Here is a thread for all things related to contributing to the background megapack. We encourage everyone to read this before contributing to the pack.

Guidelines:
1. What we consider to be a good background:
Person background:
- You can easily recognize the person
- Image is relatively recent, maximum 2-3 years old
- Not directly looking at the camera/in-action shot (if no other image is found then this can be ignored)
- Not photoshopped, i.e this
- No watermark
- Full HD 1920x1080 or 1600x900


Team City background:
- Something iconic from a city/place (skyline, attractions, etc.)
- Daytime pictures are preferred
- 1600x900 or 1200x675 resolution


Stadium background:
- Image of the stadium, preferably from an aerial view
- Empty pitch, i.e nothing on the pitch
- Full HD 1920x1080 or 1600x900


Stadium inside background:
- Try to get as much of the stadium in shot as possible, quality permitting
- Picture of the pitch from inside the stadium
- Empty pitch, i.e nothing on the pitch
- Distorted and curved photos only to be used as a last resort if nothing else available
- Has to be a picture of the pitch (good example, bad example)
- 1200x720 or 800x480 resolution


Competition backgrounds:
- Picture has to be of the trophy from the competition
- The trophy has to be the center of attention
- 1920x1080 or 1600x900 resolution


Nation Team Fans Background:
- Picture of fans from country
- 1920x1080 or 1600x900 resolution


Team Fans Background:
- Picture of fans from club
- 1920x1080 or 1600x900 resolution



2. What we consider an improvement:
Person background:
- Higher quality
- More in line with the guidelines
- The same quality, but noticeable more recent (new team, new kit, new hairstyle, etc.).
- Better angle

Team City background:
- Higher quality
- More in line with the guidelines
- Something more iconic for the city (i.e skyline, attractions, etc.)

Stadium background:
- Higher quality
- More in line with the guidelines
- The same quality, but noticeable more recent (i.e after upgrades, new sponsors etc.).

Stadium Inside background:
- Higher quality
- More in line with the guidelines
- The same quality, but noticeable more recent (i.e after upgrades, new sponsors etc.).

Where to find HQ backgrounds:
- Google Earth Pro
- Google Maps
- Getty Images You can remove the watermarks on this site
- Flickr
- Advanced Google Image search (With large filter)
- Transfermarkt profiles (Under gallery. Inspect the element and you will find a source link in the HTML code)

Uploading:

 

All pictures have to be .jpg's

 

Please always look for the biggest and sharpest images available. It is best to downscale rather than to upscale. When resizing, make sure that the ‘keep proportions' button is enabled, otherwise the image will get stretched out.

 

You can either upload your images on an individual timeline, or multiple images as a pack. Please make sure you are uploading to the right page, for example stadium images should be uploaded to their own timeline, not that of the club.

 

When uploading a pack, all images need to be of the same type and you can upload up to 50 per pack. Please make sure you rename all the images to the UID of the corresponding person/club etc., that way the system will automatically recognise them and you don't have to fill in all the names yourself.

The easiest way to edit person backgrounds:

 

Of course first try to find the largest and sharpest images available. Then open an editing program like photopea.com, go to ‘image size' and change the width to 1920. Make sure the ‘keep proportions' button is enabled, then the image height will automatically be adjusted as well

Then go to ‘canvas size' and change the height to 1080.

Then the only thing you need to do is move the image up or down to make it look right. Try to crop close to the top of the head, while still keeping some breathing space. This way the background will look the sharpest and most similar to the original, and it will take you 20 seconds at most 👍

 

Edit: When you have a panoramic image like this, you need to do it the other way around of course. So go to ‘image size' and change the height to 1080, and after that go to ‘canvas size' and adjust the width to 1920