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Photo Challenge

The Photo Challenge inspires photographers to take great pictures and upload them to Commons. Monthly thematic competitions encourage participants to try new subjects, new photographic or processing techniques, and to develop skills while improving the Commons repository of free images. Photographs entered into a competition must be new to Commons and taken by a Commons user.

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Formal things

Challenges

Challenges are based on a theme and run for a month. The theme may be a concrete subject, an abstract concept, a photographic technique or artistic style.

Participation

Everybody can participate in challenges open for submission. You simply

  1. Choose one or all of the current challenges
  2. Read the challenge description(s), which may vary in their rules (e.g., some place restrictions on when the photos are taken)
  3. Take picture(s) for the challenge(s) during the challenge period (or, if allowed, select from your own existing pictures that are not yet on Commons)
  4. Upload your picture(s) during the challenge period
  5. Submit your candidates at the top of the current challenge gallery during the challenge period. To do that you click the [Edit] button of the Entries section of your chosen challenge and insert the File name above the last entry (or above File:-Insert image here-.svg for the first entry).
    Add your entry between the <gallery> tags as indicated. Gallery entries are placed each on a new line, and consist of the filename, a vertical bar |, and a description. For example:
    Electric steam iron.jpg|An electric steam iron
    For help on the syntax of entries in a gallery see Help:Gallery tag. Please do not add square brackets [[ ]] or include a thumb parameter or the full URL. The File: prefix is not required, but harmless.
  6. Do not sign your submission(s)
  7. If you want, you can have a look at previous challenges and Vote

Challenges are open to any Commons user. Submissions must be your own work, not previously uploaded to Commons prior to the challenge date and should illustrate the challenge theme in the opinion of the photographer. Please read the challenge descriptions, as there may be additional rules or explanations for specific challenges. There is no limit on the number of submissions per user (unless specially so restricted in the challenge), but please choose from among your best and most varied images.

To submit pictures, you edit the gallery of the contest and add your candidate(s) to the top of the list.

New themes can be proposed and discussed here.

Assessment

After the challenge has closed to new submissions, the pictures will be assessed by popularity voting in the subsequent month. You are allowed to vote for images submitted by others if your Commons account is at least ten days old and has more than 50 edits or if you participated in one of the challenges. Challenges open for voting can be found here.

Winning

The best three pictures will be awarded first, second and third place. They will be displayed on the Photo challenge page and may use the template {{Photo challenge winner}} on the file description page.

Table of contents

New media viewing experience

Please note users can disable the media viewing experience for all images on Commons when logged in (uncheck "Enable Media Viewer" under Files and click Save in Preferences, Appearance).

Challenges open for submission

 


2024 – December – Pastels

The new challenge features pastels.

Ideally, each submission should contain a summary description of the subject in the file information, including the location of the subject, and relevant categories should be added to the files to enable other Commons users to find them and use them. Please take care not to violate copyright in respect of non-free creative works, and observe our educational project scope and the personality rights of identifiable people, or your files may be subject to deletion.

The challenge will remain open for submissions throughout December UTC.

Checklist for this theme:

  • Photographs must be the work of the nominator.
  • Photographs must be newly uploaded to Commons during the challenge submission period i.e. December 2024 UTC (but may have been taken earlier).
  • Submissions must be added to the top of the "Entries" section below.
  • Please do not nominate lots of similar photos; instead choose just your best and most varied images.

Add your entry between the <gallery> tags as indicated. Gallery entries are placed each on a new line, and consist of the filename, a vertical bar |, and a description. For example:

Electric steam iron.jpg|An electric steam iron

For help on the syntax of entries in a gallery see Help:Gallery tag. Please do not add square brackets [[ ]] or include a thumb parameter or the full URL. The File: prefix is not required, but harmless.

  • Restriction: A maximum of four entries can be submitted per photographer.

There are 20 days 6 hours left before this challenge ends. (refresh)


Examples

Entries

  •  
  •  
    Rainbow crepe cake of pastel and strawberry cream crepe cake
  •  
    Pastel Theme - Malta - Gozo Beach
  •  
    Pastel Theme - Malta - National Museum
  •  
  •  
    An image of the exterior of the Atlas Lab building at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
  •  
    Plafond in Great Hall of Catherine Palace, St.Petersburg, Russland.
  •  
    Pastel colored Butterfly Tamilnadu India
  •  
    Pretty pastel flowers
  •  
    Lovely lilac flowers
  •  
    Pastel flame
  •  
    Pink petals of lotus
  •  
    Radiant raintree flower
  •  
    Dainty flower on a mighty rock
  •  
    Melon mania
  •  
    Pastel cloth pegs
  •  
    Tschesmensker Kirche, St.Petersburg, Russland.
  •  
    Winding road in Valley of Fire
  •  
    Devil's Canyon (Utah)
  •  
    Antelope Canyon
  •  
  •  
  •  
    Minerali di Calcite di diversi colori pastello. Mostra di Minerali, Fossili e Conchiglie di Roma, Dicembre 2024
  •  
    Big Book Festival 2024
  •  
    Val Sinestra. Decorative tree stump surrounded by soft pastel autumn colours.
  •  
    Wasserfarbe des Roten Meeres. Aufgenommen in Ägypten. Makadi Bay. Hausriff des Hotels Grad Makadi.
  •  
    Boy is gazing out near pastel colored gate Tamilnadu, India
  •  
    Pastel blue Zeekr Mix MPV
  •  
    Pastel green Mango tree tender shoot Tamilnadu India.
  •  
    Cotton candy in pastel pink color, Shimla India
  •  
    Перед грозой
  •  
    Гортензия
  •  
    Люстра 5 лепестков
  •  
  •  
    Trabant in Sopron
  •  
    Breaking wave, Plage de Pors Péron, F
  •  
    Vaulted ceiling of Maulbronn Monastery Church, D
  •  
    Evening mood on the Læsø sand flats, DK
  •  
    Cotton candy on the Galli market, Leer, East Frisia, D
  •  
    Lake Salmozero (Kola Peninsula)
  •  
    Morgenröte mit Birke im Dezember
  •  
    An indoor bouldering gym
  •  
    Flowers of a cherry tree, genus Prunus, New Mexico, US
  •  
    Aphelocoma behind a juvenile Turdus migratorius, Colorado, US
  •  
    US Navy Leap Frogs at an airshow in Colorado, US
  •  
    Accipiter cooperii, New Mexico, US
  •  
    Detail of a cumulonimbus. Taken in Padua, Italy.
  •  
    Red Arrows flying the "Tornado" manoeuvre in evening light
  •  
    Pastel colors of of Pink Cadillac 1955 Fleetwood Series 60 Elvis (Las Vegas).
  •  
    Вид на с. Козьмодемьяновка Тамбовской обл. на закате в пастельных тонах
  •  
    White-eye and wild rose fruit
  •  
    Frog-headed tuktuk in Trang, Thailand
  •  
    coloured houses
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    A piece of rainbow cheesecake
  •  
    Weigela
  •  
    White-lilac Fiat 600 Multipla at Esens, Germany.
  •  
    Pink 1950 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible at Rastede, Germany.
  •  
    peinture
  •  
    Calcit. China. Terra Mineralia. Mineralienausstellung TU Bergakademie Freiberg.
  •  
    A Crab spider of some kind and Japanese Honeysuckle flowers.
  •  
    Erythronium japonicum flower, Midori-shi, Gumma-ken, Japan.
  •  
    A Butterfly stay with on the table
  •  
    Child flying a kite on the beach at sunset
  •  
    Nomenclature by plants (গাছ দিয়ে নাম লেখা)
  •  
    A Pond in R K Mission, Rahara
  •  
    Buds of Jacobaea maritima
  •  
    Deutzia
  •  
    Red-orange nimbostratus clouds in Banqiao, New Taipei
  •  
    Fungo Lepista nuda (Bull.) Cooke, parco urbano di Villa Ada, Roma
  •  
    tulipe
  •  
    Creative Floristik. Schmetterling. Aufgenommen bei der Ausstellung Chemnitzer Frühling 2019. Chemnitz, Sachsen.
  •  
    Fiori di una ortensia con tenui colori autunnali
  •  
    Heliconia rostrata in Forêt de Bébour (Réunion)
  •  
    Shinkansen E5 and E6 coupling in Japan
  •  
    Verso sera con cigni e riflessi pastello sul lago di Bracciano
  •  
    Pastel colors of the walls of the building of the Twelve Collegia
  •  
    Pastel colors of the sunset at Tikehau (French Polynesia)
  •  
    Pastel colors of the sunrise at Mount Fuji and Aokigahara forest (Japan)
  •  
    Peeling paint on an old railroad car
  •  
    A wall with layered beige and pastel-coloured tiles
  •  
    To submit pictures please follow this link

2024 – December – Footprints

The new challenge features footprints, hoofprint, pawprint, etc.

Ideally, each submission should contain a summary description of the subject in the file information, including the location of the subject, and relevant categories should be added to the files to enable other Commons users to find them and use them. Please take care not to violate copyright in respect of non-free creative works, and observe our educational project scope and the personality rights of identifiable people, or your files may be subject to deletion.

The challenge will remain open for submissions throughout December UTC.

Checklist for this theme:

  • Photographs must be the work of the nominator.
  • Photographs must be newly uploaded to Commons during the challenge submission period i.e. December 2024 UTC (but may have been taken earlier).
  • Submissions must be added to the top of the "Entries" section below.
  • Please do not nominate lots of similar photos; instead choose just your best and most varied images.

Add your entry between the <gallery> tags as indicated. Gallery entries are placed each on a new line, and consist of the filename, a vertical bar |, and a description. For example:

Electric steam iron.jpg|An electric steam iron

For help on the syntax of entries in a gallery see Help:Gallery tag. Please do not add square brackets [[ ]] or include a thumb parameter or the full URL. The File: prefix is not required, but harmless.

  • Restriction: A maximum of four entries can be submitted per photographer.

There are 20 days 6 hours left before this challenge ends. (refresh)


Examples

Entries

  •  
    Cat tracks in the snow in the field
  •  
    Tracks of european rabbit
  •  
    Tracks of a white wagtail
  •  
    muddy footprint
  •  
    Mudflat-hikers and their tracks
  •  
    Eastern wild turkey snow tracks, Rouge National Urban Park, Canada
  •  
    Fooprints of roe deer on soft ground close to the Vistula River bank
  •  
    Cat paw prints in the snow in the field
  •  
    Footprint of an Indian Peafowl Tamilnadu
  •  
    Firm footprint to follow
  •  
    Footprint on the ground
  •  
    Footprints to follow at the beach of Gopalpur on the sea
  •  
    Footprints are about to imprinted
  •  
    Faded footprints
  •  
    Looking back at the path
  •  
    Tracks of the former Berlin horse-drawn railroad in Reichenberger Str.
  •  
    Foot and tire imprint on a path on the banks of the Tiergarten in Berlin
  •  
    Prague Zoo Walk of Fame with cast of footprint of the horse of Przewalski
  •  
    Следы к океану
  •  
    Footprints of off-roaders after off-road competitions
  •  
    Walking along the shore on the Tersky coast
  •  
    Отпечаток следа КАМПТОЗАВРА. Экспонат музея ВСЕГЕИ, Санкт-Петербург 2H1A0382WI
  •  
    Fußabdrücke des Friedensnobelpreisträgers 2007 R.K. Patchauri. Aufgenommen in Stavanger, Norwegen.
  •  
    Fußabdrücke des Friedensnobelpreisträgers 2007 Albert Arnold (AL) Gore. Aufgenommen in Stavanger, Norwegen.
  •  
    Goat footprints in a dry terrain
  •  
    Impronte dello zoccolo di un cinghiale alla solfatara all'interno del Bosco Macchia Grande di Manziana
  •  
    noir et blanc
  •  
    Parking lot on a snowy morning
  •  
    Hasenspuren im Schnee. Aufgenommen im Erzgebirgskreis, Sachsen.
  •  
    Wet footprints of a grey heron.
  •  
    Bengal tiger footprint at Ranthambore National Park (India)
  •  
    Bengal tiger footprint alongside tyre marks at Ranthambore National Park (India)
  •  
    Bengal tiger footprint over tyre marks at Ranthambore National Park (India)
  •  
    Footprint set in concrete repair on pavement.
  •  
    To submit pictures please follow this link

Challenges open for voting

 

Voting is open to all registered contributors who have held accounts for at least 10 days and made 50 edits, and also to new Commons contributors who have entered the challenge with a picture. Users cannot vote for their own picture. Voters may select up to three photographs in each theme to award points and can give praise to other photos without awarding points. Voting will be open for one month. The votes not complying with those requirements will be removed or converted to praises. In some cases users might be asked to correct their votes after voting ends.



November 2024

Previous challenges

 


October 2024

September 2024

Roofs: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Altstadt Meißen, Dach Des Hauses Markt 3. Workers re-doing the artistic roof line
on a thatched cottage		 Holzschindeldach des
Frohnauer Hammer
(Sachsen)
Author Kora27 Cbuske46 YvoBentele
Score 19 18 8
Accessibility: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Fare gates at Stevens MRT station
in Singapore, including a wider
gate for priority users		 Wheelchair ramp, Confey
Railway Station, Ireland.		 Wheelchair racer during
Paralympic Games 2024
Author S5A-0043 Leimanbhradain Ibex73
Score 9 9 8

August 2024

Dust: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Mustangs in Colorado, USA, 1971 Dusty Billiard Table, former Pozzuolo
del Friuli barracks, Ferrara, Italy		 The Milky Way with cosmic dust
Author Foeniz Nicola Quirico Zwiebackgesicht
Score 13 10 7
Spices: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title The Christmas spices star anise, cinnamon and cloves Chili peppers at the market in Santanyí Blüte mit Safranfäden
Author F. Riedelio F. Riedelio Tetraeder
Score 17 6 6

July 2024

Manholes: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title A lion is coming from
a manhole, in León, Spain		 Manhole opened for
cleaning, Heidelberg		 Child coming out of a sump
Author Guy Delsaut Foeniz Saral Shots
Score 15 13 9
Breads: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title African bush squirrel
eating bread gotten
from tourists in Namibia		 A young man putting discs
of bread into the oven
in the Islamic Cairo section
of Cairo, Egypt.		 Bread being kneaded in a bakery in
Aalen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Author Lusi Lindwurm FischerFotos Mozzihh
Score 24 12 9

June 2024

Construction sites: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Carpenter working
on a concrete formwork		 Workers attaching
a chain to the Main
bridge in Ebing		 Demolition site of
the so-called Kaufhof store
"Tortenschachtel" (cake box)
on Berliner Platz
Author Ermell Ermell F. Riedelio
Score 17 14 11
Mushrooms: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Poisonous mushrooms
against a forest in
autumn, Wrzosów, Poland		 Mycena interrupta NZ
Author Ivonna Nowicka Famberhorst Haydenrjones
Score 15 13 9

May 2024

Waves: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title This was shot in Kakinada
Beach, shows struggle of
fishermen in middle of sea		 A wave painted with a white
neon lamp in a flashlight,
city beach in Płock, Poland.		 Port Saint-Michel in Batz-sur-Mer
Author Zahed.zk Lightpainterplock Ibex73
Score 28 19 11
Pets: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Australian Shepherd Dog Hachi and Boy Cat enjoying the sun between daisies
Author Ermell HachiBoy Lusi Lindwurm
Score 27 15 13

April 2024

Vertical lines: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Колонны здания администрации и
думы Новгородской области 2H1A4397WI		 Columns on the façade
of the Philharmonie
in Luxembourg		 Fassade Mark-
Twain-
Grundschule 02
Author Kora27 Ermell ThoBel-0043
Score 25 14 11
Flames: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Visitors at the 2024 Easter fire in Rottorf Campfire at lake Yngen,
Filipstad Municipality,
Värmland, Sweden		 Osterfeuer im
oberen Murtal
Author F. Riedelio Mozzihh Bitisajn
Score 21 14 10

March 2024

Grays: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Sieben graue Köpfe Reflections - Shyok River Nina-Replica
Author Mensch01 Prof Ranga Sai Wingerham52
Score 20 18 11
Courthouses: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Palazzo di Guistizia
with Courte di Cassazione
at river Tiber, Rome, Italy		 North facade of Palais de justice de Paris. Supreme Court of Finland at night
Author Mozzihh FreCha GPSLeo
Score 19 15 12

February 2024

Lunar New Year: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Dragon Dance, Oklahoma
City, OK, Lunar New
Year, 2024 (Year of the
Dragon)		 Sec. 1, Wuchang St.,
Taipei City, with LED
lights decorations above
on 2024 Chinese New Year		 Eu Tong Sen Street
in Chinatown, Singapore,
with CNY decorations above
Author OKJaguar Junyu-K S5A-0043
Score 11 9 9
Knots: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Boat knot Figure-eight loop
in mountaineering		 Root knot of
a beech tree
Author Teseo Wagner Cxxx Foeniz
Score 11 9 8

January 2024

Silos: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Garfield Grain Elevator and
Silos Garfield Washington USA		 Feed silos in Hirschbrunn
near Burgebrach		 Silos of the Hannoversche Portland
-Cementfabrik (abandoned in 1986)
Author DaveGinOly Ermell Hgrobe
Score 19 13 8
Masks: Entries • Votes • Scores
Rank 1 2 3
image      
Title Narrentag 2024 -
Elzacher Schuttig		 Kirchseoner Perchtenlauf
- old winter parade
tradition in Bavaria.
Mask of type "Klaubauf"		 Taken in Dublin, march 2014
Author Rainer Halama Würmchen-vom-Mölchlein Oncewerecolours
Score 13 13 10

Previous years

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