Understand spoken language

Pixabay

Submitted by admin on 1 August 2015

Pixabay

We generally use https://pixabay.com/ to find photos for Lingopolo where possible.

We use Pixabay because:

  • they have a very large collection, so it's generally easy to find good photos
  • there are no copyright issues. Photos from elsewhere we generally cannot use because they are copyright. All Pixabay ones are fine for us to use though.
  • the photos are free, even for commercial use (i.e. we can use them for Lingopolo without having to pay)
  • no attribution is required, meaning we don't have to fiddle around with adding a link to the source on a photo by photo basis

Examples of Lingopolo use:

Words or phrases?

Generally we will only look for pictures for individual words, not phrases. However, if the phrase is simple, such as "A man and a woman" and a relevant photo can be easily found, then it is good to do so.

No relevant photo available?

It is relatively easy to find a good photo for very concrete nouns like wolf, taxi, toothbrush, calf, but it is much more difficult to find good photos for abstract concepts like "but", "to be", "then". No worries, skip having a photo. We will not have photos for every word. We already will not have photos for 99% of phrases, so the fact that some or many words will not have a photo is OK.

Choose a photo that is as stereotypical for the word as possible

The aim is to find photos which are as stereotypical for the word as possible. For example, if you look at pixabay photos for airplane, you will see a wide choice. Some photos don't even show a plane at all. Some show only part of a plane, or multiple planes. Some show strange looking planes. The objective for Lingopolo is to find one which most clearly illustrates the word. The more beautiful and stunning the photo, the better, but clarity relating to the word is more important. See airplane on Lingopolo to see the photo selected.

Match singular and plural

Where possible, match the singular of a word with a picture of a single occurrence of that word, and likewise if the word is the plural version, try and find a picture which has a plural number. For example, if the word is "airplane", the picture should ideally have only one airplane in the picture, e.g. http://lingopolo.com/thai/word/airplane.

Examples:

Choose a picture with a single, obvious subject

The picture should have as few other things in it which might confuse the student as to what the picture is showing. A question to ask yourself is, "If someone saw just the picture, what would they say guess the word or phrase which goes with it is?".

Good examples:

Poor photos:

  • airplane, or is it a photo of a car wing mirror? Better to choose a picture without the wing mirror.
  • ants, but is it a photo of the animal they are pulling? Better to choose one with only ants.

Use the complete object rather than just a part

When selecting a photo, generally try and select a photo of the complete object rather than just a part of the object.

For example, for airplane:

Sometimes the photo is so good and unambiguous that it is possible to get away without the whole object, and having less background makes it very clear what the subject of the photo is, for example:

Use general photo, or specific photo as appropriate

When a word is a general word like "bird" or "cow", try not to use a photo which would illustrate a more obviously specific version such as "flamingo" (which though a bird, will best be kept for the "flamingo" word), or a baby cow which will be needed for the word "calf".

Do not download the copyright "Shutterstock" photos

Please don't use the "shutterstock" photos on the first row of every page. These are copyright and paid, and are shown to finance Pixabay and to provide a choice of professional photos.

Shutterstock

The shutterstock photos are nonetheless often good guides as to a good photo for the word

Although we don't download the shutterstock photos, looking at them is often helpful when thinking about what would be a good photo to illustrate the particular word.

For example, on the pixabay page showing photos for the word "pilot", you will see that the shutterstock photos are very good examples of the stereotypical image in many people's minds for the word "pilot". Compare these photos with the free pixabay ones, and you will have an idea of the sort of photo which might serve for Lingopolo.

You can check out the Lingopolo pilot page to see which one is currently used.

Select horizontal orientation

In general select  only photos with Horizontal orientation:

pixabay photos horizontal

Exceptions are looked at case by case.

Where there are not many photos at all, you can switch off "Horizontal" orientation to find more, and then maybe use a Vertical orientation photo but crop it to the standard horizontal format.

Using "Favorites" to collect candidates

Sometimes it's easy to find a good photo. Where it's a little trickier, you can mark possible candidates as "Favorite" and then review those collected before deciding.

For example, looking for hair on Pixabay, there are not so many photos just of hair. However, by clicking on the "Favorite" button on possible candidates can help:

clicking Favorite

Soon you have in your profile a list of "Favorites" from which you can choose the best:

pixabay my Favorites

Size

The ideal size is:

1920 x 1280

If this size, or something very similar, does not exist on pixabay, download a bigger version, rather than a smaller version.

Lingopolo will automatically create different sized versions from this source, e.g. 480 pixels wide for a standard page like http://lingopolo.com/french/word/dog.

Filename

Please save the file from pixabay with a filename beginning with the word which the photo will be used for. For example, if the word is "eyes", the pixabay image may have a name like "beautiful-2314_1920.jpg", but save rather as "eyes-2314_1920.jpg".

Attaching a photo to a Lingopolo page

Attaching a photo to a Lingopolo page is very easy. Select the "Choose File" button to select the file. You can either then click Upload, or click Save directly and the upload will be performed.

Photos on white backgrounds can look especially good

A photo on a white background can look especially good:

There are not many such photos, but where you see one, it should definitely be considered as a candidate.

Editing photos?

Editing photos should generally be unnecessary, as there are usually good, clear photos available. Basically, it's relatively time consuming, compared to just choosing another photo. However, sometimes it's easier than hunting a long time.

For example, for the word bath, when we look for bath on pixabay, there are not many photos easily just of a bath. One good photo https://pixabay.com/en/bath-bad-tub-bathroom-apartment-3148/ shows a whole bathroom, but a simple crop on the photo gives a good photo for just the word bath.

Similarly, for the word hand, when we look for hand on pixabay, there are not many photos simply showing a hand. One good photo https://pixabay.com/en/hand-photography-palm-finger-357335/ is wonderfully simple and clear, but the original is square (1920 x 1920), so a simple crop resized it to 1920 x 1303, a more Lingopolo standard size http://lingopolo.com/french/word/hand.

Automatic photo grabbing

When  a content editor (that's you or I) visit a page, the system automatically checks to see if a photo exists for the same word in another language. If so, then it automatically copies the photo across to the current page.

Photo copied automatically

This is done only when there is a 100% match on the English title. So, for example, "black (masculine)" in French will not automatically copy from "black" in Thai.

Thank the pixabay photo supplier

Firstly, if you use a photo from pixabay, please firstly click the "Like" button for the photo! 

Please also add on pixabay a comment thanking the person who has provided the particular photo:

  1. we get high quality photos which people have provided for free, and the least we can do is thank them for their work. Suggestions of things to include:
    • thanks: this is the main thing, simply because it is nice to be thanked and have appreciation
    • say why you particularly chose their photo over all the others (often clarity of illustration of the word is the reason). You know the reason why you chose the one you did, and it's nice for them to know that reason.
    • include a link to the Lingopolo page where the photo is: it is nice for them to know how/where the photos are being used
  2. links to Lingopolo are always useful for helping people accidentally discovering Lingopolo

Examples of pages where thanks have been added:

And finally, the following examples show just how much people appreciate the thanks and the link:

There are some photos which have simply been copied from public domain sources, in which case the user will be listed as PublicDomainPictures. In that case, there is nobody to appreciate thanks, but notheless, it is still worth adding a link stating where it is used for the reasons of SEO and helping Lingopolo to be accidentally discovered, e.g: