Wikipedia:Finding images tutorial

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have a great article. Now you want an image. How do you do that? This Finding images tutorial offers a step by step guide to find images that can be licensed as public domain or under the GNU Free Documentation License for Wikipedia. The most important thing while looking for images is to

Be creative with your search!



For demonstration purposes, this tutorial looks for images for the Stetson hat article. This article already has a photo, and the example is used only for demonstration purposes. All text in a blue box is related to this example.



Contents

[edit] Reality Check

Think about what type of image you want. Does such an image exist? Is it possible to obtain such an image for Wikipedia? A good reality check is Google Image search. If the desired image is not there, then your chances of getting an image are slim. Also, be creative and vary the search terms. On Google, you can combine multiple search terms with uppercase OR, AND or NOT, and use * to represent any character(s).

The Stetson is known under a number of different names. A possible search on Google would be for Stetson* OR ten-gallon OR cowboy: Google search for Stetson and related

[edit] Do I need to know the copyright and licensing status of the image?

Yes!

Depending on the desired image, the copyright may be expired due to the age of the image. For the US, copyrights of images published before 1923 are expired. This also applies to many old paintings and photos. Such images can be safely used for Wikipedia even if there is a copyright notice on the page. There are also other ways around a copyright, as for example fair use, but this is a legal minefield and should be avoided if possible. See also: Copyrights. To search suitable images you can again use Google Image search. Historic photographs are almost always grayscale, and you can speed up your search by using an advanced image search with the limitation to Return only images in grayscale.

A Google search for Stetson* OR ten-gallon OR cowboy returns many images. Limiting the search to grayscale, and say hello to Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill died in 1917, so any photo of him was taken before 1923, and almost certainly has its copyrights expired.

[edit] Create your own

If you have access to the desired item and a digital camera, then you can easily take a photo yourself. As the copyright holder you then can release it under any license you want, as for example the GNU Free Documentation License. For abstract images you may be able to create them yourself on the computer using a graphic program, as for example the image Image:HowToTieBowtie VersionA.png, or Image:Mad scientist caricature.png.

For a photo of a Stetson, you need:

  1. A camera
  2. A Stetson (your own, your friend's, any Stetson will do)
  3. 10 minutes or less for taking the photo

If you are skilled, you can also draw your own image of a Stetson.

[edit] Check Wikipedia

Wikipedia is already a great source of photos.

  1. Check the Wikimedia commons, where images are sorted by category.
  2. Check related articles on Wikipedia.
  3. Check What links here for articles that may contain images.
  4. Check Wikipedia:List of images for many images whose copyright/licensing status is known.
  5. Check foreign language links for the article and related articles, as they may have a photo already.
  6. Search Wikipedia in the Image namespace and the Image talk namespace
  1. Related articles for a Stetson would be for example Cowboy, or people on the List of cowboys and cowgirls. For example, Buffalo Bill is wearing a nice hat.
  2. Check What links here for Stetson.
  3. Foreign language links related to Stetson may be DE:Cowboy, NL:Cowboy. The Italian IT:Buffalo Bill also wears a nice hat.
  4. Search of Wikipedia for Stetson: Stetson hat

[edit] Check public domain image sources

Wikipedia:Public domain image resources lists a large number of public domain image resources. Again, be creative. You can vary your search based on the articles you searched when checking Wikipedia. Don't forget to check the copyright status. Ideally, it should explicitly say that the image is in the public domain or under the GNU public license. If there is no explicit statement it does not mean that it is copyright free.

Stetsons may for example be found in the section Wikipedia:Public domain image resources#History and the Library of Congress American Memory site for example has a nice photo of Buffalo Bill with hat.

[edit] Check government sources

Works of the United States are often in the public domain. An easy way to find such images is to search Google Images with the restriction to site:.gov OR site:.mil. Again, be creative and vary your search terms. Not all images on the .gov or .mil sites are public domain, however. In case of doubt, ask. You're on the safe side if you can find a public domain notice that says something along the line of:

In general, information presented on this web site, unless otherwise indicated, is considered in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by law.


In the case of the Stetson, there would be quite a lot of results in the search for Stetson* OR ten-gallon OR cowboy site:.mil OR site:.gov. Of course, some are not related to hats. A nice example would be this photo. Checking the copyright status we look on the front page http://www.hood.army.mil/ and find a link at the bottom Security Notice that says: Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. Now you're all clear to use the photo.

[edit] Ask for permission

If you can't find a public domain photo, then you may have to ask a copyright holder for permission. To find a copyright holder, do a Google Image search. Again, be creative and vary the search terms. This will give you a large list of images. Next, select a copyright holder that may be willing to give you permission to use their image as public domain or under the GNU Free Documentation License. In general, copyright holders that earn money by charging reproduction fees for their images are unlikely to give them away for free. For example, news agencies have an excellent image database, but will give you the rights only if you pay a hefty fee. (If you're willing to spend the money, donate it to Wikipedia instead). Asking news agencies for free images is a waste of your and their time.

Private individuals that have pictures on their homepages or online photo albums are much more likely to grant permission if asked nicely. See if there is an email address associated with the photo, or if the webmaster's e-mail address is available on the site. You also should check when the website was last updated. To do this, first go to the website in question. Then, copy "javascript:alert(document.lastModified)"(no quotes) into your address bar and push enter. If the time that comes up is only a few seconds old, it is probably the time the server sent it to you. Otherwise, it is the time the author updated it.

A website not updated since 2001 is probably abandoned, and the copyright holder is no longer available under the given email address. Once you have narrowed it down to one or two images with copyright holders that are available and potentially willing to release the image under a suitable license, you may write them an email and ask nicely for permission to use the image. For sample requests see Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permission. Your request should:

  1. Introduce Wikipedia
  2. Mention which image you want to use (with link)
  3. Mention where you want to use the image (with link)
  4. Ask for permission to release the image in the public domain or under the GNU Free Documentation License
  5. Offer to credit the copyright holder/photographer on the image page
  6. Offer to add a link to the copyright holder website on the image page
  7. Thank the copyright holder for his time

If you receive permission, add the credits to the image page as promised, for example on Image:FremontTroll.jpg. Don't forget to thank the photographer and provide him with links to the image page and the article(s) using the image!

Searching Google for Stetson* OR ten-gallon OR cowboy gives many good images. A possible target contributor would be John Muir Exhibit, which was recently updated as of 2004, and has a volunteer webmaster (with email address), which may be inclined to volunteer a photo for Wikipedia.

[edit] Ask other Wikipedians

You can list your request on Wikipedia:Requested pictures, to see if other Wikipedians have access to an image. Be aware that this may take some time, and some requests have been on this page for a veeery long time. Please follow the guidelines:

  • See if you can find an image on your own first
  • Avoid blanket requests, as, for example "need pictures for all people in the Lists of people".
  • Request images only for existing articles, i.e. if there is no article, then please write an article first before requesting.
  • Add the request if you could not find a picture. Select an appropriate subcategory or add a proper category or subcategory in the alphabetical list.
  • Link to the article for which you would like to have the picture added, and describe what kind of picture you need. Signing the request is nice.
  • Add only one picture request per bullet.

You can also use the images Image:No image yet, image:NO IMAGE YET.png, or image:NO IMAGE YET square.png as placeholders. Other wikipedians may take this as a hint to look for such an image. But again, depending on the image, this may take some time.

For the Stetson, we could add the following line to Wikipedia:Requested_pictures in the section Clothing or hats:

  • Stetson needs a nice image of a hat - [[User:JohnDoe]] 04:11, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Yeah! I Got an image, what's next?

Well, give it a good name, make sure it is the correct format and in the largest available size, upload it, add the correct image tags, including source and description, and add it to the desired article(s). If possible upload it at the Wikimedia Commons, so the image is available also for other Wikimedia projects. (See Commons:First steps for details)



  1. Selecting the Stetson image from Fort Hood and downloading it.
  2. Converting the image from GIF to JPEG
  3. Renaming the image to "Image:StetsonHatFortHoodArmy.jpg"
  4. Uploading it as Image:StetsonHatFortHoodArmy.jpg
    1. Free images can also be uploaded to the Commons, so that they are available for all wikipedia projects. See Commons:First steps for details
  5. Adding the image to Stetson

~Done~

[edit] See also

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