality, photoshop users. Maybe folks in topic: Data Hoarders Anonymous?
- Medium quality - smart phone or point-and-shoot camera users, maybe not aware of advanced photography terms, technology, etc. Quality is driven by equipment defaults.
- Identification quality - people who crop photos with just enough detail for identification. Mix of people.
- Low quality - blurry photos from far away that get pixelated when zoomed in. New users who have very high expectations about image enhancement after watching crime drama shows like CSI or NCIS, probably?
I’m in the identification & medium quality group, so my bias is towards lower resolution cropped photos since they load faster and don’t need zoom-in to see diagnostic features. It’s still nice to see high quality photos too, where a photographer took time and consideration to frame the subject.