Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:The Shard from the Sky Garden 2015.jpg
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File:The Shard from the Sky Garden 2015.jpg, featured
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Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 13 May 2015 at 22:55:07 (UTC)
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- Category: Commons:Featured pictures/Places/Architecture/Towers
Info At 306m, The Shard is the tallest skyscraper in the European Union, and over twice the height of Guy's Hospital hiding behind it (the tallest hospital in the world). The people walking at the bottom of this tower are approximately 170 × smaller than the building. This photo was taken from the balcony of the "Sky Garden" at the top of the "Walkie-Talkie". That viewpoint is approximately half as high as the Shard is tall, and 750m distant. Created, uploaded and nominated by Colin.
Support The photo wasn't easy to take as the "Sky Garden" balcony is surrounded by glass that a detrimental effect on quality, and tripods are not allowed. What elevates this photo above QI are:
- The image is a sharp 60MP resolution, which is about 2.8m tall on a standard 100dpi monitor screen.
- The viewpoint, at mid height and approximately twice as distant as the building is tall, is ideal for photographing skyscrapers since it does not suffer from vertical perspective distortions -- the proportions are true.
- All 306m of the tower are visible from base to top, which is very unusual in London unless one is standing at the base.
- A window is open to allow a window-cleaning crane to protrude. Or perhaps to fly a Millennium Falcon inside. -- Colin (talk) 22:55, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support convinced ;-) --Martin Falbisoner (talk) 23:38, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support 😄 ArionEstar 😜 (talk) 23:58, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support, although the time of day doesn't seem ideal for photographing the Shard from this angle. This is almost certainly the best publicly accessible vantage point for photographing the Shard. (I know because I had considered it prior to the opening of the Sky Garden!) Diliff (talk) 00:30, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks Diliff. I would like to go back during the blue-hour when it is lit up, and try to get permission to take a tripod. It wouldn't be possible during normal open-hours as a tripod would obstruct people in the relatively narrow and busy balcony. And I'd need them to turn the lights off, or use some black sheeting/box to avoid reflections. Or buy a really really tall tripod that gets above the glass barrier. Or get a trip in one of those window-cleaning cranes... -- Colin (talk) 08:45, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support though lighting could be a bit better. --King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 01:07, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support amazing work, Colin. --Abd (talk) 01:15, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support Thank you for explaining the issues involved in creating this image in such detail. That level of detail, nonetheless, is dwarfed by what's in that image. In that portal open to tractor-beam in the Millenium Falcon, for instance, we can not only see a sort of wavy-line design (the Imperial logo? Stormtroopers waiting at attention?
), we can see that the light is on. Daniel Case (talk) 03:25, 5 May 2015 (UTC) - Support Thanks for the thorough explanation of the circumstances of the shot. And an amazing picture. --Pugilist (talk) 05:10, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support Yann (talk) 06:54, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support -- Pofka (talk) 07:34, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support good city view but perhaps you can clone out the disturbing skyscraper in the foreground?--ArildV (talk) 08:05, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- :-) I'm no fan of it. It looks like someone took the set squares out of their childhood stationary set and spent a few minutes drawing something tall and pointy. Unlike the towers Britain used to build, which reward close examination, when you zoom in to this one you just see flat glass and steel. And compared to other modern skyscrapers even the glass is boring. -- Colin (talk) 08:45, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Code (talk) 08:40, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support Good job. -- -donald- (talk) 10:05, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Tremonist (talk) 13:43, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support amazing photographic skill, that red cranes are for a building's construction? if so it's a pity this superb view will not be seen in the future. --Laitche (talk) 18:19, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support -- Christian Ferrer 18:24, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support The only thing that could improve this would be better lighting, imho. The chosen vantage point seems indeed ideal. Congratulations! --El Grafo (talk) 10:10, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks. I agree the about the lighting. I should admit that the vantage point is probably best for obtaining the full view of the building from top-to-bottom, but does make it harder to see that the Shard isn't a simple pyramid. If you look at File:Tower Bridge view at dawn crop.jpg, you can see that the side of the building that faces the Walkie-Talkie has a triangular wedge that sticks out. That is less obvious in this photo. However, as Laitche notes, it is possible that someone is building something to obscure the base from this direction too. One can't get all aspects perhaps, unless WMF want to charter a helicopter to take aerial pictures. -- Colin (talk) 10:56, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support You couldn't have taken the picture when the Greenpeace protesters were climbing the building? ;-) -- KTC (talk) 12:31, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support Good work --· Favalli ⟡ 01:24, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support --Ralf Roleček 19:38, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
- Support Colors are too grey/monochrome and lighting is not bad but it is not adding interest to the picture, probably at dust or dawn the result would have been better (looking at the opening hours it looks like dawn isn't possible, but dusk). Still, outstanding quality of a very significant subject in London for which we don't have a HQ picture like this. Poco2 09:52, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
Confirmed results:
This image will be added to the FP gallery: Places/Architecture/Towers
