Commons talk:WikiPortraits

Welcome to WikiPortraits

We are a community of practice! Feel free to ask any questions, provide hints or advice, or suggest ways to improve portraiture in Wikipedia/Wikimedia. You can also visit meta:Wiki Covers Events for more general discussion around event coverage. - Fuzheado (talk) 15:32, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

Nice stories about you guys

The Heroic Photographers Fixing Bad Celeb Portraits On Wikipedia Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:22, 22 March 2025 (UTC)

Coverage by BBC in the UK: Amateur photographers hope to fix Wikipedia's 'terrible' pictures. Nexus 314 (talk) 15:19, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

Here's another one from one of Germany's leading newspapers: Der Text ist top, das Bild ein Blob - And to be honest: it should be mentioned somewhere on this project page, that WikiPortraits had at least two significant predecessors on dewiki: de:WP:Festivalsommer (since 2013) and de:WP:Landtagsprojekt (Wiki loves parliaments, since 2009) Honour to whom honour is due. ;) --UweRohwedder (talk) 09:04, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

@UweRohwedder: Yes! This page has been in dire need of an update anyway. I've expanded the page and mentioned WMDE's prior work, among others. I do always make sure we give a shoutout to WMDE in our conference sessions and when we do interviews. Thanks, ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 09:21, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Do you track what photos get used?

I was poking through the recent photos from the Jaipur Literature Festival, and I was surprised that none of the ones I looked at had made it into articles yet. Do you have any lists or maintenance trackers for the process of integrating photos into relevant articles? I can't be the only non-photographer who would happily get involved through that editing work. LEvalyn (talk) 00:25, 10 August 2025 (UTC)

I don't know if the WikiPortraits people WP:APPNOTE in places like related wikiprojects etc that new photos are available. If not, maybe they should. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:29, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

@LEvalyn: We don't currently have any formal tracking, no, but I think it would be a great idea. For events covered by experienced wiki editors, they'll often take care of adding their photos to articles themselves. Otherwise, for photographers new-to-wiki, we try to teach them how or try to have another editor or two run through the category and update articles/Wikidata, but not in a particularly systematic or tracked way. Our Jaipur photos ended up with limited eyes/effort on it.

To see which images are currently used, we use GLAMorgan (example query for Jaipur category), but that's mostly just helpful to see what's currently being used, and not what could potentially be used.

In terms of tracking, any thoughts on the best format? Maybe a wiki table of all the events we've covered, with some metrics and columns where notes can be made, and users can mark off once the category has been "checked" and photos added to articles?

We can make a better effort to inform the community when we have new event coverage and can use help adding photos to articles. I like Gråbergs's suggestion to inform WikiProjects.

I'm now also trying to think of new tools we could make that may be useful for this sort of work, if anyone has any ideas. Perhaps a tool that generates a report of images in a category that are of a subject that is currently unillustrated, or has an outdated photo.

Thanks, ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 21:39, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

WikiProject notifications would definitely have gotten my attention sooner! Especially if there was an event-based table for folks at the Wikiproject to go through and collaboratively check all the images.

I wonder if a category would work? Possibly two categories, "WikiPortraits not used in any article" (for those that haven't been checked) and "WikiPortraits with no appropriate article" (for eg folks who aren't notable yet, so avoid constantly re-checking them). I feel like a lot of backlogs get tracked via categories. Though categories may not be a good way to handle the many language wikis, since an image that is used on the Hindi wiki should probably still have someone look and see if it can be used on the English wiki...

A smarter tool that can link photos and their subjects would also be great, of course! Could it make semi-automated posts on the relevant article talk pages, maybe? LEvalyn (talk) 22:16, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi LEvalyn! We agree do need to find a process to "announce" the pipeline of WikiPortraits photos in a less labor intensive and more manual way. There is a whole category of photos (especially of women), where we realize they are notable to have new articles after we photograph them, but we don't have a systematic way to list them for others to tackle. Sometimes I'll just put together a stub to get things rolling, but it's very timing specific. Jenny8lee (talk) 02:53, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Short podcast interview

This is where the interview starts.

In my podcast from WikiconNL, I got the chance to interview the official photographer of the event, @1Veertje. Ainali (talk) 20:16, 3 December 2025 (UTC)

Press credentials?

Tell me about WikiPortraits and press credentials.

I know this photographer, they upload to Commons, they already have credentials from an employer, and I am wondering if anything from WikiPortraits can help them get media access and recognized with press credentials at events using the Wikipedia brand name when otherwise they may not be selected.

Under what circumstances can you provide support for getting media credentials? I am especially interested in any general offer you make, and not any customized or special cases. Thanks. Bluerasberry (talk) 00:35, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: We're happy to help wiki-photographers get credentialed to pretty much any event they're interested in covering! For WikiPortraits photographers we typically look for three things, (a) access to adequate camera equipment (i.e. not cell phones), (b) demonstrated or developing photographic skills, and (c) good representatives, to represent the Wikimedia community well at public and professional events. For (a+b) we do also work with new photographers to provide mentorship and do equipment sharing when possible. That said, when a photographer is applying for credentials as press, there is usually an expectation around photographic quality/skill (not necessarily just from us but from the event itself).

Anyone interested in joining WikiPortraits can fill out our volunteer form and we'll be in touch. Typically what a photographer needs to apply for press credentials at an event is an outlet, an assignment letter, and/or a portfolio. We're able to provide the outlet and the assignment letter. If the photographer doesn't already have a portfolio but already has stuff on Commons, we built commons.gallery as an option for them to quickly build a portfolio that can be easily linked and shared when applying for credentials.

Does that help? Let me know if you have any questions or if I can expand on anything. CC @Jenny8lee, who signs our assignment letters. Thanks, ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 05:23, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

Resolved

Thanks I understand this is everything I wanted to know. Bluerasberry (talk) 14:20, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

Upload log

As of the start of this year we now have OgreBot maintaining a log of recently uploaded WikiPortraits photos at Commons:WikiPortraits/Upload Log by category (film, sports, music, etc.). Helpful to monitor recent uploads, find photos to add to articles, and so on. ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 02:49, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Discover CapX: New Design, Features, and Ways to Connect

Hello WikiPortraits!

My name is Amanda Jurno and I’m writing to you on behalf of the Capacity Exchange (CapX) team. We would like to invite you and your community to start using the CapX tool.

CapX is a platform designed for Wikimedians around the world to connect through skills and collaboration. It offers a simple and user-friendly way to find and engage with people who can offer specific expertise, helping make collaboration across the movement more efficient and accessible.

If you’d like a clearer sense of where we’re headed, you can read more about our Vision and Purpose here'. We’ve also prepared a simple visualisation of how CapX works. Additional documentation, FAQs, tutorials, and how-to videos are available on our Meta-Wiki page. The more your community joins CapX, the clearer your view becomes of how capacity-building is growing across your region via the CapX's Data Analytics dashboard.

If you experience any difficulties using the tool, you can consult our User Guide, which includes step-by-step tutorials and short videos explaining each feature. To get in touch with the CapX team, share feedback, or suggest improvements, feel free to email us at capxwmnobrasil.org. For quick questions and updates, you can also join our Telegram channel.

We would be delighted to have WikiPortraits join CapX’s growing network. Creating your organization profile only takes a few minutes and helps other affiliates discover your expertise, initiatives, and potential areas for collaboration. Here is what we need from you before you can start.

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We hope to see you exchanging soon!

Sincerely, AJurno (WMB) (talk) 01:35, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

Possibly useful video resource

I want to tip about the video Why some Wikipedia articles about people don't have photos (or bad ones!) that might be a handy resource to send people asking questions. Ainali (talk) 10:26, 8 April 2026 (UTC)