"List of Steps" to Site Council for Verification

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

05/27/2007 05:48:54 PM · #1

I searched the old threads and couldn't find an answer to the question of exactly how detailed the "list of steps" needs to be in the event the SC requires verification.

I've looked at "un-official" comments listed by photographers that list basic categories such such as Curves, Levels, Crop, Submit. Others will take the time to, for example, break out the various components and sub-steps/sub-menus of each of the broader categories.

While I understand and follow the rules for each category, much of what I do (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is experimentation. Tweak this, add a pinch of hue, crop, re-crop, a dollop of sharpen, a smidgen of un-sharpen, restore to defaults, etc..

My concern, I guess, is that I would have a photo challenged and that I had improperly noted that at step five I increased the blue saturation by 3% rather than then decreased the Magenta by 5%. Or that I forgot to list unsharp mask and the percentages associated with unsharp mask.

Does everyone have a pad of paper alongside their PC's and faithfully record every step in great detail? Does the SC expect them to?

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

05/27/2007 06:01:30 PM · #2

Basically as long as you can give the SC a general run down on what you did...so when they open up your image and follow your guidelines...they will end up with a result similiar to yours.

For example...you list that you used hue & sat, neat image and crop on your basic entry...and they have trouble working out how you made that leaf in the middle of the photo suddenly disappear. Do you understand?

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/27/2007 06:11:00 PM · #3

Here's an example of how I list my editing steps in the additional info area when submitting. I keep all the color changes as Adjustment Layers, so I can go back and reference specific control points/values or take screen-shots later if necessary.

Isaac's bottle collection.

- Handheld
- Cloned-out stray branch on left edge and a few stray dirt spots on windows
- Horizontal gradient masks created
- RGB Curve for upper portion
- RGB for lower portion
- Red and Blue Curves for lower portions
- Resize for DPC
- USM at 16%/64 dia/TH = 0
- USM at 16%/64 dia/TH = 0 (second application)
- SaveAs JPEG at quality 7/10 = 123kb

If you are using later versions of Photoshop, there are settings which allow you to save a log of the entire editing history in a text file.

Message edited by author 2007-05-27 18:12:39.

BAMartin

Apple iPhone 5

05/27/2007 06:26:34 PM · #4

GeneralE, do you know where those settings are located? I would love to keep a log of processing steps for DPC entries. I have CS2.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/27/2007 06:29:18 PM · #5

Originally posted by BAMartin:

GeneralE, do you know where those settings are located? I would love to keep a log of processing steps for DPC entries. I have CS2.

No, I'm using PS 5.0 myself : )

I think others have mentioned it in the forums -- you might try searching for "history" or "settings" or something ...

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

05/27/2007 06:33:19 PM · #6

Originally posted by BAMartin:

GeneralE, do you know where those settings are located? I would love to keep a log of processing steps for DPC entries. I have CS2.

Edit/Preferences/General. There is a checkbox option to record a history log file and how detailed you want it to be.

BAMartin

Apple iPhone 5

05/27/2007 06:35:51 PM · #7

Thanks Yanko, that is exactly what I was looking for!

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/27/2007 07:09:57 PM · #8

Originally posted by Judi:

I understand what you're saying. I have a hard time believing what you are inferring - that the SC tries to re-create the photo using the original image and a very vague description of methods used, and could/would then potentially disqualify the photo if they are unable to duplicate it.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

05/27/2007 07:29:52 PM · #9

Originally posted by jonejess:

I have a hard time believing what you are inferring - that the SC tries to re-create the photo using the original image and a very vague description of methods used, and could/would then potentially disqualify the photo if they are unable to duplicate it.

If we can't reasonably duplicate the entry from the original given "vague" editing steps we will almost always ask for more detailed info on the editing steps before making a decision. Still, the more detail you put in the info area in the beginning, the less likely we'll have to ask for more details.

Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Pentax

05/27/2007 08:03:15 PM · #10

So I guess the short answer to my original questions, "Does everyone have a pad of paper alongside their PC's and faithfully record every step in great detail? Does the SC expect them to?" is yes then. Thanks.

Jewellian

Pentax *ist DL

05/27/2007 08:15:20 PM · #11

if you use layers and save the image without flattening them, you can always go back and copy down the info from the layers later.

scalvert

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

05/27/2007 08:19:12 PM · #12

Originally posted by jonejess:

Does the SC expect them to?"

No. Most of my entries list my editing steps, so you can see it's not every little detail. You don't have to list exact settings for "typical" post processing, like USM or desaturating a channel. It's only when you do something tricky that we might need more detail.

For example, if you take a picture of a frog in the grass and everything but the frog is desaturated in Basic editing, we'll probably ask how you managed to desaturate some greens but not others using global edits.