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How do I add photographs to Wikipedia?

I'm a photographer and have a variety of pictures I'd like to contribute to the Wikipedia effort, but I'm completely stymied on how to actually do so. Can you offer some tips?


Dave's Answer:

I can understand how you find the Wikipedia markup language a bit confusing - I personally think that its markup is one of teh greatest limitations of the entire Wiki concept. But that's another story. :-)

In terms of working with Wikipedia, there are two challenges you face. The first is uploading the photograph or picture, and the second is adding it to a given page.

To upload one or more images, you must be logged in to your Wikipedia account. If you don't have one, create one here: Create a Wikipedia account.

Once you're logged in, you want to go to the special Wikipedia entry Special:Upload (or just enter it in the Wikipedia search box), where you'll see this:

Wikipedia: Upload warnings

If they're your pictures and you agree with all their requirements of copyright release and related, you can scroll down and:

Wikipedia: Uploading a Sailboat image

I recommend you fill in all the fields with as much detail as possible, including specifying that it's your own photograph, as I have done above.

The result is a new page on Wikipedia, like this:

Wikipedia: Catalina Sailboat image

Note the URL as that's what you'll to use for the next part of this process.

Now that it's uploaded, you can add it to the specific Wikipedia entry by editing the page in question, which can be done by clicking on "Edit This Page" on the top tabs:

Wikipedia navigational toolbar

Then using the following formatting instruction:

[[Image:Example.jpg]]

You'll want to replace "Example.jpg" with the fully qualified URL of your image, of course.

I'll add my own sailboat picture to the Catalina Yachts Wikipedia entry by clicking on "Edit This Page" (on this page the link's on the bottom of the page. not the top, btw) then added an image tag:

[[Image:Catalina-23-sailboat.png|thumb|250px|Catalina, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri]]

How did I know to add the additional "thumb" and "250px" parameters, etc? By clicking on "edit this page" for a page that had an image presented in the format I desired. Easy! :-)

Sure enough, when you look at the Catalina entry on Wikipedia now, you'll (hopefully) see my photograph included. Pretty darn easy once you figure out all the nuances.


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Categorized: HTML, JavaScript and Web Site Programming   (Article 6904, Written by )
Tagged: catalina, lake of the ozarks, sailing, uploading photographs, wikipedia
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Reader Comments To Date: 1

Gaurav said, on December 11, 2007 6:28 AM:

Well,
This was easy,
thanks a lot buddy.

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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