Commons:Photography critiques/January 2012

January 2012

Decorated room, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

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The light condition was very difficult: very bright at the top, very dark at the bottom, and yellow light from the lamps, sunlight from the window. Comments, suggestions? Thanks, Yann (talk) 19:52, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

You get better results in such cases with exposure bracketing (several photos with different exposure; tripod required) and combining the different takes with a suitable software, cf. [High dynamic range imaging]. -- Norbert Nagel (talk) 21:59, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately, a tripod is not allowed in most places like this. Yann (talk) 06:07, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

London Underground A62 Stock (left image) --- vs. --- CTA red line rerouted (right image)

vs.

Good evening Wikimedians: inspired by File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg, I'd like to see how I could improve the above image into FI or QI status. Thank you. --Marianian (talk) 21:12, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi,
feel free to nominate your photo here Quality_images_candidates or here Featured_picture_candidates after reading my message below. There is never a guarantee that a photo reaches QI and FI status, because there is an area of descretion in the judement of the reviewer(s) to some extent. For QI, the area of descretion is smaller because the technical criteria are most relevant but light situation and image composition can and should IMO also be taken into account. For FI, briefly speaking, the demanded WOW-factor induces a large area of descretion for the voters. Concerning the file File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg (right image)), QI is OK for me, but I wouldn't have voted for it to become a FI.

My general recommendation if you want to produce photos, which have a likelihood to reach QI status:
1) Read the QI critera on Wikimedia Commons carefully and have them in mind when taking/editing/judging your pictures.
2) Have a regular look at the QI candidates list and read the discussions, why individual photos are promoted or why the promotion is declined. This will give you a feeling about the chances of your photos.
3) Don't be discouraged, if your first candidates are rejected.

My recommendation concerning your photo above:
I'm really not sure, whether editing of your photo can significantly improve the chance, that it gets promoted to QI status. My recommendations for your next photo at this location are...
1) Choose ISO100 instead of ISO400, this photo is relatively noisy, which you can see, when you zoom in. Much more noisy than File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg. I think, this is the main problem with you photo. (Or the JPEG compression is too high and you have JPEG artifacts. Choose always the highest image quality/largest image size in your camera settings. Based on the file size of your photo, I don't think the problem is a high JPEG compression.)
2) May be: Choose an aperture smaller than f/4.5 (e.g. f/8), the depth of field is only in the foreground and IMO too small. Well, I notice, that the photo File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg has also a quite small depth of field. An open aperture, i.e. a small depth of field can also be a design element.
3) Choose a day and time with a better light situation. The light in your photo is relatively dull. Sunshine in the morning or late afternoon is usually very good. I know, also no bright sunshine in File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg.

When directly comparing your image with File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg, they look only on first sight very similar (trains in same orientation). There is not only the difference in noise. The image composition and the colors of File:CTA red line rerouted.jpg are more harmonious in my opinion. The motif is more tidy and stylish, which may be reason for the promotion to FI. Well, a clear advantage of your photo is the smile of the train driver: :-)

Hope, this helps, best regards -- Norbert Nagel (talk) 22:51, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

March

Cruise ship AIDAblu

Same ship, around half an hour later

How likely is it that I can get this picture promoted as FP or QI, or is it a VI within the scope "AIDAblu"? Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 04:26, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately the ship is darker than the background at first glance, but is the sunset feeling your intention? --Marianian (talk) 21:13, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

I took the photograph early in a morning of July not long after sunrise and the lighting pleases me, so yes. Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 19:11, 15 January 2012 (UTC)