Wikipedia:Picture peer review/M-15 centerline 1917

M-15 centerline 1917


It's rare to have a highway photo from 1917, let alone an image of the first highway centerline in the country. After some discussions with the Michigan Department of Transportation, I've obtained this 10.08 MP copy from the original photo in the MDOT archives to replace previous, lower resolution copies. Some minor enhancement is in order, but otherwise the scan is in remarkable shape for a photo taken by a non-professional photographer in that era. Suggestions for improvement are appreciated.


 * Articles this image appears in: M-15 (Michigan highway) (the highway designation in 1917), County Road 492 (Marquette County, Michigan) (the road designation today), Road surface marking, Michigan Highway System, Timeline of United States inventions (1890–1991)


 * Creator:Unknown photographer for the Michigan State Highway Department


 * Suggested by:  Imzadi  1979   →  00:20, 4 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Comments:
 * Definitely a better picture than the smaller version that was nominated in August, but still not up to FP quality for historic photographs in my opinion. I appreciate that this is rare photo, and a better version will not likely surface, but it's just not there. Thank you very much however for tracking down the high resolution version. (I encourage others to comment if they disagree with my assessment)  Jujutacular  talk 21:32, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Can I get some specific, objective reasons why you feel that way? Is there anything possible to improve the image in question? My opinion is that the EV should outweigh the fact that Ansel Adams or a similar professional/artist was not the photographer, as this photo documents a moment in history. We have tons of highway photos that show centerlines and other lane markings, but none of them show the first highway with a centerline. I can rephotograph Dead Man's Curve anytime I'm back to visit my hometown, but no current photo will have the vintage wooden guardails, the period cars or the original style of centerline. (It has the plain, boring modern paint scheme now.  Imzadi  1979   →  23:08, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * As Dough notes below, it is a little bit blurry. It's a bit overexposed (the sky is completely blown out). Also, is that some damage to the photo in the bottom left corner?  Jujutacular  talk 16:59, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Seconder:
 * The photo looks vivid as a thumbnail, but upon looking at it at a full resolution, the image is a little blurry. When this photo was taken to FPC, a PNG version was created that showed the road more vividly. I would support the use of the PNG version. However, if that is not possible, the current version of the photo is fine to use, but may not necessarily meet FP criteria.  Dough 48  72  22:44, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not picking up any blurriness on my screen. Is there any specific area you were detecting blurriness? As for vividness, that was was probably from tweaking the contrast and brightness, something I haven't done here. This is a straight scan from the negative by the photo lab at MDOT.  Imzadi  1979   →  23:08, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * By bluriness, I mean the quality is not 100 percent. I've seen some black-and-white FPs that have better quality.  Dough 48  72  00:03, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, I find this photo much more interesting than many POTD like minerals. The photo is not perfect, but is really quite good, and being the first centerline is quite interesting.  There are other interesting aspects to the photo as well, for example the many glass insulators on the poles are quite different in arrangement from today's poles.  Showing contemporary vehicles is a further plus.  A hearty thumb's up.--Statr (talk) 17:01, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

