Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Ansel Adams - National Archives 79-AA-E23 levels adj.jpg

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File:Ansel Adams - National Archives 79-AA-E23 levels adj.jpg, featured[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 2 Nov 2021 at 19:22:01 (UTC)
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Close-up of leaves, from directly above, "In Glacier National Park," Montana
  • Gallery: Commons:Featured pictures/Plants
  •  Info created by Ansel Adams, uploaded by Kaldari, nominated by Yann (talk)
  •  Support Lovely leaves texture, by a famous photographer. -- Yann (talk) 19:22, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Stunning Seven Pandas (talk) 23:01, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose this specific digitally modified version with a local adjustment in the upper left corner (according to the RetouchedPicture Template at the bottom). Ansel Adams was a (maybe the) master of the darkroom print, inventor of the zone system. Careful manipulation of tones was his thing, doing print after print with minor tweaks until he got it just right. I think it's safe to assume that if he had wanted that milkiness in the corner removed he would have done that. Note that (similar to adding a vignette) reducing contrast at the edges is a method to make things in the centre "pop" more, so this may well have been done on purpose as an artistic choice. I don't think doing anything other than global adjustments on the scan (setting black and white points etc.) is appropriate here.
And even global adjustments should be done with great care. Some of the leaves in the third row that are clearly visible as mid-tones in the unedited version are now disappearing into the shadows (it helps to look at the files at some distance or smaller sizes in this case). Since the original scan seems to be of decent quality, unless you have the actual print in your hand for reference, it does not make sense to make any adjustments here at all, imo. --El Grafo (talk) 09:31, 25 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@El Grafo: Thanks for your detailed analysis. Should I offer the original image as an alternative? Yann (talk) 18:25, 25 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Yann: worth a try, I'd support it! --El Grafo (talk) 07:29, 26 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

File:Ansel Adams - National Archives 79-AA-E23.jpg[edit]

Close-up of leaves, from directly above, "In Glacier National Park," Montana
  •  Oppose That's what NARA has freely offered so far. Sadly, high-res scans, with or without borders (not crucial to me) don't seem to be available. Adam's work should be PD by now, at least in many cases. Anyway, I don't consider this image to rank among Adam's finest or most exemplary photographs. --Martin Falbisoner (talk) 16:00, 27 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Daniel Case (talk) 21:13, 27 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Genre-wise, Adams is mainly known for his black-and-white langscapes. But, as I wrote above, he's also a master of the darkroom printing process. I'm by no means an expert, and while I have shot a couple rolls of BW film in the last years, I have never done a print myself. That being said, I think this is an excellent demonstration on how to use tone (i.e. different shades of grey) to shape a BW photograph. The "negative vignette" has already been mentioned above. Notice how the different layers are separated by different tones all the way to the back where the bottom layer of fern is just about bright enough to clearly peek out of the deep shadows. Notice how there are clearly defined textures from the brightest highlights to all but the darkest shadows. And all of that from a single exposure (well, two if you count the print itself).
Also, in terms of composition, there is a surprising amount order/structure in what at a first glance looks like a random snap of some leaves. The shiny maple leaf in the centre is sitting on a foundation of more shiny leaves. The next layer of fern and conifers embraces the central leaf (follow the major lines of the twigs: they form a circle).
The white border is there, because this was hand-printed in the darkroom, not in a drug store's minilab. Adams did not crop it, so why should we? We don't crop excess borders of paintings or maps either.
The WOW in this image is not something that jumps straight at you from the first sight. It requires the viewer to investigate the image closely (the image as a whole, not the individual pixels/grains it is made of), and it may require some background knowledge. Maybe I'm biased because of its author, but you can see from this wall of text that I am very much WOWed by the amount of craftsmanship and skill that went into this seemingly simple image of a couple of leaves. --El Grafo (talk) 09:47, 28 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmed results:
Result: 7 support, 1 oppose, 0 neutral → featured. /--A.Savin 22:40, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This image will be added to the FP gallery: Plants#Family : Onocleaceae
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