Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Highway 401 Collector Lanes

Hghway 401 Collector Lanes at Weston Road edit

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 26 May 2010 at 05:45:03 (UTC)

Original - A centralized look at Highway 401's eastbound collector lanes.

Edit - License plates blurred and left part of the picture cropped to get rid of the light pole that is cut-off.

Reason: Very high quality image, shows significant detail of the collector / express system on the busiest highway in North America (might be the busiest in the world).

This picture puts the viewer right in the driver's seat, like they're actually on the highway. It is in this way that the scale of the highway overwhelms the average viewer, indicating to them that this is more than just a typical urban highway.

Articles in which this image appears: Highway 401, Local-express lanes, Interchange (road)
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Engineering and technology/Others
Creator: James Bancroft (Attribution)

Support as nominator --Haljackey (talk) 05:45, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose A nice and sharp image. However, the composition is lacking. I believe a shot taken from away from the highway rather than on it would make for a better photo. Also, the cutoff light post on the left is distracting. Jujutacular ^T · C 06:59, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- What do you mean by the composition is lacking? What can be done to improve this? The goal of this picture is to put the viewer in the driver's seat. As for the light post, would you support this picture if that was cropped out? Haljackey (talk) 18:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - I have uploaded a version with the left side cropped out to get rid of the light pole. Do you like this version better? Haljackey (talk) 19:24, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - I do like that version better. However, I feel an image from a higher vantage point would be superior. Jujutacular ^T · C 20:47, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: The registration plates really should be blurred. J Milburn (talk) 09:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Question Just out of a safety interest, who took the picture? the position in the lane relative to the centre of the picture would seem to indicate this was taken by the person in the left hand seat - that would make it the driver no? If so this is not very safe... Just thought I'd point this out as it's not a good advert for road safety if it turns out the cameraman is also the driver... Gazhiley (talk) 14:38, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- God, you're right. Let's hope this was actually taken by someone stood in the middle of the lane, and not a driver. For safety's sake. J Milburn (talk) 15:02, 17 May 2010 (UTC) (This wasn't meant to be aggressive, your comment just made me giggle.)[reply]
  - Heh, given the highway that it is, I think standing in the road would be a thousand times more dangerous. I agree that though this is a nice sharp image, we have several better compositions with artistic quality to them. This image is just raw information. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 15:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - I believe the camera was mounted on the dashboard (in front of the steering wheel). The author took several pictures of this stretch, so I assume it was on an automatic shooting mode. I agree that the license plates will need to be blurred/edited if the image succeeds the nomination process. If you don't like that the light pole is cut-off, it can always be cropped out.
      - That's ok - I know its safer than standing in the road :P but still not a good idea to be promoting taking photos while driving as that's not safe unless using an automatic camera... Gazhiley (talk) 21:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As for other pictures, this one puts the viewer right in the driver's seat, like they're actually on the highway. It is in this way that the scale of the highway overwhelms the average viewer, indicating to them that this is more than just a typical urban highway. Haljackey (talk) 15:37, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: I've blurred the 4 or 5 licence plates that are legible in the photo. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 15:49, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Hmm, I can still see them after the edit. Which ones did you blur? Haljackey (talk) 16:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - The tow truck, the silver Pontiac Montana, the black Acura, the white Ford Windstar and the Safari. You may need to purge your cache, the old image must be still showing for you. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 16:48, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - Ah, that did it. However the filesize of the image more than doubled when you blurred the plates. Not sure if this is a huge problem, however. Haljackey (talk) 16:51, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      - Not sure what the policy is regarding that. I usually change jpg's to png files because jpgs can get weird digital distortion when resized. In this case however, I uncompressed the jpg. I'm hoping it will prevent that from happening, though it is less apparent in images like this. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 16:58, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Edit: A new version is now up that contains both the blurred license plates and crops out the cut-off light pole on the left. Does this look any better? Haljackey (talk) 19:30, 17 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The driver’s viewpoint leads to a “snapshot” quality to the composition. The overcast day lends to a gloomy feeling. Greg L (talk) 04:49, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose While this is an interesting and useful image (and a bit frightening to this resident of a small city!), I don't think that it meets the FP criteria. A photo taken from one of the bridges over the highway on a sunny day might lead to a better result. Nick-D (talk) 08:57, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: Thanks a lot for your suggestions! I appreciate the constructive criticism. I might try again in the future taking your comments into account. Haljackey (talk) 15:34, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: A new picture of the highway has been entered as a candidate for a featured picture. Haljackey (talk) 19:21, 18 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not promoted --Makeemlighter (talk) 22:21, 25 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]