Preparing images for projected digital competitions

Resizing your images

Make a copy of your original file and open the copy in Photoshop.

Go to the Image menu, then Resize, and click on Image Size...















The Image Size window will open. Set the width to 1400 pixels if your image is landscape format or the height to 1050 pixels if your image is portrait format (which mine was). Make sure that the dimensions of the image are locked by ticking Constrain Proportions to maintain the aspect ratio of the image.





















Click OK and photoshop will then have resized your images.

Choosing a colour space

Your image should be saved with a colour space profile of sRGB.
To check how Photoshop Elements is using colour space, go to the Edit menu, then click on Colour Settings.






















The Colour Settings window will open.
















If you want to make sure that Photoshop converts (or keeps) the colour space as sRGB, select Limited Colour Management, or if you are printing your images then select Full Colour Management and this will retain the colour profile of the image.

You can see if your image has sRGB colour space when you save it as a new file.
Go to File and click on Save as. The Save as window will appear.












The ICC Profile should be ticked and be sRGB.

File names and file types

When submitting a file for a digital competition you should save the file in JPEG format, you should name it Title by Author.jpg for example:
My Photo by Joe Bloggs.jpg

If you're saving the image in Photoshop, it will offer a number of JPEG Options, make sure you save it as Quality12/Maximum.






















Important note: This guide was compiled using Photoshop Elements 3.0, other versions may differ.

Solargraphs

Pinhole photography suffers the illusion that, as its science is simple, it should be easy to master. In practice, creating an effective pinhole image requires learning many variables including: hole size, exposure times, digital vs analog and focal length - all topped off with a fear of getting the math right.

What follows is a simple and effective design of a pinhole camera that enables the user to capture six-month duration images of the sun known as solargraphs without the need for any chemicals or a darkroom.

Sun tracks across the sky over the Clifton Cathedral in Bristol, UK, during a six-month exposure from 19 June 2009 through 20 December 2009. Photograph by Justin Quinnell.

Sun tracks across the sky over the Clifton Cathedral in Bristol, UK, during a six-month exposure from 19 June 2009 through 20 December 2009. Photograph by Justin Quinnell.

Find out how this image was made here.

Channel 5: How to take stunning pictures

Hosted by The Gadget Show's Suzi Perry, How to Take Stunning Pictures does exactly what it says on the tin. And it isn't all techno-speak; it's about the fun of taking exciting photos that your mates actually want to see.

What is RAW?

Most cameras save images in JPEG format. By using JPEG the camera will compress part of the information in the image. If you set your camera to shoot in RAW, it will save the image as a large uncompressed file. This means that you have much more information in the image and you can do more with the file when you get it home.

To make the most of your RAW images you need a RAW file converter such as the Camera RAW Plug-In that is available in many versions of Photoshop or a free RAW converter such as Raw Therapee. You can then make more adjustments to the image including altering the exposure and colour temperature.

Should I calibrate my monitor?

Last year the club purchased a Spyder calibration system so that images shown on our projector were as accurate as possible. However, if your monitor at home isn't calibrated to the same levels your images could look very different.

Ideally, if you want to ensure that the image you see on your monitor at home looks the same as the image shown on our projector you should calibrate your screen. Left uncalibrated your images will probably look slightly different on our projector, and this may or may not effect how your photograph is judged. For a novice, you probably won't worry about slight differences, but if you've spent hours in Photoshop adjusting the colour balance of your image you'll want it to look as good as possible.

Using the Spyder system you can set up different colour profiles on your computer so that your screen is optimised for viewing images that will be projected in camera club competitions or so that your printed images match what you see on your monitor.

It costs £5 to hire the calibration system from the club and the funds will be used to cover the cost of buying the Spyder hardware and software.

Rules of composition

Last season some of the new members asked about the composition rules to which judges often refer. Here are some of the main ones:

• Don't cut your picture in half horizontally or vertically by having a line going through the centre of the picture. The most common culprit is the horizon – try to have more picture below the horizon than above or vice versa.
• Have a focal point but don't let it be in the centre of the picture. The ideal position is on a “golden third”. Imagine having a noughts and crosses frame over your picture and where the lines cross are the golden thirds.
• Have an odd number of objects in your photo rather than an even number ie. 3 swans rather than 2 or 4, 5 flowers rather than 4 or 6.
• It is good to have a lead in to a picture and ideally it should lead in from left to right as that is the way we read.
• However, remember that rules are made to be broken and some excellent pictures are produces even when breaking these rules.

Do I need Photoshop?

To make your images ready for competition you need image editing software. The most popular programme for photo editing is Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is available as a full programme (Photoshop CS) or as a stripped down version that will suite most camera club members needs (Photoshop Elements). However, these programmes can get quite expensive. Fortunately there are some other free programmes which can do a similar job such as Picasa from Google, IrfanView and GIMP.

Picasa has a very simple interface and enables you to fix simple problems with your photos, crop your images, and organise your pictures. However it doesn't re-size images so you'll need another piece of software to do that. IrfanView and GIMP are powerful programmes which allow you to edit your images, crop your photos and re-size your images, something which is essential when preparing images for competitions.

One of the downsides of using a free programme is that although the features may be similar, they will work in completely different ways. If you're a novice then Photoshop Elements is probably the most useful piece of software because of the amount of advice available on the programme, however, if you're on a budget and don't mind learning a new bit of software it's worth trying Picasa to edit and IrfanView to re-size your images. If you then want more advanced features give GIMP a go.