Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon • Hacker News Board

justin66 wrote: post #59

batista wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which, if you take a step back and lose the journalistic tendentiousness, you will realize makes this about as cool as any picture ever taken. If I want to depict Neil Amstrong, the "coolness" of a picture showing some other guy does not come into play at all. Isn't it obvious? I mean, seriously, "as cool as any picture ever taken"? "visible on the reflection on the visor"?

The wide use of the photo over the years is proof enough that it's a great photo. People love it. With all due respect to the copy editing topic of the linked column, people don't care in the slightest about journalistic rule lawyering regarding the criteria that should be used for selecting photographs for a news article. They care about accuracy, which evidently isn't the same thing. If there are any worries about…

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a great portrait but I wouldn't use it to illustrate Neil Armstrong's obituary because it's not Neil Armstrong.

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#126

Post by iwwr » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

darkstalker wrote: post #124

In this photo: http://apple.copydesk.org/uploads/2012/08/120826ArmstrongLem... How come the flag is waving in a environment with no atmosphere ?

http://astroprofspage.com/archives/162

tl;dr the flag had embedded wires to keep it unfurled, also the pole was flexible and springy, it kept wobbling after it was planted in the ground

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#127

Post by justin66 » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 2:23 PM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #125

justin66 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wide use of the photo over the years is proof enough that it's a great photo. People love it. With all due respect to the copy editing topic of the linked column, people don't care in the slightest about journalistic rule lawyering regarding the criteria that should be used for selecting photographs for a news article. They care about accuracy, which evidently isn't the same thing. If there are any worries about…

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a great portrait but I wouldn't use it to illustrate Neil Armstrong's obituary because it's not Neil Armstrong.

The more relevant question is whether you'd be willing to use an image of it in an article about Leonardo?

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#128

Post by michaelt » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 3:17 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #127

michaelt wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a great portrait but I wouldn't use it to illustrate Neil Armstrong's obituary because it's not Neil Armstrong.

The more relevant question is whether you'd be willing to use an image of it in an article about Leonardo?

For an obituary for Leonardo I'd use a portrait of Leonardo.

I'll add a bit more nuance to that - people don't always read every word of a newspaper article. That's fine, it's why the inverted pyramid [0] model is used. If there's a big headline (Neil Armstrong Dies) and a single photo (the one of Buzz Aldrin) and the fact it's not a photo of Armstrong is in a little caption, it's going to contribute to the misconception that the photo of Aldrin is actually a photo of Armstrong.

Contributing to misconceptions is bad and should be avoided. Luckily this is easy - just use the photo of Armstrong in the lunar lander.

On the other hand, it's unlikely anyone would mistake Leonardo and the woman in the Mona Lisa so it wouldn't seem so bad to me!

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#129

Post by justin66 » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 3:55 PM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #128

justin66 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more relevant question is whether you'd be willing to use an image of it in an article about Leonardo?

For an obituary for Leonardo I'd use a portrait of Leonardo. I'll add a bit more nuance to that - people don't always read every word of a newspaper article. That's fine, it's why the inverted pyramid [0] model is used. If there's a big headline (Neil Armstrong Dies) and a single photo (the one of Buzz Aldrin) and the fact it's not a photo of Armstrong is in a little caption, it's going to contribute to the misconcep…

I confess that I'm puzzled by what seems to be an assumption that there's only going to be a single photo used in an obituary of one of the world's most historic figures. I agree that if I can only have a single photo in an obit, it should be a picture of the subject of the obit! I also think using a picture where one cannot see the subject's face would be tacky, regardless of who is behind the visor.

I might have some bias here as someone who reads primarily online media, but I haven't observed most venues limiting themselves to a single photo.

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#130

Post by flyinRyan » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 4:07 PM UTC

Because it's hard to find anything on the moon. Where would you look? Plus photos will be much lighter on the moon so a little solar breeze would probably send the photo flying for weeks.