Submission Tips - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

08/04/2004 09:20:17 AM · #1

I have noticed a couple things that might help others. feel free to add and/or correct the following:

1) before you submit, look at a thumbnail of your shot to see how it stacks up. even though your image gets its first vote in full view, more than likely, it will get its second pass based on the thumb view. also, if a voter is cherry picking thumbs to vote on and your thumb doesn't grab them, it won't get picked...

2) take your original image, save it in photoshop, work on it (levels, colors), save it, then save it as jpeg quality 12. change the image size to 640 on its longest and save with quality 12. then save as (with a different file name!) jpeg quality as high as you can get to be as close but under 150 kb. then, and only then, apply unsharp mask (as much as necessary, but without over-sharpening), and save.

3) allow for 30-60 minutes before you submit to play with your shot. try different rotations, croppings, colorings/desaturizations to see if there is anything that can make it pop.

Message edited by author 2004-08-04 09:24:49.

siggi

Canon EOS-10D

08/04/2004 09:28:57 AM · #2

Now you tell me this shees!! :D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

08/04/2004 09:32:08 AM · #3

Originally posted by siggi:

Now you tell me this shees!! :D

believe me, i'm learning the hard way...

EddyG

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

08/04/2004 09:42:10 AM · #4

Saving at JPEG quality 12 is "over the top"; it disables many of the benefits of the JPEG compression algorithm that allows it to reduce the size of files. Level 10 is more than adequate for high quality JPEGs (such as those being submitted to DPCPrints).

For saving intermediary edits, save in a lossless format, such as Photoshop's native ".PSD" format, not level 12 JPEGs. There is no degradation of image quality no matter how many times you open, edit, and re-save a .PSD file. The same cannot be said about JPEG files.

Finally, don't use "Save As..." to genereate the JPEGs for submission here to DPC, use "Save for Web...". "Save As..." embeds too much extra "cruft" into the file which takes away from valuable kilobytes that could be used for image data.

You can read my "DPC Workflow" in this thread for more info.

Message edited by author 2004-08-04 09:43:12.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

08/04/2004 10:08:23 AM · #5

Originally posted by EddyG:

You can read my "DPC Workflow" in this thread for more info.

it would be nice to move this from being buried in a thread to a tutorial...hint, hint

EddyG

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

08/04/2004 10:13:02 AM · #6

Working on it... =] Thanks for the additional prodding...

KaDi

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

08/04/2004 10:15:05 AM · #7

Originally posted by EddyG:

"Save As..." embeds too much extra "cruft" into the file

Cruft?

A helpful post Eddy--didn't know that about "Save As..." I must change my ways.

garlic

Canon EOS-10D

Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5-4.5 EX Aspherical DG DF for Canon

08/04/2004 10:22:01 AM · #8

Originally posted by skiprow:

Thx for this tips skiprow.
About USM then I use it in the full size image and then add a litle more with smaller radius after resizing to 640.

emorgan49

Olympus E-5

Olympus 50mm f/1.8 MF Normal Zuiko

08/04/2004 10:27:45 AM · #9

If this becomes a tutorial - add a reminder to check that the date is set correctly on your camera.

08/04/2004 10:28:07 AM · #10

Originally posted by garlic:

About USM then I use it in the full size image and then add a litle more with smaller radius after resizing to 640.

thank you. i'm still learning my way through this part. while i don't have time to dust every pixel on every entry, i know there are things i could do better. in addition to eddyg's coming tutorial, what i'd really, really, really love is for heida to do a step-by-step burning/dodging tutorial, using her angel

image as an example...

Nusbaum

Fujifilm X-T1

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

08/04/2004 10:28:44 AM · #11

Originally posted by skiprow:

1) before you submit, look at a thumbnail of your shot to see how it stacks up. even though your image gets its first vote in full view, more than likely, it will get its second pass based on the thumb view. also, if a voter is cherry picking thumbs to vote on and your thumb doesn't grab them, it won't get picked...

This is one aspect of photo sites that I think deserves some additional discussion. I have noticed here, and on other sites like pbase, that the use of thumbnails allows users to cheery pick their photo selections based on what looks best in that format. In many cases a photograph is made by a detail, such as the look in a subject's eyes, but these details don't usually show in thumbnails.

Anyway.... do we have to reduce the scope of our photography to those things that look good in thumbnails so they will get noticed on the web?