Participate in Wiki Loves Monuments, the largest photography competition in the world, and help Wikimedia projects to document monuments and heritage buildings.
Participating is fun! By photographing and sharing images of heritage nearby you, you can explore more about Indian heritage and learn about it! It's a good challenge to improve your photography skills, and you can win some nice prizes as well. The national jury will select ten images that will represent India in the international finale. These images will compete for the international awards. More information about the international competition is available at https://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/.
Judging criteria
The jury will determine the winners of the contest taking into consideration the following criteria. Kindly note that this is just not another photography contest. In order of importance, the criteria are as follows:
Effort put into researching the subject and taking the image – we welcome descriptive notes on the subject, how the photo was taken, processed etc.
Quality of description provided on the image (in any language) [judged primarily on the basis of what is provided by the image submitter rather than other contributors]
Value of the image in terms of usage – ideally demonstrated by usage in any Wikimedia project of any language with appropriate captions and well-referenced text surrounding the image that demonstrates that the article has been greatly enhanced by the image.
Value of the image based on uniqueness – is it filling a blank, is it from a location that is hard to reach, is it the only image of its kind etc.
Technical quality (sharpness, use of light, perspective, composition, etc.)
Grounds for rejection of submitted images can include but are not limited to:
suspected of copyright violation
if required jury members may contact participants via talk pages or email – if they cannot be reached or responses to emails are not received within 48 hours – then the submission may be considered suspect and be rejected, participants may please ensure that they enable email, watch talk pages, and check their spam folders
lack of full EXIF information – where possible, contributors should include (or link to file versions with EXIF) other versions/from other angles in the other versions details
excessive processing, use of filters that are unrealistic
image does not document monument faithfully enough
watermarks or credits on the image (credit to the author is ensured through the license and may also be included in the EXIF)
resolution below 5 megapixel
Images that reach a top ranking of the international finale, will typically at least fulfill the technical criteria of the ‘Featured Image’ process at Wikimedia Commons. But feel free to submit any number of images, and let the jury decide if they are good enough.
How to participate
Step 1: This year, we are focusing on these monuments.Check the links and note the monument ID!
Step 2: Take photos of the monument. Make as many and as good photos as you can, try different angles.
Step 3: Image must be renamed as Name of the Monument -Location -State Name -Serial Number (Example: Taj Mahal -Agra -Uttar Pradesh -DSC 0001.jpg).
Step 4: Write down what you've photographed in the description part. Record the site's name and check the monument ID.
Step 5: Images will be without any sign or watermark or border.
Step 6: Don't have a Wikimedia Commons account yet? Create one – takes just a few moments! Make sure that your email address is confirmed.
Step 7: Go to this link, find the monuments from the lists of states and union territories, and upload your photos to Wikimedia Commons from there. The upload process will automatically detect the Monument ID.
Basic Competition rules
We try to keep the competition clean and simple to participate. There are few ground rules to participate in the contest for India. Let's quickly go through them. Every submission should be:
Self taken and self uploaded;
Uploaded in the month of September 2019;
Have proper title and description;
During the upload process, you give permission with a CC BY-SA license to re-use the image;
Contain a listed monument, which you have identified using the monument identifier from this page.
Next to that, there are a few practical rules:
You should have a verified e-mail address on Wikimedia Commons;
If the photo gets deleted for any reason, it is automatically disqualified from the competition;
You are responsible for following the law while taking and uploading the photographs.
