Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Российский имперский флаг и Лахта-центр.jpg

File:Российский имперский флаг и Лахта-центр.jpg

Voting period ends on 28 May 2025 at 21:35:08 (UTC) (unless closed by the 5th-day rule)
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Gallery: Commons:Featured pictures/Places/Architecture/Cityscapes#Russia
Info: Russian imperial flag and the Lakhta Centre partially obscured by low clouds. Anachronistic, bleak and metaphoric, in my opinion. -- The Cosmonaut (talk) 21:35, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support -- The Cosmonaut (talk) 21:35, 19 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support I agree. This is a striking and stark view, and a well composed photograph. Cmao20 (talk) 08:09, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Low quality for FP: color noise, especially on the flag. Dull sky, dull foreground. -- George Chernilevsky ^talk 08:29, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per George. --SHB2000 (talk) 09:14, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Done: denoised. --The Cosmonaut (talk) 09:56, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Indeed metaphorical, with plenty of expressive allusions arising from the fog, the building and the flag, and how they stand next to each other and correlate, with the skyscraper spire dissolving into the cloud. And the most powerful reference comes from the black stripe glaring a definite blue tint in cold light, next to the yellow stripe, as they both stand out in cool white haze. There are symbolic connotations on multiple levels, and it’s not bleak at all, but rather contemplative. I don’t understand votes regarding technical quality. It’s sharp and clean, and I actually prefer the original copy. It’s better to just denoise the sky and leave everything else as it is. There are some processing artifacts on the white stripe, possibly from camera’s high-resolution mode capturing movement, but it looks like a minor issue. --Argenberg (talk) 10:49, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful input! --The Cosmonaut (talk)

Oppose Sorry, I don't care how metaphorical the photo is and it's not easily recognizable for the average viewer, the quality (detail) is low for such a normal range photo and the wow-factor is eluding me. --Cart (talk) 14:20, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

How amazing is that an average viewer finally has a champion to speak for them! --The Cosmonaut (talk) 18:34, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support Really bizarre seeing a flag of an obsolete state still flying 𐩣𐩫𐩧𐩨 Abo Yemen (𓃵) 15:29, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Obsolete is some ways, but not gone. The USSR is the formal successor of the Russian Empire. And the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR. So there is a degree of continuity in a dimension of time. Here are all three major flags that have been used over the last 330+ years of history of the RE/USSR/RF: File:Флагштоки возле парка 300-летия Санкт-Петербурга. 2024. 05.jpg, Category:Flagpoles (Park 300 Years of Saint Petersburg). Who knows, maybe there will be a fourth one in the next 100 years or so. Or, we could just reuse the flags we already have in cycles with little or no alterations. That black-dark blue-yellow-white one looks really nice. --Argenberg (talk) 11:00, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Comment a little bit about symbolism. Modern Russia is trying to position itself as "a Russian Empire 2.0". The same flags are often seen in the occupied territories of Ukraine since 2014, and can also be seen on the patches of Russian occupiers. See the photo here. This is the occupied territory of Ukraine. -- George Chernilevsky ^talk 16:46, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ю. Данилевский (talk) 18:22, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Not FP quality IMO.--Ermell (talk) 20:39, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: regarding technical quality. When the air is so misty like in this scene, there is a considerable loss of detail due to diffusion of light. And it's no different to the human eye, which anyone who has ever walked in the fog would surely recall. But without it, the skyscraper wouldn't be partially hiding in the cloud --The Cosmonaut (talk) 21:17, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You can get quite good details in fog as Category:Featured pictures of fog shows, if you don't overdo the denoising. Here the trees that are near the camera have almost no detail at all. --Cart (talk) 21:39, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, fog and humidity always eat up visible detail through diffusion, diffraction and polarization. I took another look at the image. The quality of the original copy is good for a 24MP image, fog-wise. There’s tons of fine detail in both the skyscraper and the trees. You might just consider taking the original, denoising the sky and applying a delicate high-frequency sharpening mask on everything else. --Argenberg (talk) 11:00, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Weak support Without too much on the symbolism of the flag as somebody not very well-read on Russian politics, but the mood captured is nice to me. --UnpetitproleX (Talk) 23:03, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]