Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Brian Urlacher

Brian Urlacher
Voting period ends on 24 Aug 2010 at 02:44:28 (UTC)
 * Reason:This is what an American football player looks like
 * Articles in which this image appears:Brian Urlacher 2002 Chicago Bears season
 * FP category for this image:Featured pictures/People/Entertainment
 * Creator:User:Jauerback


 * Support as nominator --TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 02:44, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Oppose, crowded with other people. A fine lead image, but not FP material. J Milburn (talk) 13:47, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment How is it now?--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 14:16, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * A little better, but it's still very crowded. Further, the picture quality isn't quite up to what we'd expect from a portrait. J Milburn (talk) 14:24, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Oppose Busy composition and I find brightness and contrast to be poor (probably to avoid blowing out the atomic-level detail in the white on the “54”). P.S. Oh, and I just noticed that this is yet another Chicago-related picture. We’ve had enough of that for a while. If a meteor strike takes out the city, I’ll vote “support” on a picture of the resultant hole in the ground.(disclaimer) It would add lots of EV to Chicago Crater. Greg L (talk) 19:12, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Oppose both Crop isn't much better. I still think these sports photos with the player in his helmet is not a great illustration of the player, you can't see much of him. — raeky  t  01:25, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, seriously; I second that sentiment. If we are going to have a sports figure covered head to toe in armor for action on the field, let’s see him in action on the field (and a seriously dramatic action shot too, using a super-long lens). Greg L (talk) 01:46, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I have nominated some exemplary action shots, but you don't seem to understand that football players wear equipment.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 01:49, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Indeed, I am not all that “into” football. But even I have noticed that football players wear protective equipment while playing. But thanks for reminding me—I might have forgotten that one. ;-) The point is that if you are gonna illustrate what a football player looks like, one in street clothes with his whole face would be better than this one. This picture is like showing a Ferrari up on cinder blocks; if we’re gonna show them all dressed for action (with much of their heads covered) then let’s capture some action as a tradeoff. You know: one of those telephoto shots where they are breaking left so hard it looks like their tibia might snap under the compression. Even if I liked the basic concept of a “Ferrari-on-cinder-blocks” idea, this composition is really busy with largely in-focus, distracting elements, like a big “6” beside his head. It’s simply nowhere near what I would consider fine sports photography and I wouldn’t want to see it passed off as the best Wikipedia can offer up to the world. Oh… did I mention that this (again again) is Chicago-related?? Greg L (talk) 03:58, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes but they do take it off too, and having a mask obscuring someone's face isn't the best illustration for their biography... — raeky  t  02:02, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * What could possibly better illustrate the biography of a football player than an image of him in uniform? Not many football players are easily recognizable out of uniform. But football fans know instantly who they're looking at when they see #54 on the Bears. Makeemlighter (talk) 03:46, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thats certainly a valid view, and as stated above if your going to show him in uniform, best show him actually in the middle of a play, catching a ball, slamming into someone, something other then casually walking. — raeky  t  03:49, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No one could rather see a football player in street close over an action shot, but you picture guys are on a different planet. Action shots in the most exciting moments of a game like a quarterback sack like File:20081122 Brandon Graham and Terrell Pryor.jpg or a breakaway run like File:20081122 Obi Ezeh attempts shoestring tackle on Beanie Wells.jpg don't do it for you.  Shots when you can clearly see his face in uniform don't satisfy you. You will never have an American football FP if you don't like any of these.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 04:07, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Theres a big difference between professional sports photography and portraits and a fan in the crowd with a camera. Judging by the pictures you've nominated and just linked here I don't think you can tell the difference between the two or understand why we don't think those linked images are worthy of FP status. If your going to show a football player with a helmet, there is far better ways, or a portrait shot done by a professional is also good. But a random Flickr shot of a player from a random fan in the crowd likely is not going to measure up to professional shots. Of course no one would want to see a football player in the street, that again is a random fan with a camera photo. But a professional portrait shot a reader would like to see. Just because we don't have these quality of shots available to us doesn't mean we couldn't ever get them, and it doesn't mean we need to promote poor quality fan shots either. —  raeky  t  04:27, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * We’re not on a different planet. We like well-done photography—at least *I* do. This photograph isn’t fine photography. It looks exactly like what it is: give an amateur a 300 mm lens on a digital camera, they go “Ooh… OOH!” when they player turns towards them, and they snap the picture even though there is another player right behind him providing a big 6 right beside his head. Ergo, this composition is way-substandard. To me, it seems more suitable for illustrating Camouflage than it is Brian Urlacher. If you don’t agree with that critique, fine; there is ample electronic white space below to expand into. If you want to act like a cry baby and whine about how Raeky and I must inhabit another planet from you (translation: we’re half nuts) because we are utterly incapable of seeing how this is truly exemplary sports photography, again, there is much more white space below to complain about that too. You aren’t winning admirers of your nominations with such combative behavior, m‘kay? As I stated above, an action photograph of him more along the lines of this photo of Urlacher is a better composition, is much more interesting, and actually has nice lighting (vs. this nom, which was shot on a drab, overcast day with the stadium lights turned on). And finally, your nominations of Chicago-related photographs are waaaay disproportionately represented in the FP queue waiting for their day on the Main Page; more so than any other city on this pale blue dot. Let’s see if you can find a truly outstanding Chicago-related photograph next time around. You might find this shocking, but I’d prefer to vote “support” for new and interesting places, like Ancient Ayutthaya or the Golden Buddha in Thailand… something new. Anything other than yet another Chicago picture; Wikipedia is a place of learning and there are lots of truly interesting and stunningly beautiful places we can show our readership to give them a sense of wonder about the world. We’ve had our fill of Chicago and you’ve had more than your share of what appears on the Main Page—at least for a while here. Perhaps what we need is a solicitation on the Main Page in the Featured Picture area soliciting I.P.s to participate in uploading and nominating photographs to consider. That move would also expand the gamut of people voting here. This place has become stale due to “regulars” who—while they bring experience to the table—also bring a lack of diversity to what appears on the Main Page. Greg L (talk) 14:38, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Crop 2 only - I'm not hugely thrilled by this, but there's good quality, and pictures of people doing what they do are better than generic posing. Might wish for a little better. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:27, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment - I'm not bothered either way about whether it's an action shot or a simple photograph showing the player in uniform dressed ready for action. However if we are going to have a 'uniform' shot, then it would need to be set like a portrait-a straightforward picture of ONE individual in the appropriate clothing with a clear background. Having someone's legs wandering in,half a thigh going past, or the right side of the arm of the guy next to him dangling about is distracting and cluttering. Lemon martini (talk) 14:43, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

--Makeemlighter (talk) 02:17, 24 August 2010 (UTC)