Wikipedia:Picture peer review/Eritrean Railway

Eritrean Railway

Self-nom. I've recently returned from a visit to this fascinating railway. This, I believe, is one of the best photographs I took of it, and would like some opinions on whether it could be made suitable for featured image or not. I don't have many skills or software for photo manipulation, so if anyone can improve things like colour balance, etc, this would be greatly appreciated.

Creator: Tivedshambo

Nominated by: — Tivedshambo _(t/c) 17:49, 12 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

I like both the lighting and the composition a lot, and I'm sure this would pass easily were its technical quality higher. However, noise-reduction artifacts and a general lack of sharpness would likely be major impediments at a nomination. Since EXIF shows your camera settings are just about optimal, I don't know what to suggest other than that it must be the camera. If you can re-take the picture under similar conditions with a higher-quality camera, that might push it into FP-territory. I doubt this would pass FP, but it remains an excellent addition to its article. Thegreenj 22:31, 12 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You're right about the camera - whilst it was one of the best in its price range when I bought it (nearly five years ago), it has seen a lot of use and is beginning to show its age. I hope to get a better camera soon, but it's unlikely I'll be back in Eritrea, at least in the foreseeable future. — Tivedshambo _{(t/c) (logged on as Pek)} 08:12, 13 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I really like this, and have done a small edit on it. I think it adds a bit more punch to the photo, but tried to avoid overdoing it. The original looked a bit washed out to me, which seems more common when shooting with small digicams, so I tried to account for that. Also did a bit of a sharpen. I didn't find the artefacts greenj mentions to be a deal breaker, but it does lack sharpness, and I think that would be the biggest issue. Bumping up the sharpness any more than this unfortunately did really bring out those artefacts. A downsize to about 1600px wide helps and still easily makes the FPC size limits, but consequently makes the central feature, the train, a bit insignificant in size. A bit more width would have been nice too, but the composition is pretty good. Personally I would support this at FPC despite it's technical faults. I think it's 'good enough' given the lack of photos of this part of the world. I can dump up a downsized version too if you'd like to look at it. --jjron (talk) 12:41, 14 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seconder

Nominated at FPC by Tivedshambo. --jjron (talk) 10:28, 29 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]