Commons:Featured picture candidates/Image:Passchendaele aerial view.jpg

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Image:Passchendaele aerial view.jpg - not featured[edit]

Aerial view of the village of Passchendaele (North is to the right of the photo) before and after the Third Battle of Ypres, 1917.

  •  Info Aerial view of the village of Passchendaele (North is to the right of the photo) before and after the Third Battle of Ypres, 1917. Image created by the United Kingdom Government, uploaded by User:Gsl and nominated by Ben Aveling 23:23, 26 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support I know how many of our technical rules this image breaks. But it reduces me to tears. Regards, Ben Aveling 23:23, 26 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support It made me stop an look, and go read the wikipedia page. I found it hard to understand what the second image was showing, now I realise the roads are masked by the sea of mud, and those dimples are the craters from 1 million artillery shells per square mile. Certainly a high value picture, the world needs reminding of the stupidity of war - 750000 people died here in 'the war to end all wars' --Tony Wills 07:52, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support probably this image won't be featured because of low res, anyway, I add my vote due to its great historical value. Ziga 09:10, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose as this is a digitized (scanned) version of an analog photograph, there is no mitigation for the abysmal resolution, historical value (of which I am convinced, btw) notwithstanding. Lycaon 11:21, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Info I think it might be a scan from the book "Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front" by Richard Holmes. Does anyone know if photos are available directly from the Imperial War Museum? --Tony Wills 12:35, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Info They've got it online, but it's not clear how to get a soft copy of it. See [1] (I hope that link works, if not, go to [2] and search for image Q 42918A.) Regards, Ben Aveling 13:05, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Online version is just a thumbnail, £7.50 gets you an A4 copy --Tony Wills 20:48, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose I agree with lyacon, this is probably a bad scan from a book. Scanning this with a better scanner would probably already result in a better image. -- Gorgo 13:11, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Neutral I live in this area. Passendale (or Passchendaele as it was called during the First World War) was only one of the many towns that were completely destroyed during the battles round Ypres. The entire area, for miles and miles, was completely destroyed. The woods, the farms, the little rivers, ... absolutely everything, there was no tree left alive. This image gives the impression that only the buildings of the towns were destroyed. In the entrance hall of Tyne Cot cemetery where some soldiers who died during this battle are buried, a mosaic of multiple areal photographs is shown, of which this is only one (a big "collage" that show the situation before and after the battle, a few months and more than half a million deaths later). I'd appreciate it very much if someone would find that hi-res mosaic, which shows that the destruction was on a far larger scale than shown on this image. That mosaic would show the situation better than this one. When you look at that mosaic, tears start rolling every time. Tbc 17:39, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose as Lyacon --Karelj 19:49, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose Historical value is of course immense, and the world needs indeed to be reminded again and again of the stupidity of all wars (and the stupidity of people promoting wars...). But this does not compensate the very poor technical quality of these pictures, which are definitely not FP. -- MJJR 20:42, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Comment The quality of this picture is not measured in dots per inch. Sometimes you don't need a million pixels to have an emotional impact. Would a higher resolution version have more impact? I suspect not. But the point is moot, we don't have a technically perfect version, there is no technically perfect version of this photo. We aren't voting on photos we'd like to have if they existed. We are simply deciding, as is, where is, is this one of our most important images? Not prettiest, not most technically excellent, just most valuable. I will order a hardcopy and if a better quality scan is possible, I will do it. But it will not have a million pixels. If that is your measure of quality, then vote No now. If this picture, as is, doesn't touch you, then vote No. Otherwise, vote Yes. Regards, Ben Aveling 22:45, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Comment This picture is not as good as this FP. -- Ram-Man 02:03, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    •  Comment Technically, no, this image is weaker. But emotionally? I don't want to get into comparisons, but for me, the Passchendale images hit harder. I'm not sure if a logical explaination of an emotion is useful, or even possible. This is emotional. There's no absolute scientific formulae to calculate the worth of a picture. Suffice to say that it moves me. Regards, Ben Aveling 04:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • I was referring only to the technical quality and using the previous FP as a benchmark. Judging emotional appeal is near impossible, as you say. -- Ram-Man 14:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Comment At the Imperial War Museum (London) they have lots of glass negatives of such striking pictures from WWI, which can perfectly be scanned according to modern digital standards -- MJJR 19:32, 28 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Withdraw. I've ordered a copy of the image. I'll be renominate when I know what I can get out of a scan of it. Regards, Ben Aveling 13:40, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
 Withdrawn by nominator >> not featured - Alvesgaspar 23:09, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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