Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/NYPDpatrol

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[edit] 4th of July NYPD Patrol Boat

I nominate this image myself because it means a lot to me personally and as an American. It was taken at dusk on the Fourth of July while a friend and I waited to watch the fireworks display. For a while I had been hoping to see a patrol boat because the NYPD article had only pics of their automobiles. When one finally happened by, I snapped the pic and it turned out to be much better than expected: that particular angle allowed the Statue of Liberty to be clearly visible in the background, the boat's flashing blue light was turned on (and captured in the lit position), two small American flags are prominent, and if you look closely a peace officer is really enjoying his can of soda (as he, too, awaits the fireworks). Uncropped, it has the full 5 megapixels (4:3) available to my camera.

• Nominate and support. -Uris 03:58, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
• The sky is washed out and the horizon is sloping. —Cryptic (talk) 04:16, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
• Oppose -I have to say....it just doesn't do it for me. Many of your images are quite nice (especially [1] this one, :D *waves) and show a clear aptitude for composition but are sadly ruined by horrible compression artefacts. You might try turning compression down on your camera....?--Deglr6328 06:00, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Hello folks. The sky is not washed out, that was the color of the New York haze at dusk! However, I see the artifacts - I believe them to be noise reduction artifacts that I unknowingly introduced. I do have the original though with more noise and fewer artifacts, and I can probably un-slope the horizon too (now I see why the pros carry tripods around). We'll see how it turns out... thanks for the constructive criticism.

Update: I just realized I had been saving them in 86% detail but I will now upload a version of this one in 99%. Compression artifacts indeed... here is Version 2, leveled with less artificats (but also not sharpened or noise reduced). -Uris

Update 2: Looking at some of the photos below, I want to withdraw this photo from consideration... I love it, but it's just not in the same league. I learned a lot here with this. Thanks for looking! -Uris 16:59, 14 July 2005 (UTC)