Competition Glossary

Description of each competition and what is allowed as an entry. STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY: Still life photography owes much to the tradition of painting. The beautifully crafted still life paintings found in museums are records of an intense experience of light, form and colour. Still life photography concentrates on these formal properties and has attracted some of the most influential photographers of all time. The images of early masters of the art such as Edward Steichen, Edward Weston, Andre Kertesz and Minor White still look 'modern'. In the commercial sphere the lavish attention to detail in the work of some food photographers, for example, continues this tradition. By crafting something that is more than a picture 'of' something, a good still life can evoke emotion, playfulness and reflection. The abstract quality which sometimes enables the viewer to experience form and space before seeing 'objects' can challenge the usual associations of the camera and the tangible world.

SPORT & PHOTOJOURNALISM: Shall be any photograph that could be used as an informative picture in a journal publication and sports being any photograph connected with sport.

PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY: This competition is always one of the most popular and a great one to start the season off. The subject can be just about anything. Our current definition of pictorial is "Shall be any photograph which the author would place on a wall for public viewing"

NATURAL HISTORY PHOTOGRAPHY: Natural History photography depicts untamed animals and uncultivated plants in a natural habitat. The accurate record of the subject and natural environment is the prime factor. Evidence of man and his manipulation of his environment in any part of the picture is undesirable and should be avoided. After satisfying the above requirements every effort should be made to use the highest level of artistic skill in all nature photographs. Photographs of cultivated plants, floral arrangements, domestic and caged animals, mounted specimens, museum groups or man and his specialised environment are NOT acceptable. Entries should be accurately titled.

RECORD PHOTOGRAPHY: Shall be for any building or part of a building ancient or modern, and/or allied objects or furnishings belonging to or associated with the subject. This class includes archaeological or other inanimate objects.

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY: Portrait (People and figure studies) shall include figure studies, groups of a portrait nature and animal portraits.

CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY: The Oxford English Dictionary defines creative as simply "Inventive and Imaginative". Need we say more? So what does that mean to the photographer? A photographic creation by the author that stimulates the mind of the viewer though the creative use of light, form, colour, monochrome, cropping, developing, printing, image manipulation etc. It can include creative use of traditional film techniques or using digital techniques. The entries must have been created using a camera or another light recording device such as a scanner. Non photographic images generated wholly by a computer will not be permitted.

Open Competition (RESTRICTED): As a club we want to encourage new members and photographers at all levels of photography so we have a new competition. The subject matter is your choice. This competition is open to new members and anyone who has NOT finished in the top 3 during the previous season

HOW TO RE-SIZE YOUR PHOTO FOR THE WEBSITE

Image size must be no more than 150 x 150 pixels in JPG format at medium quality
Images will be displayed on the gallery section of our website
Entries to be submitted on CD or email to Alastair Montgomery

In Adobe photoshop...

1. Resize photo
IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE
Make sure the "constrain proportions" and "resample image" boxes are ticked




Enter the following...

Resolution = 72 pixels / inch
Change the value of the pixel dimensions (height or width) to 150
Only change the one with the highest existing value

For example if the existing width is 400 pixels and the existing height is 600 pixels only change the height to 150 pixels - The width will change automatically

2. Re-name your photo
FILE > SAVE AS ...
Choose JPG format
Please name your files as in the example “LinscottA-flower.jpg”

3. Quality?
Avoid too much file compression as this can spoil the image and make it appear in “blocks” etc. If you set the quality setting to about 9 or 10 you should have a file size of about 100 kb which is perfect

4. What subjects can I put on the gallery and how many?
Any subjects will be considered, although there is no guarantee that your picture(s) will be used. There is a limit to how many photographs we can put on the web. Each member can currently submit upto 20 photographs each year for possible inclusion on the site.
This does not include any photos selected as competition winners. Eventually we will be able to build-up a few mini portfolios and examples of our work.

5. What about copyright?
The author will retain copyright. The website will include a small thumbnail size photo and may contain one copy of the main photo. Ripon City Photographic Society (or its committee members) cannot be held responsible for any breach of copyright by a third party.

Winners of club competitions are invited to have their work displayed on the Society’s website. It would also be most helpful if they could provide their own digital copy and forward it to Andrew Linscott

IF YOU HAVE HAD ANY COMPETITION SUCESSES (club, national, international etc) WITH AN IMAGE LET ME HAVE THE DETAILS AND I WILL UPLOAD THIS TO THE WEB PAGE

HOW TO RE-SIZE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS FOR DIGITAL SLIDE COMPETITIONS

Image size must be 1024 x 768 pixels in JPG format at maximum quality
Images will be projected onto a black background.
Entries to be submitted on CD or email to to Sarah Harrison

In Adobe photoshop...

1. Create a new BLACK background layer
Set BACKGROUND COLOUR to BLACK in TOOLS PALETTE
FILE > NEW > SELECT 1024 x 768 in drop down menu
CONTENTS = BACKGROUND COLOUR

2. Open your photo in photoshop and place your photo onto the black background
Select the MOVE TOOL and place over your photo
Left click on your photo (and hold) and drag onto the black background
If you hold down the SHIFT KEY at the same time this will place the photo in the centre

3. Resize your photo to fit the background
EDIT > TRANSFORM > SCALE
You will now see a "bounding box"
Click and drag from the corners to resize the photo
If you hold down the SHIFT + ALT keys at the same time you will retain the proportion and maintain the central position of the photo
Press RETURN on keyboard once you have resized
Go to LAYER > FLATTEN IMAGE
FILE > SAVE

Useful Tip: Whilst the bounding box is active you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the photo to "fine tune" its position.

Resizing your images with the free XnView

This tutorial details how you can use the free XnView to resize your digital images for the webpage galleries or competitions.

Download XnView from their webpage and follow their instructions to install it.

• Open you image in XnView.
• Choose "Resize" from the image menu.
• 
• In the Screensize section enter your requires size (in this case 1024x768 for digital competition enteries). Make sure your Resample is set as Hanning shown below and then click OK.
• 
• Choose "Save as" from the file menu.
• 
• Save you image as a JPEG as shown below.

1. 

Sponsors 2005/6 Season

Ripon City Photographic Society would like to thank the following supporters and commercial sponsors for their support for the 2005/6 season.

www.abacusprinters.co.uk	Let the experts turn your work into print
www.rps.org	The RPS is the foremost photographic society in the world, founded when photography was in its infancy, and a leading force in its advancement ever since.
www.riponinteriors.co.uk	Bathroom of Distinction, Free Design Service, Classic, Modern and Traditional Bathroom Suites Good range of Tiles and Accessories
www.sigma-imaging-uk.com	For all your imaging requirements. From traditional 35mm SLR systems, flashguns, lenses, converters, filters and digital

Ripon City Photographic Society Main Page

Spring 2007 Programme

8 Jan 2007	Retford Exchange Work from our friends in Nottinghamshire
15 Jan 2007	Digital Workshop How to create an AV sequence from your holiday Images. Entries for the President’s Challenge. Theme: A Touch of Red (A Panel of Three Images on one mount)
22 Jan 2007	Ecuador and Galápagos Andrew Linscott presents a travelogue of photography from Quito, the Amazon rainforest and the Galapágos archipelago www.andrewlinscott.co.uk/CollectionGalapagos.html
29 Jan 2007	Competition President’s Challenge Theme: A Touch of Red A Panel of Three Images on one mount
5 Feb 2007	Members Lecturettes Come and show the members what YOU enjoy taking. Entries for the Digital Competition
12 Feb 2007	HALF TERM - NO MEETING
19 Feb 2007	Digital Competition: Computer Generated or Manipulated - Anything Goes Projected Images or Prints Entries for the Annual Part 1
26 Feb 2007	The Owl Man Returns Howard Toll. Bring your cameras. Entries for the Annual Part 2
5 March 2007	Annual Competition, part1 Still Life Sport & photojournalism Pictorial
12 March 2007	Annual Competition, part 2 Natural History Record Portraits
19 March 2007	AGM
26 March 2007	Dinner & Prize Presentation