Publicising your work

Sharing your work with the world is much more enjoyable if are part of the community, giving and receiving encouragement, advice and accolades.

Wikimedia Commons has three processes by which high quality works are recognised by the community. The oldest is Featured Pictures (FP) which has existed since late 2004 -- it began when Wikimedia Commons was itself just a few months old. As time has passed it has required a much more rigorous standard of quality, as FP purports to represent "the best of the best". This has created space for other quality initiatives: Quality Images (QI) began in June 2006 and has been outstandingly successful. A third initiative, Valued Images (VI) began in April 2008, and is making slow but steady progress.

Featured Pictures

 Featured Pictures should represent the best of the best, the cream of the crop. This process is one to aspire to, rather than one to begin with: starting with Quality Images will ensure a gentler introduction. If you are keen to make your mark at FP, it's a good idea to put the "Featured picture candidates" page on your watchlist and observe the process for a few weeks or months. Take part in voting and commenting to get a feel for the standards expected.

•  These guidelines should apply to FP: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Image_guidelines 
• Gallery of existing FPs: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_pictures  
• Current FP nominations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_picture_candidates  

Other projects also have a Featured Pictures process, however they often have different expectations.

Quality Images

 Quality Images (QI) is a great place to start if you already consider yourself an intermediate or advanced graphics creator. The requirements are much easier to meet and the whole process is faster and simpler to complete. As the Quality Images page says, QIs "need not be extraordinary or outstanding, but merely well-composed and generally well-executed". Another difference is that unlike FP, QI must be the work of Wikimedia Commons contributors (ie. not public domain works). 

• These guidelines should apply to QI: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Image_guidelines  
• Gallery of existing QIs: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Quality_images 
  
• Current QI nominations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Quality_images_candidates 
  

Valued Images

The most significant difference between Valued Images (VI) and QIs/FPs is that VIs should be "the most valuable illustration of their kind" on Wikimedia Commons. One help page advises that "Valued images are less about perfect technical quality and more about your ingenuity in finding good and valuable subjects which matter, and about the useability of the information on the image page." If you have an eye for detail and an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, VI may be the perfect process for recognising your high quality work.

• These guidelines should apply to QI: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_image_criteria 
• Scope http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_image_scope 
  
• Links to existing VIs: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_images_by_scope 
  
• Current VI nominations: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_image_candidates  
• Introduction: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Valued_images 
  

Meet our photographers & illustrators

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Meet_our_photographers 
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Meet_our_illustrators
  

Picture of the day

•  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_day
  

Picture of the year competition

•  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year