Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Mermaid Parade (60132).jpg

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File:Mermaid Parade (60132).jpg, featured[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 12 Jul 2018 at 20:58:36 (UTC)
Visit the nomination page to add or modify image notes.

Man with a rainbow beard at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade
  • Basile Morin, my money is that this is a crop of a horizontal aspect photo. If so, the maths comes to a 48mm lens. Whether 48 or 63, neither are good choices for a head-only portrait. The recommended length for that is 85, 100 or 135 lenses. Maths aside, the result is a big close nose and small far ears. And that's not a feature of the focal length but simply about camera-to-subject distance. The longer focal length simply lets you stand further back. -- Colin (talk) 08:19, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • Disagree. My money is that this is a crop of a horizontal aspect photo too, BUT then the lost space is exactly the same, and the math correct : 63mm, not 48mm. And 63mm is very near the "perfection", see en:Portrait_photography. In addition, a wide angle in this particular situation would be a perfectly legitimate choice, because it's a funny picture, so such distorsions would add something extra, like for the comic actor Jimmy Durante who naturally had a big nose and that all the photographers shot very close. But to see comparisons face aspect vs focal length. Best -- Basile Morin (talk) 08:39, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
What you're trying to work out with the maths is the equivalent lens that would have created this image, which is in portrait orientation, were it uncropped and taken holding the camera in the desired orientation. So, your maths is wrong, if the crop is what we guess. I don't get my advice on portrait photography from Wikipedia, I have some books by real experts. The pro's take portait photos in portrait orientation and use significantly longer lenses. There is a difference between a head-and-shoulders upper-body portrait, where 70mm would be your minimum and 85 better, and a close head-only crop, where 85 would be your minimum and 100+ better. 48 and 63 are a million miles away from "very near perfection". Also, please never link to raw images on Pinterest -- that's a total copyright theft there because that work is copyright Stephen Eastwood and he should be credited. The beard is funny; his expression is not. The "distortion is funny" card isn't a get-out-of-jail free for basic mistakes. Even a man with a colourful beard deserves to have a flattering photo featured on Commons. I don't like laughing at strangers. -- Colin (talk) 09:33, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
"I don't like laughing at strangers " -- Basile Morin (talk) 09:52, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support - Rainbow beard and mustache for the win! Uoaei1, many New Yorkers have noses this big if not bigger. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:57, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose The subject is great but the portrait isn't. As noted above, the camera is too close to the subject to give flattering facial proportions. Angle of view is a little low, like he is taller than you and you are close, looking up. Were you holding the camera out in front of you rather than to your eye? There's a dark diagonal line coming out of his head. His expression is passive, whereas I'd expect a festival photo to show some joy and engagement. -- Colin (talk) 08:19, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Uoaei1, Colin, and Basile Morin: Thanks for the comments. Here's some background: It was taken with an Olympus E-M5 mii MFT camera with the Panasonic Lumix G II 20mm f1.7 prime lens (so yeah, equivalent to 40mm FF). The original orientation is in fact vertical. I would estimate the subject and I are close to the same height, but I held the camera level with the beard and tilted slightly upward. I took a few pictures in quick succession. There's one of him smiling, but it's kind of an awkward mouth-only picture-taking half-smile and I didn't bother to upload it. It's cropped because the background was lousy and, again, it's really all about that beard. This was in an auditorium on Coney Island that served both as one of the parade's staging areas and the "photographer's pass" area. Not a great setting for this kind of subject if you ask me, but it's the only place where you can take pictures of the parade marchers standing still. Maybe next year I'll sneak in a backdrop/stand. :) You can get a better idea of the background (and proportions) in this other picture of him. He's smiling in that one, but the background is rough, and while the pun made me smirk, it's again, all about that beard. :) — Rhododendrites talk |  15:04, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the info. Compared to the other image, the mermaid aspect is mostly lost on this one, leaving just an LGBT beard parade :-). And he looks much happier to be photographed in the other. But the background sucks in that one. -- Colin (talk) 15:10, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It's true that this image doesn't really capture the nautical theme, but I don't know if the context matters all that much in this case. I'd be just as happy to see a guy with a rainbow beard walking down the street. :) (and even if the other one were a good picture I wouldn't be nominating it. almost didn't upload it -- not because it's cheesy, but because it's basically an ad for Tide). — Rhododendrites talk |  15:22, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmed results:
Result: 10 support, 1 oppose, 0 neutral → featured. /George Chernilevsky talk 21:17, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
This image will be added to the FP gallery: People
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