Info This is Roger Fenton's "Valley of the Shadow of Death" from the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized in Alfred Lord Tennyson'spoem. See this New York Times article for more about the photograph. Out of respect for editors who might object to any alteration to this famous image, I'm submitting two versions for consideration. The original is marked. My restoration addresses the scratches in the lower left corner, artifacts along the bottom and left sides, clears dirt and dust from the sky, and adjusts the levels. Created by Roger Fenton - uploaded by Durova - nominated by Durova. --Durova06:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting. See here where the writer concludes that the cannon balls in the road have definitely been placed there for the photograph. Also, this is not the valley down which the famous charge was made. --MichaelMaggs20:25, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Given the size of his photography van and the ongoing danger, it's unlikely that he would have been able to get much closer than this. Durova22:53, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The Library of Congress hosts a lot of beautifully scanned images with monstrous file sizes. Normally I bring them down to 3000 pixels on whichever side is longer for FPC nomination. This wasn't too much larger than that so I left it be. If that's a real problem for you then I'd be glad to downsample. Durova21:43, 27 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose why? It's a dirt road, there are a couple of canon balls that seem to be placed there, it's crappy low quality .. so why should this be featured? -- Gorgo14:12, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It's from the Crimean War - probably the first war ever documented on film. In the earliest days of wartime photography, bodies weren't shown. And a couple of wars after this when they did show casualties, it was always the enemy rather than one's own dead. And it's among the most famous photographs from that war. In order to record this photograph, Fenton had to bring along an entire wagon of equipment the size of a U-Haul and had to develop his prints right out in the field. That was state of the art technology, 1855. Considering how his equipment made him a target and the enemy position hadn't been taken and the cannonballs did reach this far, there was some bravery involved in this. It's the danger implied by this photograph that people reacted to, because they'd read Tennyson's poem and the news reports and they understood what those cannonballs implied. Durova18:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
This might be the case, but I can't see any of this in this picture, after all it could have been taken months or even years later. I think a truly excellent picture doesn't need a huge explanation for someone to appreciate it's value and it's beauty. Don't get me wrong, it's a good picture and I really appreciate that you cleaned it up, but I don't think this is one of the finest images on commons/ever taken. -- Gorgo03:59, 31 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
There's extensive documentation of his travels while the war was ongoing, including over 200 photographs of the camps and his journal entries for his activities on this day. Durova04:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Info This is Roger Fenton's "Valley of the Shadow of Death" from the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized in Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem. See this New York Times article for more about the photograph. Out of respect for editors who might object to any alteration to this famous image, I'm submitting two versions for consideration. The original is marked. My restoration addresses the scratches in the lower left corner, artifacts along the bottom and left sides, clears dirt and dust from the sky, and adjusts the levels. Created by Roger Fenton - uploaded by Durova - nominated by Durova. --Durova 06:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Support --Durova 06:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Neutral now, for reasons given below.--MichaelMaggs 22:48, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Question Why is the file size so big? I feel that it would be much better if we simply downscaled the image a bit as it looks 'upscanned'. Freedom to share 21:12, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Oppose I don´t see anything special on this image. --Karelj 23:22, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Comment please state reason for opposition as a courtesy to the author/uploader. Lycaon 06:52, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
