Challenge Image Size History - Help Please

Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS

03/12/2025 10:59:00 AM · #1

This could be a tough one to sort out, but if you can help I'd appreciate it.

I'm creating some collage templates to create pages for photo book(s) of my DPChallenge entries.

The obstacle I'm trying to work around currently is the range of challenge size limits over the years. Thought I had it roughly sorted out until I was looking at entries from 2009 and I have 640, 720, and 800 sized photos. Totally missed the 800 period (thought we went 640 -> 720 -> 1200), and how did I have 640's in 2009?

The way I have (had) it figured out was roughly as follows:
Up to November 2006 - size limit of 640.
December 2006 -> March 2016 - size limit of 720.
April 2016 -> today - size limit of 1200.

Can anyone figure out the size limit time range differently, and be kind enough to share?

Message edited by author 2025-03-12 11:00:19.

willem

Sony Alpha a6700

03/12/2025 12:09:12 PM · #2

I did a quick search in the admin announcement forum and found:

2014: increase from 800 to 1200 px
2009: increase from 640/720 to 800 px, depending on challenge type

I did not check all announcements but it seems to be a good place to find more info.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

03/12/2025 12:21:51 PM · #3

Thanks Willem. That’s where I looked, I thought so anyway. Hmm. I’ll dig again. :-)

Lydia

Canon EOS-6D

03/12/2025 06:16:42 PM · #4

Oh!

I hope you'll show us the book!

03/13/2025 10:19:24 AM · #5

Geez! Good thing I'm retired now. This was a fun snafu to wade through. :-)

Here's what I've found out after more digging.

Summary
640 2002 -> 11/2006(?) Based on the rules there shouldn't be any after, but there were into later part of 2009.
720 4/23/2006 (some) -> 11/7/2009
800 11/2006 (some) -> 11/7/2009
800 11/8/2009 -> 10/21/2014
1200 10/22/2014 ->

Admin Forums
720 Some, starting 4/23/2006
800 All, as of 11/8/2009
1200 All, as of 10/22/2014

Challenge Editing Rules
Classic 640 -> 1/2004
Basic I, II, III 640 1/2004 -> 11/2006
Basic 800 11/2006 -> 10/21/2014
Basic 1200 10/22/2014 -> 3/2016
Advanced VI 720 12/2007 -> 1/2008
Advanced VII 800 1/2008 -> 10/21/2014
Advanced VII 1200 10/22/2014 -> 4/2016
Minimal I 800 1/2007 -> 10/21/2014
Minimal I 1200 10/22/2014 -> 4/2016
Expert 800 12/2006 -> 10/21/2014
Expert 1200 10/22/201-> 4/2016
All new challenges, post 4/2016, run at 1200.

Message edited by author 2025-03-13 10:49:04.

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

03/13/2025 10:43:35 AM · #6

Originally posted by Lydia:

Oh!
I hope you'll show us the book!

Wouldn't be anything you haven't seen before. LOL

It's been interesting trying to sort this out. With 1900+ entries prior to 2025 it would take a LOT of photo pages to make a complete book.
I've experimented with weeding out my favorites and highlighting those and relegating the others to small thumbnail sizes. Not crazy about that idea.
Have looked at downsizing some, using 3 tiers (Full, Med, Small) ... rather cumbersome to work out.

So far I've tried Snapfish (which I use for most family prints and occasional larger ones for framing), and also have tried ShutterFly.
Neither of those was easy to use with this many photos.
Have tried using the auto-populate tools for photo pages. Didn't like the super huge number of pages (plus there's a limit on pages per book).
Tried doing custom pages in a yearbook and/or portfolio layout, but have to drag & drop all images, plus it was auto-cropping if it didn't fit the image slots correctly.
Tried using auto-populate with custom pages, but it (both vendors) overwrote the custom pages and went back to a non-linear layout.
Then I've also run into "insufficient resolution" on some photos ...

So, my approach now is to just do it manually with custom templates to create 11x14 sized collage pages. Then I'll upload those to use for photo pages.
The numbers will still be large (photo pages) so I think I'm going to do 4 or 5 years at a time for each book and create a series.

One thing I'm still trying to figure out is the easiest way to number the images on each photo page. Ideally I'd use the image id number (from the challenge entry), and I have those all renamed using a script to wipe out the "copyright..." part of the filename. I've also done some web scraping to setup an index (challenge number, image number, description, etc...) which I'd like to put in the back of each photo book. By providing the base url at the beginning of the index, anyone looking at the photo book could (if they want), load up the DPChallenge page for that challenge entry with the url/image id.

I'm driven by wanting to share these images with family and friends. 20+ years of challenge entries is a life story in a way. So many times I come back here to look up a date for some event because I remember using a photo from that day for an entry. Family members in photos ... crazy photo setups ... places we've been, etc. A lot to show and share. :-)

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

03/13/2025 03:36:40 PM · #7

I use an old program from Epson called FilmFactory to generate index prints (like contact sheets from negatives) but it also has options to create create print pages in various layouts. You just load up/list images from a folder (or more than one) and set the parameters. I think it would make all the images on the page the same size regardless of the original size. I "print" to a PDF file, but those can be easily converted to JPEG or PNG to send to Snapfish.

If you want I'll make a sample page so you can see if it's worth tracking down a newer version (you probably don't have a computer old enough to run my version); let me know the page/print size and how many images you want on a page -- I can use various-sized images ...

03/13/2025 08:08:21 PM · #8

Thanks Paul. I looked up that software and there is a "newer" version, but it's still not compatible. Perfect idea though. Thanks! Based on this info I ran across another app (ref from reddit) called PhotoScape X. Offers the same functionality that may work (like how you mentioned for FilmFactory). Find out soon. Launching it now. :-)

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

03/13/2025 08:30:23 PM · #9

Ha. Well, nice app, but the free version doesn't get me where I need to go.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

03/13/2025 08:45:35 PM · #10

You can send me a ZIP file with a few photos of different sizes and your layout specs and I'll process them and see if it looks like what you want ...