Wikimedia Commons

Another website that I want to share is Wikimedia Commons. Often I want an image to use, either at work when putting together a presentation or for other things like these blog posts. However, a lot of images are under various types of restrictions, and it can be difficult to use them without getting entangled in the licensing rules. Wikimedia Commons is a handy way to search for images that are in the public domain and free to use for any reason.

Go to Wikimedia Commons and search for an image. Here I am searching for an image of penguins. Select “No restrictions” under the license.

This comes back with a variety of images of penguins that are free to use.

I scrolled down and selected one. When you click on it, it goes to a page with information about the image.

Scrolling down, the information includes the photographer, the date the image was made, and the licensing. You can even find that it was made with an 1/800 second exposure at f/14 with a Nikon D70.

You can select a resolution to download and use. Here it is.

Emperor penguins in Antarctica by Denis Luyten (2007).

You can also often find related images. At the end of the description page there is a category the image is in, “Birds of Snow Hill Island”. Clicking on that there are a lot of other images. Here is another one that is also in the public domain.