Wikipedia:Picture peer review/Loggerhead Shrike in Texas

Good photograph

Striking as a thumbnail, with a great perch and nice neutral background and lighting, this is much less rewarding at full size. I guess it's been heavily cropped from the full 10MP frame and possibly underexposed/corrected, making for a noisy sky and grainy-looking dark areas. A real pity, as one of these issues could be partially fixed well-enough for FPC, but not both. mikaul^talk 19:25, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

~~I think I could fix the background, if that is what you mean.~~ Snowman (talk) 20:50, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I mean it looks unfixable to FPC standards; you could fix the background but on the bird you'd still have a grain/detail payoff to deal with that doesn't look fixable to me. mikaul^talk 21:00, 7 December 2009 (UTC) <edit> Sorry, I should add this would probably pass at WP:VPICS as it is. mikaul^talk 21:05, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think that is it more difficult to fix than I first thought. Thank you for your comments. Incidentally, what software would fix the graininess in the sky? Snowman (talk) 23:32, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You could use a number of dedicated noise reduction programs – noise ninja or similar – but you'd only get good results by also using layers and masks in something like Photoshop, to selectively sharpen and soften the relevant parts. Personally, for an image like this, I think it's an affectation to go to such lengths. In print, there'd not be any grain... as it's way too small a file to make a print big enough to see it. As I say, it should pass at Valued Pictures as-is, maybe just a tiny crop from the left. mikaul^talk 08:46, 8 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think square images are the best shape for showing in gallerys, so I think I will leave it as a square. Snowman (talk) 15:08, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Crops don't bother me, agree that it looks like a tight crop. I don't think it would pass (FPC) on quality grounds. Noodle snacks (talk) 02:59, 13 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for comments. I overestimated the possibilities to repair it to FP level. Snowman (talk) 12:01, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Getting close enough to get a featured shot of a wild bird reliably is quite difficult without very expensive equipment unfortunately. Noodle snacks (talk) 12:34, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]