User talk:Colin

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FP promotion

★ This image has been promoted to Featured picture! ★ The image File:Centaur mosaic - Google Art Project - CropFrame - Plus1ev.jpg, that you nominated on Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Centaur mosaic - Google Art Project - CropFrame - Plus1ev.jpg has been promoted. Thank you for your contribution. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so.

Invitation to participate in Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 Participant Survey (Reminder)

 

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Dear Colin,

Thank you for contributing to Wiki Loves Monuments 2019, and for sharing your pictures with the whole world! We would like to ask again a few minutes of your time. Thanks to the participation of people like you, the contest gathered more than 210K+ pictures of cultural heritage objects from more than 40 countries around the world.

You can find all your pictures in your upload log, and are of course very welcome to keep uploading images and help develop Wikimedia Commons, even though you will not be able to win more prizes (just yet). If you'd like to start editing relevant Wikipedia articles and share your knowledge with other people, please go to the Wikipedia Welcome page for more information, guidance, and help.

To make future contests even more successful than this year, we would like to invite you to share your experiences with us in a short survey. Please fill in this short survey, and help us learn what you liked and didn't like about Wiki Loves Monuments 2019.

Kind regards,
the Wiki Loves Monuments team 03:42, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Topaz Denoise AI

Returning to our past conversation about Artificial Intelligence in Phones and how it's changing the photography industry today, BTW I have been observing noise and sharpness correction software that possibly adds details that did not exist in the original image. I am extremely impressed with this artificial intelligence software, with the default options doing nothing considerably improves not only the noise but also the sharpness, see this example. Original, Topaz Denoise. This has made me think of a future full of artificial intelligence that could bring to life the photos we are taking now. This also makes me think of a world where photography as art begins to disappear in the vulgarization of touch-ups, something that has been going on for years, but now the gap between phones and cameras is beginning to close. --Wilfredor (talk) 21:23, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

Wilfredor, that's quite a remarkable sharpening. I assume from the size it is a stitched photo. Is it downsized at all? Perhaps some sharpening halos round "JE ME SOUVIENS" in the centre. How does it cope with a higher ISO photo? I often find indoor photos with high ISO end up with much lower detail and hard to sharpen them without just sharpening the noise. -- Colin (talk) 08:36, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Yes it is an image composed of two images, my images are never downsized. I was seeing the automatic correction of with high ISO (and noise) and it seems to be practically magical, in the description page of this image you will find the two versions and a link to the raw if you are interested to improve this image by yourself. Original with heavy noise, Topaz denoise AI and Neat Image et another comparison original method vs Topaz denoise. Finally a noise reduction on my phone after and before --Wilfredor (talk) 00:50, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I'll have a go with your raw files. I think some of the AI results are a bit odd looking, with patches of smooth noise-free area and patches of noisy area. It is clever but it isn't totally realistic. -- Colin (talk) 14:04, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

I used the default setting, changing the settings gives better results --Wilfredor (talk) 20:49, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Some Topaz Gigapixel AI results(my sister) are simply magical, they are a little scary to rescue so many details. Some faces are poorly rendered but others are simply miraculous, I can't imagine the future that awaits us --Wilfredor (talk) 04:19, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

This night i was testing Topaz Gigapixel adding a upscaled version of File:Teatro Municipal de São Paulo 8.jpg and it never ceases to amaze me --Wilfredor (talk) 05:39, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

The Gigapixel image is interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about invented details. There are some bits that clearly look as though lines and curves have been imposed to give an illusion of detail, while other bits remain a bit soft but not noisy. The areas with colour moire get emphasised worse and the writing on the tall poster isn't more legible. But doubling the linear "resolution" is a huge jump! It also shows your original photo was well taken with sharpness and low noise. I haven't got round to experimenting with the raw files yet. Been busy with some DIY at home, and some obligations on Wikipedia. It is in the todo list. -- Colin (talk) 10:44, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

selfblock of ArionEstar

On the other hand, I've been trying to convince ArionEstar to come back, however, it's not an easy task and I have been seeing the unfortunate incident that resulted in the practically selfblock of ArionStar, a incident difficult to understand how being able to get votes in FPC is a valid reason to prevent a user from continuing to collaborate. Maybe FPC has become a kind of elite reigned by egos where the same homogenous vision of what FP is supposed to be. The community became older, more rigid rules and a mediawiki that has practically not changed anything in a decade, the projects have been thrown into abandonment according to my point of view or perhaps I am poisoning. Finally, I see that you are also retiring slowly?, maybe it has stopped being fun to collaborate in a ship aimlessly with the broken keel (WMF seems to have stopped supporting even mediawiki, focused on other things). --Wilfredor (talk) 03:17, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

You can see my comment at this discussion. I wasn't happy with how he was dealt with, but also I really have no sympathy with long-term users who nominate constantly and without themselves selecting the best. Whether it is Poco and his own photos or Arion and other people's photos, it is IMO disrespectful to waste reviewers time in this way, simply to amass more gold stars. There's really no excuse that long-term FP users should have a low success rate, unless they are being adventurous in stretching themselves as artists and photographers.

I'm not contributing much at the moment but that's just my own diversions away from photography. I need to find some motivation and some extra hours in the day. -- Colin (talk) 14:03, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

I have been limiting myself to two nominations per month according to our last conversation, the success rate has increased considerably (my last 3 nominations have passed quietly). BTW, I have been through moments of discouragement because of what we talked a long time ago by email and sometimes overwork, monotony, weather, can be overwhelming and I ended up filling myself with useless material objects brought from China seeking to fill that existential void, however, traveling to Caribbean countries for a month, meeting people and the local language can cure anything. Maybe the same might work for you or maybe not, but definitely traveling refreshes the soul. --Wilfredor (talk) 14:12, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

File:Hot and Steamy.png

File:Hot and Steamy.png has been listed at Commons:Deletion requests so that the community can discuss whether it should be kept or not. We would appreciate it if you could go to voice your opinion about this at its entry. If you created this file, please note that the fact that it has been proposed for deletion does not necessarily mean that we do not value your kind contribution. It simply means that one person believes that there is some specific problem with it, such as a copyright issue. Please remember to respond to and – if appropriate – contradict the arguments supporting deletion. Arguments which focus on the nominator will not affect the result of the nomination. Thank you!

P 1 9 9  ✉ 20:01, 4 March 2020 (UTC)