Wikipedia:Picture peer review/Sundogs

Sundogs

Nominated by: Tempshill (talk) 19:52, 6 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comments: This is a gorgeous photo of a really unusual phenomenon. Photo taken by the uploader. (I don't have any connection with the photo, I just happened upon it at the Sun dogs article.)

It's definitely a strange phenomenon, and I'm not sure what to say about the image itself. I can say definitively (at least IMO) that it is a little noisy in the sky, a little tight on the left and right, and there may also be a little too much foreground. Second, even if the picture is on a hill, I think it is still slightly tilted to the left (looking at the telephone poles, trees, etc). Hard to tell though, as there are very few references, but an ideal photo would have a completely level horizon. Next, the secondary elements of this picture are not very sharp (I'm not sure, but parts of the snow directly under the real sun in the foreground may be artifacted--second opinion?), but as they are not the main subject, this is not as big of a problem as it normally would be. As for the subject itself, the parts are obviously overexposed </understatement> and not very easy to look at, which although unavoidable, still doesn't help the picture's chances at FPC. What this picture has going for it is the strangeness of subject matter (and the fact that the blown parts are unavoidably in a picture of the subject). With a one or two degree cw rotation, this nom isn't hopeless, but dubious; I would lean toward a "not promoted" outcome. W/out a second opinion to the contrary, I would nevertheless go ahead and nominate it and see (but I won't second, as that implies a level of support and assurance that I'm not sure I can give). I realize the mess of thoughts above is largely unhelpful and vacillating, and for that I apologize. Thanks for nominating here. --Malachirality (talk) 02:50, 7 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the review---I took this photo, by the way. I think Malachirality has a lot of good comments about the image. I tried the best I could with the equipment and circumstances at hand (driving through the Minnesota backroads with, at the time, a Cannon Powershot A20). I'm very happy with the number of nice comments I get from people who are touched by this photograph, and it has shown up around the internet and in publications. I would really like to expand the audience for this image and if anyone is interested in helping me improve the quality of this photo to get it featured, I'd like to hear your comments. I don't have have a lot of high-level experience with photography, I'm just a graduate student in engineering who lucked out with this particular situation. I also shouldn't second this image because that would probably be a conflict of interest...

Axda0002 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 19:26, 8 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You don't have to second; just directly nominate to FPC. Self noms are considered perfectly acceptable (if you can read random strangers' criticisms of your photography with a level head). Unfortunately, I have neither software nor experience for photo editing, so I can't help you out there. It's a good image (esp. considering equipment and conditions etc.) and a valuable contribution. --Malachirality (talk) 20:19, 8 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'll have a shot at touching it up a bit. --jjron (talk) 13:03, 12 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Seconder:

Edited version nominated at FPC as Sun dogs on 19 December 2007. --jjron (talk) 05:07, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]