Photos for Wikipedia

[TonyMay]

Hi,

 

I want to start a thread to discuss photos for Wikipedia.  I'm sure you know what Wikipedia is, if you don't look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About#Using_Wikipedia_as_a_research_tool

 

I'm interested in getting better quality photos in Wikipedia articles.  Since this is RMweb, I'd like to start with photos of models.

 

So if you go to say https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMS_Patriot_Class#Models there should be a photo of an RTR Hornby or Bachmann model  - it doesn't really matter so much which.

 

By way of example, the photos from Hattons are good:

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/32152/Hornby_R2936_Patriot_Class_4_6_0_5532_Illustrious_in_LMS_Crimson_Railroad_Range_/StockDetail.aspx

 

Clean white background, no clutter, everything in focus.  A simple ruler is a good idea, and probably better than a 50p piece. The main point is though that it's illustrative.  Locos, stock, in boxes are also illustrative.

 

To do this I'm going to ask you to set up a small home studio.  So you'll need a white background, white even lighting, narrow aperture - big depth of field, so that means medium length exposure which in turn means camera on a tripod to avoid shake.  To get narrow aperture you're going to need a dSLR (or at least a decent bridge camera that can control aperture), and a lens that has good optics - so not too much barrel distortion and good semi-macro optics.  Barrel distortion can be fixed to a degree in photoshop, but post-processing should be relatively straightforward and not change anything about the object being photographed.

 

To show you some that are less good:

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bachmann_Class_4_tank_locomotive.jpg - shallow dof, background clutter, yellow lighting.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bachmann_LNER_K3.jpg - shallow dof, background clutter, yellow lighting.

 

• Please only upload decent quality photos.  Technically poor quality photos look ugly and waste everyone's time.  I know most of the examples on the wiki do not meet these standards, but I'm asking for quality for a reason.
• Ideally, I think they should be in "as bought from the manufacturer form" - so post-production modifications such as weathering aren't ideal.

 

You can upload photos here:

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Welcome

 

The original author retains copyright but obviously the photos have to be released on licence for others to use, including commercial use, and edit.

 

(I'll talk about prototype photos in another post on this thread later).

[NCB]

Disagree about need for a DSLR. Compacts generally have much smaller sensors and so a much greater natural depth of field. Many these days have the means to control aperture. A lot also have a macro mode.

 

Whatever you use, stick on a tripod, select macro mode if it's available, aperture priority if it's available coupled with a small aperture, and use the self-timer to shoot, to minimise camera shake. A big problem is getting the colours right; some experimentation will be needed. Sometimes Auto White Balance will do the trick, or selecting an appropriate white balance preset. Shooting outside in natural daylight may help.

 

Having said that, I'm not sure pics of railway models are what Wikipedia expects; think they expect pics of the real thing.

[TonyMay]

12 hours ago, NCB said:

Having said that, I'm not sure pics of railway models are what Wikipedia expects; think they expect pics of the real thing.

 

Well there is usually a section called "models" - in an article - if it isn't there it's missing.

 

I was going to talk about photos of the real thing.  In the thread below:

 

Wikimedia Commons could be a depository for these.  A lot of photos from Ben Brooksbank came via Geograph for example: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_Ben_Brooksbank

 

A word about quality again.  I realise that there are lots photos that have no technical merit whatsoever in terms of composition or exposure, e.g. of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LMS_46115_Passing_through_Clapham.jpg - and the admins refuse to delete them on the basis of quality.  Obviously photos that are of historical interest should be excepted from this - it is better to have a poor quality box brownie photo than no photo whatsoever.

 

Again, licensing applies.