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The Scout in Winter, 1908

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Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 25 Mar 2013 at 08:19:34 (UTC)

Original – Crow scout on his horse
Reason
Restored image of a beautiful portrait of a Crow scout on his horse, deep in the Pryor Mountains of Montana, USA. It's the most eye-catching image on its article, where it illustrates a passage about the adoption of horses, which aided in buffalo hunting. Horses also became the "Honda Accords" of their day. The image is nine days stable (though I replaced a color version with the black and white version a few days ago). This was an image I enjoyed restoring; there is a quiescence about the photograph and a depth that pulls the viewer in. This "depth" suddenly became clear to me when I stumbled across a company that has reproduced Edward Curtis images using the orotone process, a process Curtis preferred. I researched this and emulated the colors as best I could in an alternate image (used on the orotone article). There is something else about this "depth"—it's as if the horse and scout protrude from the image, which is what captured my attention in the first place. This could explain the "glow" or aura around the man and the horse, which itself may be explained by dodging and burning on Curtis's part. I never saw the glow around the man until the image came into its final stages, and especially with the orotone image. I went back tonight, retrieved the .psd files, and made sure this was not an error on my part—it's not. I proudly present for nomination (I sound way too formal here, sorry) this restoration, but feel free to look at the other images in the description's gallery and let me know what you think. I chose this image for a very specific reason: the grass in the foreground. Snow is rarely "white" and as I pulled the foreground down to clean it, I found so much more detail in there that I wanted to show this off. Finally, I considered the Reconnaissance article for inclusion, but that article is so military-centric that including it would be pulling a "Film Poster Fiasco", if you know what I mean.
Articles in which this image appears
Crow Nation
FP category for this image
Wikipedia:Featured pictures/People/Traditional (picked over USA History)
Creator
Edward S. Curtis (photo); US Library of Congress (TIFF scan); Keraunoscopia (restoration)
  • Could you clarify? Your edit summary says "Oh, LoC JPEG is a different levels than the TIFF. Sorry." so I wasn't sure if the edit summary is cancelling out the caveat. The lower portion of the man's face is covered by the fur/cloth wrap, though the left portion of his mouth is revealed. I do wish there were more detail too; I'm not sure if I can bring out any more than what we see. I don't think the LoC images are technically the best possible images because they're not made directly from original negatives. A lot of them seem to be slightly out of focus, which frustrates me. The real professionals (Christopher Cardozo, maybe one other) seem to work from actual negatives. – Kerαunoςcopia◁galaxies 21:51, 17 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I had made some irrelevant comments based on differences between this image and the scaled-down JPEG on the LoC site; when the TIFF downloaded, I saw I was wrong, so edited to remove that part of my comment. I'd like to see a bit more clarity around the face, but, as that may not be possible, I'm just mentioning the issue and supporting. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:41, 20 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:The Scout in Winter, Crow, 1908, Edward S. Curtis (restored II).jpg --Armbrust The Homunculus 08:46, 25 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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