Photo competition, image quality

I really enjoy the photo competitions here on the forum, it’s a chance to see peoples fish and to see how your own photographs are received etc. I also appreciate all the work that goes into it from the moderator’s side. It’s great but I think it can be better.

I have noticed that the photographs entered in the photo competitions are edited and reduced in quality before being posted in the competition thread, I checked the last three months and it was the same so it was probably always the way. This includes photographs following the guidelines, jpeg files below 1MB and so on.

Obviously this happens to all photographs so does not affect votes, but i think it takes away a bit of the idea of perhaps getting that sharp shot when it is reduced in quality anyway.

I am aware that the reason probably is the limit of space available but I’m not talking about massive amounts, a couple of megabytes for the thread should do? If it’s not possible to allow photos over 100KB or so perhaps it could be an idea to change the rules and guidelines from a max of 1mb to 50KB so that we can see the final version of the entry before submitting?

Here’s an example:

Original as submitted, 201KB


Edited for thread, 18.8KB


I know it's not a huge difference, but i think it's big enough to be noticed.

Thanks,

Melander

Posted in the wrong section, can it be moved?

Thanks,

Melander

no offence or anything because i can see where your coming from but i think your making it into a picture quality competition as opposed to a photography competition... it was said before that the quality of photo isn't the main reason for the comp but the right photo will outclass quality any day... the difference between those 2 photos is really unnoticeable unless your looking for pro quality which would make some people reluctant to participate because the quality is not up to that of a dslr!!
its supose to be a bit of fun so please keep it that way

Hows thing mate

As i look after the photo competitions i sort out all the photos and so on

I do this months and last before that bill was looking after it for a month or two or me (thanks again mate)

But ill speck for my self here when get the photos sent into me via email i save them to my computer (without changing any size)

i then rename and do you a list off who owns what and also i do but a voting list so i can keep it up to date and have a record off it if needs be

Then when it is time i write up the threads and sort out the front page edit that to match the month i then go and add the photos to the thread and only then after i save it i look back and see how sixes are if there one that is to small or to big i will re-size but if not i will not touch

For this month for an example i did not re-size any photos as there was no need to be

So if it is that when saving it to my laptop this re-sizes its self but i looked at this and this was not the case?

Sean

davey_c wrote:

no offence or anything because i can see where your coming from but i think your making it into a picture quality competition as opposed to a photography competition... it was said before that the quality of photo isn't the main reason for the comp but the right photo will outclass quality any day... the difference between those 2 photos is really unnoticeable unless your looking for pro quality which would make some people reluctant to participate because the quality is not up to that of a dslr!!
its supose to be a bit of fun so please keep it that way

Davey i am also with you on this i for one can not stress enough that this is not pro quality photography comps as you say if this was the case we would have very few photos to enter

I do see where the OP is coming from but i do not see where the photos are getting re-sized i will look into this tonight and do a few test to see of i can get it sorted

Could it be when putting it in the email it will get resized?

Sean

i agree with dave here, every month it is stated that the competition is about the content of the photo rather than the quality and to be honest i wouldn't enter any photos if it was about quality because i simply don't have the means to take high quality photos. at the end of the day it's all for a bit of fun and a chance for members to show their fish/tanks. don't get me wrong i see where you're coming from, people do like to see high quality photos but not everyone is able to take such photos.

wayne

it could well be sean, are they being received as an attached photo or attached file? i inquired before in shops about printing photo's that were emailed to me as photo's and i was told they are virtually unprintable because they are downsized automatically when uploaded... was told to always send photo's as files to avoid that problem. might solve the problem for someone...

I'm sorry guy's but I can't see what this has to do with what the competition is about. How is it not beneficial for everyone if the photographs are shown in a higher resolution.

I'm not talking about the quality of the entries but how they are presented.

I also fail to see what it matters if a DSLR or a compact camera is used.

The photo I used as an example could have been any from the competition thread.

Melander

Just looked into it there for you Melander

When i got it sent into me via email it was at the size off 28.76 KB (29449 bytes) as the image info has just told me?

Also for some reason when it was added to the forum it changed from 28 to 18 again im not to sure as to why this is yet but again i will looking into it for you and if it is an error on this size ill try get it sorted

But i really can not see how this is this way as i said before there is no editing going into post if not all photos

Some times 1 or 2 photos in each comp has to be re-sized as are very large but that is a different issue altogether as these files have to me edited so get added to the post there not much i can do from that

Sean

Thanks for that Sean, Jez I don't know what is going on then. I assumed it had something to do with the limits of space for the website. Maybe my email is up to no good.

Melander

Take Photos of what you love, submit them and have people vote, simple, for specific photography, join a Photographic club. The comp is for amateurs and based on amateur skills.

Kev.

Seems that most people don't agree with me on this but I really think the point was lost. My question has in my opinion nothing to do with the quality of the photographer.


Melander

I am by far a pro quality photographer, i think i have only ever used a camera on a photos for photos ever

But do you not mean that by resizing the image makes it lose the quality of it?

As this is what it looks like in your first post as both are different sizes

Sean

No not really, even if that is the case too. A photograph can basically be saved in different resolutions and by saving it in a lower resolution it takes less space on the harddrive. That's what I thought happend to save space on the forum. But It seems it was something else.

Maybe it was compressed by the email or something, I really don't know.

It does not really matter now anyway as It had nothing to do with space allowed for the photo thread as I thought.

Melander

Melander wrote:

I really enjoy the photo competitions here on the forum, it’s a chance to see peoples fish and to see how your own photographs are received etc. I also appreciate all the work that goes into it from the moderator’s side. It’s great but I think it can be better.

I have noticed that the photographs entered in the photo competitions are edited and reduced in quality before being posted in the competition thread, I checked the last three months and it was the same so it was probably always the way. This includes photographs following the guidelines, jpeg files below 1MB and so on.

Obviously this happens to all photographs so does not affect votes, but i think it takes away a bit of the idea of perhaps getting that sharp shot when it is reduced in quality anyway.

I am aware that the reason probably is the limit of space available but I’m not talking about massive amounts, a couple of megabytes for the thread should do? If it’s not possible to allow photos over 100KB or so perhaps it could be an idea to change the rules and guidelines from a max of 1mb to 50KB so that we can see the final version of the entry before submitting?

Here’s an example:

Original as submitted, 201KB

Edited for thread, 18.8KB

I know it's not a huge difference, but i think it's big enough to be noticed.

Thanks,

Melander

The fact, if that is the case, that the image quality is reduced, it is so across the board, in my opinion, this works out to be fair.

Kev.

No not at all really we can add photos any size to the forum as members do every day to there own topics but for competitions and that we like to keep it as a limit so 1MB was added to the rules but this was done a long time ago when the competitions got started.

Sean

That's exactly what I tried to say in the first post, it's not unfair at all!

This thread was never about anything being unfair. My question was intended to be if it was possible to allow more space to the competition so that we can see and enjoy the photographs as they were taken. (by more space I don't mean to exceed the 1MB but from 50KB to say 400kb)

I must not have been clear in my original post as several people seems to think the same as you.

Melander

Can we revise the size of the photo's as i'm sure most people have a lot better camera's then when this competition was started also with the voting can we not have a little pole as votes come in that are in the majority of websites i'm sure most people would like to see even if they don't win did they get any votes.

Jambomac wrote:

Can we revise the size of the photo's as i'm sure most people have a lot better camera's then when this competition was started also with the voting can we not have a little pole as votes come in that are in the majority of websites i'm sure most people would like to see even if they don't win did they get any votes.

This voting was tired and tested and did not work as others can see who has what votes and so on

Sean

It would be simpler to just post image links directly to the server hosting the Photographs, bypassing any upload limit .

Kev.

BlueRam wrote:

Jambomac wrote:

Can we revise the size of the photo's as i'm sure most people have a lot better camera's then when this competition was started also with the voting can we not have a little pole as votes come in that are in the majority of websites i'm sure most people would like to see even if they don't win did they get any votes.

This voting was tired and tested and did not work as others can see who has what votes and so on

Sean

I don't remember ever seeing a pole and if voting is done fairly and people are honest it should not matter if they can see how many votes somebody has or even if they could see who votes for who if everything is done fairly what is the harm in pole, not saying put names as votes beside photos they vote for.

There was a time not long after I joined the forum (about 2 years ago) when there was a dramatic change in quality (even though I did not enter anything) that I could see some people work being done a dis-service.

And I think those of us who commented on it were justified.....it was not about 'quality' as such but about distortion of the image.

That was resolved from what I can see.

When I vote in these competitions, I do look for quality but not for print-quality. Being in-focus etc etc can be seen, and the image are what I decide upon (eg composition and possible difficulty in getting 'that shot'). My vote here is based upon it being a 'forum photo competition' as opposed to other photo competitions that I am judge of.

Now they are my criteria, and I would expect that others have their own criteria (if we all had the same criteria and opinion then there is no point in having voting !!)

I do, however, see where Melander is coming from though, and wouldn't like to see his concerns brushed to one side especially as more and more people have better and better cameras (whether mobile phone, compact or DSLR).

It is, however, not always the easiest thing to convert someone else photo to be either printed or put on a website.....certain image files are more likely to fail a simple conversion process than other would.
For example, a photographer who has downloaded their images from their flickr or photoshop account and sent that for printing may have them rejected if the print process requires certain conversions (eg RGB to CYMK) as the pixels are not as proportional as they should be (especially with jpeg).

Similarly, the conversion process here may be lowering the quality......and some files may be more noticeable than others.

That being said in defence of Melanders concerns and of the forum admin in doing their best (and it is a responsible job to look after someone elses photos) to get the photo competition running for all.

ian

I would hate to see the monthly competitions (which are great btw) turn into a "who has the best camera" or "who knows how to use their photo editing software the best" competition.
I like entering with pics taken on my phone and cant afford to go out and buy an SLR

Aquaman wrote:

I would hate to see the monthly competitions (which are great btw) turn into a "who has the best camera" or "who knows how to use their photo editing software the best" competition.
I like entering with pics taken on my phone and cant afford to go out and buy an SLR

I don't think anybody is suggesting to make it more professional, but just like you don't want to be hampered by your lack of photo equipment others don't wish to have the quality of there pictures degraded due to rules.

We need to find a happy medium so that if somebody does have better equipment or sharper focusing then rules don't hamper them.

i still stick by my point made because i have not been provided any other motive here.... the 2 picture variants are identical except a difference in clarity because of the process it went through. obviously you want to take the best and clearest photo you can with what you got and keep it as that as implied in your 1st post... i don't see how the photo size should matter because both sizes you submitted are quality photo's that lots would be delighted to achieve unless of course you are looking for professional quality?? personaly i love looking at the entries but i had a feelin it was only a matter of time before something like this came up.
chill out man, its not worth the hair loss

No offence, but I don't understand why some of you say, that it's not important how image looks like, but what is on the photo. So why do you care about aquascaping? Why just not to put everything into the tank and that's it? It's important what's inside not how it looks... Anyway it wouldn't be this problem if we could put our photo to imageshack or similar sites in resolution we want and just send link to moderator (what is also strange).

Anyway it wouldn't be this problem if we could put our photo to imageshack or similar sites in resolution we want and just send link to moderator (what is also strange).

Yes this would work as nothing would be changed from this

Im open to ideas if you all want it changed just once the new way works

And also if there is any off the mods/admin that would want to take the role and try other ways to do all off it im more then happy to allow and pass it on to you

Thanks

Sedan

I understand the points made, I just would like for you guys not take the fun out of the competition - in order to 'improve it' or find a 'better way' - with rules to send stuff here and there, minimum/maximum requirement... and so on, I like it the way it is. It is fair, simple and accessible to everyone, good camera or bad.