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In this article, I’ll show you how to make use of a fantastic website. It has all of the photographs you’ll need. And, most importantly, it is a website that you are already familiar with but may have never considered employing for this purpose.
Wikimedia Commons is the website I’m referring to. Wikimedia is Wikipedia‘s ONLY source for generating media files for millions of its articles. The following statement can be found on the home page of Wikimedia Commons website, “a collection of 79,542,889 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute”. And this figure continues to grow rapidly.
Though many amazing photographs may be found on websites like Unsplash.com, however, their content is often very limited.
The majority of the time, we are unable to locate suitable photographs for our story. We lose hope after clicking the “next” button hundreds of times and we’d finally give up and settle for a random, less-compelling image.
Unsplash’s overuse of the same photos is another issue. This is boring and uninspiring. We can write original stories, but if we pick an overused image, we miss out on the opportunity to distinguish ourselves.
P.S. Please read all the way to the conclusion. I’ll provide you links to additional websites.
Why Use Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons has a massive amount of unique images: Wikimedia Commons, unlike Unsplash (and every other similar website), has millions of photographs taken by millions of people in millions of locations. Festivals, body organs, isolated Nigerian settlements, superstars, sports events, riots, rallies, protests, undiscovered dances, representations, and so on are among the images. Whatever topic you’re writing about, Wikimedia Commons has appropriate images for you. This brings us to the next benefit.
Unsplash on the other hand, offers photographs in a limited number of categories, such as technology, animals, and laughing people. These categories are fantastic, but they are never sufficient. On the other hand, Wikimedia Commons offers thousands of other categories. Basically, anything you can think of can be found on Wikimedia Commons.
Let’s pretend I am writing an article about my favourite Hip-hop superstar, Lil Wayne. The title and body of the essay are complete. It’s now time to choose a suitable image for the article. Here’s what I got after searching for “Lil Wayne” on Unsplash.
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Unsplash Screenshot: Search results for “lil wayne”
A basketball net? What relevance do this basketball net and camcorder have to our discussion? We’re on the lookout for a photo of Lil Wayne, not a basketball net. Here’s where Wikimedia Commons comes in. You will be able to download free and professional images of Lil Wayne from the website. Look:
Wikimedia Commons search results for Lil Wayne
Local Content: This is my favourite feature of Wikimedia Commons. Unsplash and Pexels both offer generic photos that can be utilized for a wide range of topics, whereas Wikimedia Commons focuses on local content.
Let’s assume we’re not talking about the English Premier League, which is well-known all across the world. We’re discussing the history of the Nigerian Football Team. We shall write about legends like Okocha, Kanu (All of whom are Nigerian Players). Wikimedia Commons would definitely provide us with more than enough local photos to support our content.
Drawbacks of Wikimedia Commons
Quality of photos: Not all images are of excellent quality. Wikimedia Commons is an open-source website to which anybody can contribute. As a result, there are photographs taken by professionals and other images taken by amateurs.
There is a lack of image editing, as well as the use of Photoshop. This is most likely a website policy, as the website is more scholarly than commercial. You can, however, modify an image yourself if you believe it requires some retouching.
How to Download Images on Wikimedia Commons
- Visit the official Wikimedia Commons website at commons.wikimedia.org.
- In the search bar, type your terms.
- Click on the image of interest
- Click on “More Details“
- Click Download located on the right menu.
- On the popup Modal, select your preferred image resolution
How to Download on Wikimedia Commons
How do you give credit to the author?
The “Attribution” text instructions can be found there on the popup modal after clicking on Download (refer to the steps above). Basically, you should give proper acknowledgement, including a link to the license. A good example can be found in the caption of the image below.
Secretary Blinken Meets with African Union High Representative for the Horn of Africa Olusegun Obasanjo (Oct. 12 2021)
Other Websites To Download Free Stock Images
Unsplash is one of several similar websites. This post includes three of the greatest places for finding free stock photographs for authors.
Thanks a lot for reading.
