Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Obtaining images

There are several possibilities for obtaining images for articles: you can find an image elsewhere, or you can create them yourself. In terms of finding images elsewhere, sometimes it will be clear that the image can be taken from the source and re-used as it may be clearly labelled as such by the source. In this case, the process is relatively simple. In other cases, you may have to convince the owner of the site or book to release the image under an appropriate licence.

Convincing owners to release images or uploading images found elsewhere

Finding suitable images

External links in articles often direct you to pages that have images on the article we don't have. Another possibility is searching the internet for images or searching for people or institutions who can take images of objects for free. If you have located such a site that seems to rightfully distribute images, see if it has any copyright information on the website, including details of who took the image, when and where. Public domain government collections are usually a good starting point.

If copyright information exists on the site, you will need to determine if the file can be used freely or not. In most cases images will be copyrighted; however, some old images have expired, so you will need to work out if it can be published under a free licence or not. (For information on non free content, see this tutorial: Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Working with non-free content images). If this copyright information isn't readily available, you might consider contacting the site's administrator, and asking them if they would be happy to release the image.

The first contact

Write an email in appropriate format. In this email you should explain that you want images to illustrate Wikipedia articles; however, the more precisely you can define where these images will appear on Wikipedia and how well these articles inform or will inform, the more likely you are to receive a reply. It's common that you will not be given any rights to distribute the images already appearing on the internet, but instead special photos will be taken for you. That's also a reason why it's so important to specify the purpose of the images. The distributor of the images usually has an interest in obtaining something in return for the images. For this reason it pays off to explain from the start that in exchange they will be credited for the images, providing a link to his work or homepage. That's quite an argument because Wikipedia is a popular page and this way the distributor may gain more traffic to their website. Another important aspect is that the distributor must choose a license that allows us to use the images on Wikipedia. It pays off to suggest an acceptable Creative Commons license. Other possible licenses are listed here.

The second contact

If the administrator replies they will likely suggest that they will send you new pictures taken from the objects. For these pictures they will sometimes ask for specifications. Ask a Wikipedian who works on graphics about their input or specify what should be visible to what degree on the images. It can happen that the administrator did not read the first contact properly and now just makes claims about what rights they want on the images. That brings you into a precarious situation. It is best not to choose a license for someone else. However, you can make suggestions and you must make it perfectly clear that the administrator must choose the license for his images. This choice should be confirmed by email to you, although it is advisable that you suggest the person sends the email to the OTRS as they have considerable experience in managing donated material. Regardless, remember to save this email.

Upload

If the images are free in both the US and their country of origin, you can upload the images on Wikipedia:Commons in an appropriate category with a description so anybody can easily find these free images and use them in other articles. Keep in mind that you use for the description a language that is spoken by lots of people either as native tongue or second language. And you must not forget to keep your promise and credit the original distributor of the image in the description in Commons of the uploaded image. If the image is not free in both the US and its country of origin, it should only be uploaded locally to Wikipedia, if at all.

Afterwards, write the administrator an email where you show them where the image has been uploaded, how they have been credited and under what license is being used. Ask they if they have any concerns.

Creating images yourself

The other option is for you to create your own images. This can be done in a few ways depending on what you want to create. For instance, if you want to create a map, there are programs out there that can help you (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Creating maps). Additionally, you may want to create an organizational symbol (for instance like a Unit Colour Patch, or something of a similarly simple nature. These can be drawn electronically now using programs that come stock standard with most computers (e.g. Paint or something similar). Or, you can upload a photo that you have in your possession (for instance a family heirloom), or take a photograph of something and upload it ("original photography").

In terms of uploading photos you have taken yourself, caution is required as even though you might be the photographer, sometimes further copyright restrictions apply. See for instance Freedom of panorama. Again, the key is to use the appropriate licence so that the image can be used in an appropriate manner without being deleted. In the case of scanning and uploading an image that you have inherited, again caution is necessary. For instance, do you know when and where the photograph was taken? Is it an original, or a copy? Are you the legal owner of the image copyright now, or has copyright expired? All of these things should be considered prior to upload as they will impact upon the type of licence and whether or not the image is free of any restrictions.

If you are uncertain about whether an image is free or not, questions can be posted here: Wikipedia:Media copyright questions.