**Challenge 2: Nature in Black & White**

[MHD]

*French accent*
Ignore CO-LOR
Look instead for Light and Dark!
*/french accent*

[xerubus]

I have a similar outlook as MHD.... for me it's getting the most tonal range to make something out of nothing...

[sirhc55]

Ok!!

So we are half way through the month!!!

We have 28 registered users and some AWESOME prizes!

So get those creative juices rolling as this one is going to be tight!

Come on members register - only 28 out of 169 persons - take the plunge everyone has a chance to win. . .

[MHD]

Yes, and please dont leave things untill the last minute...
While I will endevour to fix any problems I dont want a last minute rush and to have to deal with the contraversy of last minute entries failing for technical issues...

[birddog114]

MHD,
How many photos are in the challenge as of today?

[MHD]

Just the one so far!

People are waiting until later so they dont miss any chances!

[birddog114]

So the last 3 days of this Nov. are very busy.

[MHD]

A note one comments: I have made comments invisible. So feel free to make comments but people will not be able to see them until after voting has finished.
This is to preserve anonyminity and to make sure voting is not influenced by negative or positive comments

[Glen]

Very fair how you are running this MHD

[Greg B]

Yes MHD, you have set the bar to a new high in relation to the democratic process. There are plenty of countries which could only dream of this level of democratic integrity.



Now all I need to do is to lodge an entry - or have I already?

[dooda]

I feel like I'm getting really close to my entry. Just waiting for the exquisite weather to come in and cast the perfect lighting on this one little area that I'm about to find in the very near future. Just a matter of time...a few days maybe. I liked this face cause it's green.

(Edited by me)

It turns out I'm a party animal now. I'll take it. That's terrific. I'm not nothing, I'm a party animal. Thankyou, I will conduct myself accordingly

[jdear]

is it too late to join in? and must it be shot with a d70?

I reckon we should have a colour closeup competition of flowers
flowers seem to be the most relaxing for me to photograph. I dont have to wait for them, they don't figget around like people and you rarely catch them with their eyes closed.

JD

[MHD]

no, not to late!

PM me with:

d70jdear
Visable name
email address

[MHD]

and yes... it must be shot with a d70 body

[jdear]

ahhh ill hang out until i get one then best of luck to all those who enter.
JD

[Raydar]

I’m going to make an effort this week end to get a shot.
The first week end for ages I have felt well enough to have a play with the cam

Cheers
Ray

[MHD]

Yay!

I have a shot in reserve but its not quite the shot I was looking for..

[dooda]

what was the size limit again? I was playing in ps and I noticed this option under image.

I changed the pixel and the size changed too.

Should we shoot these shots in medium or small in the camera?(generally I leave it on large, maybe I should shoot smaller for the comp?)

I remember MHD giving a particular size limit, but I can't remember what. 1008 or something?

This contest has gotten me off of my butt and learning about all of this stuff, which is great.

[MHD]

longest dimension 1000 pixels...

file size... I dont recall adding a hard limit... keep it under a meg (which is easy to do)

[MHD]

shoot large and resize later!

you might only want a certain part of the image...

even if it is small I often crop... (bad I know, I should have gotten the composition right to begin with)

[Raydar]

I have one Q for those out there a lot smarter than me “Not hard”
How the hell do you get rid of some of the Meta data attached to an image, I can’t find anything in NC or PS_CS that allows me to take some information out & leave some once I resize

Any help would be of great help

Cheers
Ray

[MHD]

as long as you replace each letter with a space you can actually edit it out using a text editor (emacs )

but make sure you dont change the length of the header....

(i'm sure others know better ways)

[MHD]

for the next comp I will alter the code so this will not be a problem

[Raydar]

Thanks mate you’re a legend

I’ll give it a go & see if there is some one with an easier way.

Got me stuffed!!!!

Cheers
Ray

[dooda]

once again, thankyou for the help.

Now most of the images that I have are over 1mg, and you said just make sure that they're under 1 mg which is easy to do. I believe you one hundred percent, except for the "do" part. Could you tell me how nice and slow so I don't grind my teeth too bad?

[MHD]

okay!
Now I dont use photoshop, I use the GIMP.
In the GIMP when you hit save as you can change the JPEG compression and it tells you the size of the image that will be generated.

you should not need much compression to get a 1000x(less than 1000) or vice versa image down to less than a megabyte

The size limit is there because I pay for uploads..
I pay a lot more for information sent to my computer than information transmitted by my computer (for which I dont pay much at all)

Anymore probs dont hesitate to give me a yell

[PlatinumWeaver]

Dooda - Tell us what software you're using and someone'll give you exact directions. If you've already told us, sorry, I didn't see it.

[dooda]

Sorry MHD,

I hope you didn't think I was questioning the whole resizing thing...I'm not, I simply don't know how, and I'm grateful that you're doing all of this.

I use PS CS (or I am trying to). It's on my brother's computer and he works for an advertising agency doing animation and graphic design etc.

So I asked him once to show me some stuff, He gave me 12 years worth in about 30 minutes, using shortcuts and skipping like 11 steps at a time. I balled my eyes out that day.

I'm also assuming that when you say 1000 pixels long, in photoshop that is in the width column (or maybe the height makes more sense?) I've never understood how so many people can have this figured out.

[sirhc55]

Hi Dooda

The final images longest side must be 1000 pixels - depends on whether its landscape or portrait

Cheers

C

[PlatinumWeaver]

Open Image in Photoshop.
Make an changes you need to make.
When you have your final image...

Go to the 'Image' menu.
Click Image Size.
Find the largest number in either width or height. ( a typical landscape shot from a d70 will be 3008 ( w ) X 2000 ( h ).

Change the large number ( should be 3008 unless you've cropped ) to 1000, the other value should change as well ( to 665 if uncropped ).

Hit OK.
Best bet now would be to go to the 'File' menu.
Choose "Save for web"
On the right-hand-side change the preset to 'JPEG High'
The image size is in the lower right corner of the screen. something like

JPEG
355.1k
X secs at 28.8kbps

Hit 'Save' ( top right )
Choose a new filename.

And you're done

I don't think I missed anything...

[mudder]

G'day guys,
OK, di..head question here....

Do I need to have an account created on the challenge site?

http://potofgrass.ath.cx/gallery/challenge2

Thanks for advice, I feel stupid for asking but what the heck...

Cheers,
Mudder

[MHD]

PM me with your email address and prefered dispayed name...

And dont forget to read the rules on the first page...

[gstark]

G'day guys,
OK, di..head question here....

Totally different topic ...

I was mildly amused this evening; while watching the news, there was a story that featured an interview with a gentleman named Dick Whitehead.

Heaven help him if the rev John Spooner ever got to meet him.

[MHD]

riiight


We now have 35 registered users!

Going to be a big one this one!

[Geoff]

I'm starting to worry a bit, haven't had a lot of time to get out there and click away at nature, and I really like the last two shots...eeek!!

[Raydar]

Same here mate!!!!

A good calendar would come out of this comp I’m thinking

Cheers
Ray

[Greg B]

Should I start shooting? Is it the last minute yet?

[xerubus]

i think it's getting close enough to start thinking about what to shoot

[PlatinumWeaver]

I am waiting/waited for the right shot before entering/having entered, and I can tell you it is/was frustrating waiting for the right cirumstances to occur.

I also note/noted that there seems to be a lot of post processing going on. Some of them look almost inverted. Now I know how mine will be done/ was done, but is there a limit on how much work can be done after releasing the shutter?

[Greg B]

Nice work Dean, you have/will have embraced the spirit of anonymity with zeal

[PlatinumWeaver]

*weeps/wept*

I don't even know what I'm trying to say anymore!!

[Greg B]

Steady fella, be strong.

[MHD]

I am waiting/waited for the right shot before entering/having entered, and I can tell you it is/was frustrating waiting for the right cirumstances to occur.

I also note/noted that there seems to be a lot of post processing going on. Some of them look almost inverted. Now I know how mine will be done/ was done, but is there a limit on how much work can be done after releasing the shutter?

Inversion is the extreme of doing levels so I suppose that is ok...

Its messing with the actual image that is against the rules of this particular comp (photo monatge, composites etc...)

And just a note to be carefull to not comment on specific images in the comp..

[PlatinumWeaver]

I thought I was careful..
Damn..

[phillipb]

While we are on this subject, can someone give me a definition of "Nature" as it applies to photography?

[gstark]

While we are on this subject, can someone give me a definition of "Nature" as it applies to photography?

Silver Halide.

[MHD]

While we are on this subject, can someone give me a definition of "Nature" as it applies to photography?

To a certain degree that is up to the voter to decide!

It is a very hard thing to decide....

[PlatinumWeaver]

nature for me means:

landscapes, waterscapes, cloudscapes, animals, plants.

Possibly also people.. but I think that's a little tricky a lot of the time..

[phillipb]

Very witty Gary (Although not completely correct in this age of Digital)
I always thought that Nature is anything not man-made.

[Onyx]

I agree with Phillip. Not nature would mean for instance... oh I dunno, a house or a rain tank or something.