Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/German Hannover CL III

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Restoration of a Shot Down German Hannover CL.IIIa[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 24 Mar 2013 at 09:14:02 (UTC)

Original – German Hannover CL.III plane
Reason
I believe this restored image meets FPC criteria because it is of high technical standard and comes from a good original TIFF file that was in focus and of low contrast, allowing freedom in pulling the image together, making it one of the best images of this airplane that we have. The original image was as filthy or deteriorated as any "good" historic image should be (I guess), and I used extreme curve layers (extreme bright/extreme dark) to clean up the entire image, regardless of what you see in the final product, so I consider this image about as print-worthy as it can get. Not every speck was removed; as I was working (top to bottom), I was wondering where all the bullet holes were, and I eventually found a half dozen of them on the undercarriage, and a boatload of them on the front engine area. They are difficult to spot without brightening the image back to the source-brightness, unfortunately, but they are still there—I recognized them as dark (but not pitch black) spots with a small, lighter shade of bent metal next to it. I should point out that I chose this image because another somewhat restored version (albeit a different source, I think?) was simply too dark to appreciate. (Even my final restoration was still too dark, and I reuploaded a brighter version—a difficult image to get even contrast throughout.) This other restored image, which appears skewed and is greatly cropped compared to the source TIFF that I used, was nominated for FPC here, but no one responded. I find the image to have high EV value, is eye-catching, and adds greatly to the articles it's in. Lastly, I replaced the original, darker restored version in articles with this version, so the image subject itself is completely stable.
Articles in which this image appears
Hannover CL.III, Aviation in World War I#Anti-aircraft weaponry, Meuse-Argonne Offensive#Second phase: October 4 to October 28
FP category for this image
Wikipedia:Featured pictures/History/World War I
Creator
Pvt. J. E. Gibbon, U.S. Army (photo); National Archives and Records Administration (provider of source photo/scan); Keraunoscopia (restoration)
  • Support as nominator --– Kerαunoςcopiagalaxies 09:14, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support for obvious EV and quality of the restoration work, but also a Question - Are we seeing a picture of it at the very second it hit the ground? or has it somehow managed to crash front end first without a single dent?! gazhiley 12:55, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • Well, remember that shooting it down means it loses power - it could probably still glide. What I suspect happened was a fairly rough, but not disasterous landing, unfortunately, during which it hit the tree and upended. Also, Support. Adam Cuerden (talk) 13:11, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • I came across another photo of a plane crashed in a similar position, upended. I can't find it now, so maybe it was on another website. But here's an Albatross D.III that didn't fair so well: File:Albatros DIII wreck Flanders 1917.jpg. – Kerαunoςcopiagalaxies 20:02, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Yeah that's more what I would expect to see from a plane crash picture! Makes this picture all the more impressive... gazhiley 10:35, 18 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Hannover CL IIIa, Forest of Argonne, France, 1918 (restored).jpg --Armbrust The Homunculus 09:27, 24 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]