On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 9:02 PM, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:.
Here's a great example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/Face_of_a...
What an incredible image. This is a *wasp*, and we have great detail of the *hairs* on its forehead. Stunning sharpness, and this photo would not be out of place in a good science magazine. Yet two editors managed to oppose its promotion to "featured" on the basis of the tip of one antenna being obscured by an out of focus leaf fragment. Another, neutral, came up with "An amazing detail and sharpness...with a clumsy framing and cropping ruining an otherwise excellent picture. ... I will not support the promotion as I find little excuse for those flaws."
These would be perfectly apt comments if we were voting on National Geographic's "photo of the year". But Wikipedia "featured picture"? Whee.
You should ask Durova about featured image reviews - she had a live one not long ago. Photograph of a moon (Eros perhaps?) that was the best that anyone could possibly take with current (government) technology, but it was opposed for reasons more suited to critiquing everyday items in posed situations.
Nathan