# What celebrity has the best/worst Wikipedia picture? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877 "2011-10-17T02:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/41 "2011-10-19T18:36:31Z")
Shatner’s image looks like a professional photo. > **[William Shatner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner)** > > William Shatner OC (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, from his 1966 debut as the captain of the starship Enterprise in the second pilot of the first Star Trek television series to his final appearance as Captain Kirk in the seventh Star Trek feature film, Star Trek Generations (1994). > Shatner began his screen acting career in Canadian films and television productions be... ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/42 "2011-10-19T19:10:18Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Shatner’s image looks like a professional photo. > > [William Shatner - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner) Looks like Shatner either hired a pro to shoot a photo, or paid him for the rights to one of the rejects from another shoot. I wish more pros would do that, donating a single image to the public domain. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/43 "2011-10-19T19:14:53Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > For a while, Miyazaki had his own animated photo on his wikipedia page. That seemed to me the bast way for an animator to have his picture on Wikipedia. Someone must have found an acceptably sourced photo of him, because that’s what’s there now. > > [Hayao Miyazaki - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki) Was it [this one](http://cartoons.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hayao_miyazaki_drawing.jpg)? The current image is an excellent one. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/44 "2011-10-19T20:40:41Z")
He’s a pretty well-known historian in the UK, but I doubt few people would call my secondary thesis supervisor Diarmaid MacCulloch a “celebrity.” Nonetheless, he has [the worst Wikipedia picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diarmaid_MacCulloch.jpg). I believe this picture was actually taken with a Viewmaster. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/45 "2011-10-19T21:01:36Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > He’s a pretty well-known historian in the UK, but I doubt few people would call my secondary thesis supervisor Diarmaid MacCulloch a “celebrity.” Nonetheless, he has [the worst Wikipedia picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diarmaid_MacCulloch.jpg). I believe this picture was actually taken with a Viewmaster. Wow, that looks like someone deliberately set out to produce the worst image possible to test new image processing algorithms. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/46 "2011-10-19T21:10:51Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > He’s a pretty well-known historian in the UK, but I doubt few people would call my secondary thesis supervisor Diarmaid MacCulloch a “celebrity.” Nonetheless, he has [the worst Wikipedia picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diarmaid_MacCulloch.jpg). I believe this picture was actually taken with a Viewmaster. Maybe the camera was far away from the person, and the poster had to crop his head out of a much wider field of view, and having to blow it up (expanding it) a lot, leaving us with those pixel looking spots. Imagine someone taking a photo of ozzy osbourne during a concert, from the cheap seats… ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/47 "2011-10-19T21:15:01Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Maybe the camera was far away from the person, and the poster had to crop his head out of a much wider field of view, and having to blow it up (expanding it) a lot, leaving us with those pixel looking spots. > > Imagine someone taking a photo of ozzy osbourne during a concert, from the cheap seats… Looking at it, I see vertical blur, but not pixels. There is a noise to it that looks like [stochastic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_screening) dithering. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/48 "2011-10-19T21:20:53Z")
[William Tecumseh Sherman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman). But that was easy, it was in the public domain anyway. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/49 "2011-10-19T21:25:24Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Looking at it, I see vertical blur, but not pixels. There is a noise to it that looks like [stochastic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_screening) dithering. Sorry, I am not a photographer or videographer. I see some “blur”, meaning that I think I see (especially around the frame of his left eyeglass lens, and the back of his jacket collar) a double image. I definately see both green and blue “pixel dots” (from whatever the backdrop is), surounding his head, for example. His face color is made up of distinct dots, too (peach and red). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/50 "2011-10-19T21:25:56Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > [William Tecumseh Sherman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman). But that was easy, it was in the public domain anyway. In the true spirit of the OP. That is both a terrible picture and an awesome picture at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/51 "2011-10-19T21:46:02Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Sorry, I am not a photographer or videographer. I see some “blur”, meaning that I think I see (especially around the frame of his left eyeglass lens, and the back of his jacket collar) a double image. > > I definately see both green and blue “pixel dots” (from whatever the backdrop is), surounding his head, for example. His face color is made up of distinct dots, too (peach and red). The thing is, if it were just a poor digital photograph, you’d see a grid of pixels, or the blocks of pixels you see when an image is overly JPEG compressed. The color splotches are in distinct rings, as if the image had been screen printed. But it is hard to believe that any screen printed magazine would print such a blurry picture. I mean, you can save the image and load it into an editor and zoom in close enough to see pixels, but they are at a much smaller scale than every other problem with this picture. This is a very high resolution upload of a terrible picture, which makes it that much more a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/52 "2011-10-19T22:41:32Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > [William Tecumseh Sherman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman). But that was easy, it was in the public domain anyway. He aint sayin cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/53 "2011-10-20T01:23:41Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Wow, that looks like someone deliberately set out to produce the worst image possible to test new image processing algorithms. If I were still in contact with Professor MacCulloch, I’d joke with him that Chris Haigh (his friendly enemy in Tudor history at Oxford) must have uploaded that image. Then I’d take a picture of him with my cell phone camera and upload that…_anything_ would be better than what’s up there now. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/54 "2011-10-20T05:17:12Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > He aint sayin cheese. Well, try to make him. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877/55 "2011-10-20T12:42:55Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Was it [this one](http://cartoons.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hayao_miyazaki_drawing.jpg)? The current image is an excellent one. No, I’m afraid that’s not what I remember. The cartoon image of Miazaki that Wikipedia used to have was a bit more stylized, a bit more anime, and had him with windswept brown hair. Obviously, that’s not what he looks like in real life, and that’s the point of the cartoon image. We get a look at his face, as he’d like to be seen. I just thought it was cool, but if Wikipedia is supposed to be an encyclopedia, then yeah, the best photo possible is what they’d want. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrity-has-the-best-worst-wikipedia-picture/599877.md?page=2)