SEPTEMBER PHOTO CONTEST: Comment Thread

Chat away here!

:rofl:

I really didn't want to dig into my old shots this go, but ran right the heck out of time and was getting ready to. And then along came a spider that sat down beside me just after sunrise this morning, even did it while the baby was napping.

I can lose this contest a happy man. :D

I really need a good spider web picture. Anyway, it sounds like yours was the entry that was meant to be. I love it.

I'm happy too. I have to say that I seem to do best when I don't agonize over a decision and just kind of go eenie meenie mimey mo! (spelling?) So, that is my strategy from here on out.

until I get back from the Fair this evening. I KNOW I'll get to shoot up there.

Ferris Wheels Here We Come!

A roller coaster at night? Unbeatable!

I got a pretty good picture of that a couple of years ago right at dusk. I'm going to try for a better one this year. I want to see their faces as they're coming back down.

...But I love your eye. That's a great snap there. :)

:hi:

makes me dizzy! But it's a great shot, none-the-less. :hi:

I had to go with an older pic again, getting ready for company this weekend and no time to go looking for something new. And I'm really not trying to go with the cute factor again, but it was the best one I had to match the theme.

BTW, there are three entries that need to be re-sized. :hi:

Nooooo!!!! Not a cat close-up!!! Now the rest of us won't have chance. :cry:

All kidding aside (at least I hope so with regard to our chances against a close-up of a kitten :P), great pic. It's quite interesting to see all the critters in this one as well as the huge variety of subject matter.

I just sent PMs.

I'm really not looking to win again so soon, and there are many better photos than mine. :hi:

Today I went out and took some ass kicking images. I might have to change my entry.

It's a good thing you can't do that! LOL I'm looking forward to seeing some of your new ones.

I added eight pictures to page two of my "My Gallery" site. I found an abandon house at a construction company yard. The link is below.

http://web.me.com/alfredo_tomato/Random_Images/Random_Images.html

that's quite an erection you've got there. ;-)

about putting in its place.

I love the shot. The way the girl and the lady don't appear together in the reflection, very cool!

Bristol has a GIANT mirror ball the size of a house!!!! I think you can go inside, as it's part of the science centre, but I was more than sufficiently entertained by the outside. The reflections do weird things to the perspective. If I ever get time I'll post more pics.


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the Saluting the Shrub is submitted by my husband even tho we agree it isn't a very good photo. The person "saluting" the Shrub in the foreground with her back to the camera as his helicopter flies overhead is me. :rofl:

I wanted to call it The Only Way Once CAN Look Up To George W.

I mucked it up so thoroughly that I had to go to my laptop (where they are stored from my vacation, lol) to reimport another copy!

Then I had to find it, get it into the Photobucket and then resize.

I think that now, it is OK.

Whew.

The file size is too big, if that is enforced. I had a lot of trouble with my file size, and getting it under 200k, but someone here told me how to use Infranview (free) to reduce file size. I think I may start a separate post on how to do this, because a number of people seem to have this problem.

It's the DPI that may be a problem. Save a copy of your shot as a jpg at about 70 percent quality at 72 DPI. That should get you a small file.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=280x60195#60198

Same picture, same pixels, but one with a reduced quality. The other one does NOT meet the contest specs.

There are some people that think if you take care of the pixels, then you are in compliance with the contest rules. However, just telling people to reduce the quality isn't specifically telling them how to reduce the quality. Thanks to Consareliars, in the OP of the post above, there are specific instructions on how to do this with Infranview, free software.

Since I have found these specific instructions to be so helpful since last May, and because people here continue to be challenged with regard to the rules, I decided to refer to his May post in an OP.

I hope it helps.

the only concern is the physical size of the photos; that they fit in the confines of the thread. If there's some uniform way of specifying this that doesn't degrade the quality, please say so.

Look at your OP in the submission thread.....

"Please try to keep your photograph entry no larger than 800 pixels in its longest dimension and under 200K in file size. If you need help posting a photograph or with image sizing just ask."

In all honesty, I would be REALLY happy if we decided to drop the "under 200k in file size" part of this. However, in a discussion back in May, we decided to keep this requirement. And this has nothing to do with the physical size of the picture, just the ability of people who have slow connections to download the threads more easily.

so don't expect me to understand them thoroughly. I'm on dial-up myself, so I do understand the slow-loading concerns. I ask people to resize so that everyone fits into the thread (so as not to have an unfair advantage due to hugeness). Perhaps since I've had a p&s and now a canon Xsi, perhaps my original file size is smaller, so that when I size down I experience less image degradation than others? I don't know. I have to go and check the properties of previous images I've submitted and see if I've actually met the file size requirement when I've been concentrating on the pixels.

But it seems apparent that some people aren't fully aware of the rules. Since it was a slow learning curve for me, I just thought I would repost what I thought was a helpful post about the issue.

I have no idea if your pictures were under 200k or not.

This month, there are a few that meet the 800 pixel size limit, but that don't meet the 200k file size limit. Again, I feel we should either drop this requirement or enforce it-- one or the other. At least there is awareness on one of the rules--the pixel size.

I think it was your dialup that convinced me that the file size limit had some rhyme or reason.

the Columbines photo was about 41KB, so maybe my originals are smaller.

Checking the submissions thread, the file sizes that are indicated are all over the lot. The giraffe and the morning glory are technically too big, as is at least one of Peggy's, but everything is loading for me without any trouble. I'm not sure how we fix this without either destroying some image quality or driving everyone insane.

It didn't drive me insane to get the size within the rules, but sans the post by Consareliars, it might have, which is why I reposted it in an OP.

Again, I tried to address this all back in May, but people voted to keep the same rules.

:shrug:

What drives me insane is having rules like this that aren't enforced. Believe me, I am NOT about rules. 1. I'd rather the rule be dropped. 2. My second choice if for it to be enforced as written. If it drives people insane, then there will be a movement to drop the rule, which would get us back to 1.

Obviously, it is up to you what you do for this particular monthly contest.

about the physical size within the thread (nobody's complained lately about loading) and the only photographer whose files are consistently hard for me to load is mth44sc, and the ones that are over aren't terribly over, I'm going to leave it to more brilliant minds to work out. I'll select the pic of Peggy's that conforms to both rules (since I have a number of choices there).
If people want to get strict, the ones that are over can resize. Even if it is after the thread is locked, they can always post the resize separately.
I would like to hear from others who have hosted frequently if they have strictly enforced both rules.
How much does the size of the camera's sensor play in this?

It looks like everyone is now within the dimension constraints, though not the file size limit.

If it helps anyone, here's a link to an Irfanview resizing tutotial, which in turn has a link to a Photoshop resizing tutorial at the bottom: http://www.somewhere-in-time.net/tutorial/irfanview/

And another here: http://support.everythingweb.net/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=45&nav=0

Irfanview can be downloaded free here: http://www.irfanview.com/

For Mac users without Photoshop or something comparable, best bet is to use GraphicConverter.

Submission threads should probably carry a warning in the title line about reading the rules carefully before entering. This is the wisdom of hindsight; it never occurred to me to do this when hosting, but it would have saved some hassle.

Sensor size and megapixels aren't really factors here, at least once a file is saved to the requisite dimensions. The file size is most dependent on the amount of compression, and beyond that on the amount of detail within the photo, meaning pixel to pixel luminance and/or color variations. For example, both the photos below are 800 by 533 pixels, saved with the same amount of compression. The first is roughly 29 KB, while the second is nearly 100 KB.

I just overlooked the size. It's still 204, but the exact same picture has changed based on whether I had it on Photobucket or my own server, and depending on which photo editor I used. If it's not close enough, take it out. I agree with the file size requirement. I just forgot to check it when I saved the picture.

Lovely shot!

Is it this one? (The Jesuitenkirche in Luzern)

But no..not that church...

It's the Melk Abbey, and I forget which European country it's in.

Truly a magnificent building!

However, Mira's Richard D's and JeffR's really stand out....great eyes lady and gentlemen.

and that particular shot was shot using a Sigma 500mm prime.

are the ones I like best

Giving a shout out to both the tower pics, and At the Fair!

But there really are a whole lot of good pictures in the bunch, almost any of which could get into the finals.

This may be my favorite contest.

through a random sequence generator and have set all up on a wordpad document, ready to go.

Sounds pretty sophisticated. How did you do that? What did you use?

that do that sort of thing. They may call it a list randomizer. You can Google it.

Okay, now that you have Photobucket, do you think you could set it to upload at 800 pixels wide? Your photo is great, but it would look so much better at 800 pixels wide than 640........ That might mess up Cassandra's notepad, but I bet she could change it.

I'm not sure if there is a way to change it using the same URL...........someone here might know.

Delete the original and upload the new one with the exact same name to the same album.

as the old, it will ask if you want to replace the old image. Say yes

We probably all should do that rather than putting a corrected or changed picture under the one that we submitted.

eventually it should resize in the thread as well.

somehow I ended up with a smaller image. Now, I can't enlarge it. I may try to upload it to photobucket again tomorrow.

your cursor slipped from where you thought you clicked........that happens to me sometimes, especially with those drop down menus. You should easily be able to change it. I think you already knew how, and now I have the instructions! Yea!