Wikipedia:Featured picture criteria
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- Is of high quality. It is sharp and of pleasing colour balance, contrast and brightness, free of compression artifacts (such as in highly packed JPEG files), burned-out highlights, image noise ("graininess"), and other distracting factors.
- Typically, the only exception to this rule is in the case of one-of-a-kind historical images. If it can reasonably be considered impossible to find a higher-quality image of a given subject, low quality may sometimes be allowed. For example, this image of the Battle of Normandy is grainy, but very few pictures of that event exist. NASA has a surplus collection of high-quality images, so a poor picture of the moon landing would not be accepted given that many others are available.
- Is of high resolution. It is of sufficiently high resolution to allow quality reproductions. Images should be at least 1000 pixels in resolution in width or height to be supported, unless they are of historical significance or animated; even larger sizes are generally preferred. Information on image size can be found here.
- Is among Wikipedia's best work. It is a photograph, diagram, image or animation that exemplifies Wikipedia's very best work.
- Has a free license. It is available in the public domain or under a free license. Fair use images are not allowed. To check which category a particular image tag falls under, see the list at Wikipedia:Image copyright tags.
- Adds value to an article and helps readers to understand an article. The encyclopedic value of the image is given priority over its artistic value. While effects such as black and white, sepia, oversaturation, and abnormal angles may be visually pleasing, they often detract from the accurate depiction of the subject.
- Is accurate. It is supported by facts in the article or references cited on the image page.
- Is pleasing to the eye. It is taken or created in a manner which best illustrates the subject of the image. The picture makes readers want to know more.
- The same exception to the rule of high quality may be applied here. If an image is rare and historically important, it may not have to be aesthetically pleasing. Examples are: the first photograph, the only photograph of Chopin, the map of Lewis and Clark's expedition, the lowering of the flag on Zuikaku, and the Solvay conference of 1927.
- Has a good caption. The picture is displayed with a descriptive, informative and complete caption. The image description page has an extended caption that is suitable for featuring the image on the Main Page.
- Is neutral. An image illustrates the subject objectively and does not promote a particular agenda or point of view. Images of maps, for example, must be uncontroversial in their neutrality and factual accuracy (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view).
[edit] Examples of good images
See: Wikipedia:Featured pictures
[edit] Examples of image problems
The images below exemplify issues that have caused images to be opposed. Even an otherwise good image may be rejected due to one or more of these problems. The phrase "blown out highlights" is often used to describe a common overexposure problem. It means that the bright parts of the image (typically clouds or areas directly lit by sunlight) are so bright that they appear on the photo as pure flat colour (usually white but sometimes other colours if the source of light is coloured). As a result, no detail at all is visible in these areas and it cannot be salvaged.
 Unencyclopedic and too small, over-exposed, undesired motion blur |
 Subject cut off |
 JPEG artifacts |
 Huge amounts of (square) JPEG artifacts |
 JPEG artifacts closeup |
 Even small tilt may be noticed. Editing the image may fix the issue. |
 Example image exhibiting blown-out highlights. Top: original image, bottom: blown-out areas marked red |
 Example of excessive image noise (grain) |
 Too shallow depth of field. |
 Excessively post-processed image. Left: original image, right: sharpened with a high radius, and both saturation and contrast excessively increased. |
