Elgin Area Camera Club--Submitting Digital Images for Competition

Digital Images Competition

How to make images of the correct size
How to submit them to the club

Image File Specifications

Images are to be JPEG
Maximum dimensions of an image—1024 x 768 pixels including borders
Landscape—1024 wide x 768 high
Portrait—768 high x whatever (depends on cropping)
There is no maximum file size
CACCA’s system rejects files that do not meet specs in both dimensions and filename

Creating the Image File—Part 1

Edit the image as necessary
Open the image in Photoshop
If you have multiple layers, flatten the image.
Image must be in 8 bit mode—set it to 8 bit by going to Image>Mode and check 8 bit
Image must be in the sRGB color space—go to Edit>Convert to Profile and set Destination space to sRGB.
You are now ready to resize the image

Creating the Image File—Part 2

To resize the image, go to Image>Image Size
In the dialogue box, make sure the units are “pixels”
Make sure the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image boxes are checked (Bicubic is the default)
Set the new image size
If the image is landscape, set the width to 1024
If the image is portrait, set the height to 768
If you are going to use a border, subtract 2 times the border width from these dimensions.

Creating the Image File—Part 3

A white or colored border of 5 pixels is recommended but not required
The border is included in the maximum dimensions
When creating an image with a 5 pixel border, reduce the image by 10 pixels in both dimensions.
Make a landscape image 1014 x 758
Make a portrait image 758 high x ???
The next step is to set the canvas to the correct dimensions

Creating the Image File –Part 4

Example: make a 5 pixel border
To set the canvas size, go to Image>Canvas Size
In the New Size area of the dialogue box, check the “Relative” box.
Set the units to “pixels”
Set the width and height to 10 (5 pixel border width x 2)
Set “Canvas Extension Color” to white (or whatever color you want) and click OK to close the box.
You can use other methods, but this one ensures the correct file size and keeps the image as cropped
Save the image.

Creating the Image File—Part 5

Use Save As to save the image as a JPEG
File>Save As
Select JPEG from the pull down list of file types.
You can change he file name now, or do it later.
Click the Save button
In the “Image Options” area of the dialogue box, set the compression lever you want.
The higher the number the better the image quality and the larger the file.
Use 11 or 12.

File Name Convention (CACCA)

Specific file name format required by the software used by CACCA
Use the method demonstrated as using Save for Web and Device adds “_” characters in place of spaces.
Some e-mail systems add the “_” characters, we will just have to live with this and edit the file names
If you have WINZIP, put the image files in a .ZIP file—this will solve the problem.

File Name Template

09~CPI~1~John Doe~Image Title.jpg

09—Club identifier (09 is EACC)

The tilde “~” is a field separator.

“CPI” competition code stands for “Color Projected Images (monochrome is acceptable for now)

“1” is the unique sequence number—the order in which you want the image projected.

Maker name—first and last names only.

Image title—limit of 35 characters.

More than 35 characters will be shortened to 35.

Submitting the images to EACC

2 images per member per month may be submitted
Make-ups are allowed, sequence numbers 3, 4, etc.
You can use images of prints you have entered.
Email your entries to jhslater@wideopenwest.com
Entries must be received y 6:00pm the Friday before the club competition date
The club president will check the dimension and filenames and notify you by email if there are errors
Corrections must be sent by 6:00pm the next day or the images will not be in the competition.

When you have finished preparing your digital image for competition, you can check to see if it meets all of the CACCA regulations by using this handy program, Validate DPI, in WIN.Zip format.