December '09 Photo Challenge - "Open"

[Chris of Arabia]

Hi everyone,

Thanks to those who took part in the November challenge, let's see how the vote goes this time.

For this month, I have decided to make the theme "Open", which means you can submit any photograph you like, the subject matter is entirely up to you.

The prize for the winner of the vote, as always, will be a $25.00 Amazon voucher courtesy of the TPF owners.

For all those who wish to participate in this challenge please take a moment to read through the following:

• The deadline for submissions is 31 December 2009
• The image can be no larger then 150KB*
• Include your forum username when submitting
• The attached photo must be in the form of a .jpg
• Please keep your photo anonymous (no distinguishing watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum)
• Submit no more than one photo
• If you wish you may include a title when submitting your photo (please ensure that the attached photo is renamed as the chosen title)
• The form must also be included when submitting the photo
• Despite what the FAQs indicate, confirmation emails will not be issued.
• The forum Admins and Moderators reserve the right to exclude or remove any photo solely at their discretion
• The forum Admins and Moderators reserve the right to decide the winner of the photo challenge
• All submitted photos will be posted, along with a poll, in a new thread within the first week of the following month
• Once created, the voting poll will last for 14 days before it closes automatically

>>>>>>>>>> Copy and Paste this into your submission email <<<<<<<<<<

ThePhotoForum.com Username:

*Photo Title (optional):

Is the attached photo 150KB or less? Y/N

Is the attached photo a jpeg? Y/N

Has this photo been posted before? Y/N

Please submit only one photo per challenge.

Please enter your email subject as "December '09 Challenge Submission"

*Please ensure that the attached photo is named the title you wish it to have otherwise the title will not be used.
.................................................. .................................................. ...

Please email your photo to photochallenge@thephotoforum.com and remember to enter the subject as indicated.

All photos must include the form when submitted. Just copy and paste it into your email. This will ensure that no mistakes are made when photos are submitted and therefore, hopefully, no photos are excluded. If the form is not included in the submission email the photo will not be included in the challenge gallery and voting process.

There is more important information regarding rules and procedures located in the FAQ section. We highly recommend that you take the time to read these FAQs.

Good luck to everyone and have fun with this challenge!

*150KB will be taken as the “size on disk” and not the actual file size. Also some email programs consider 1KB=1000Bytes as opposed to 1KB=1024Bytes. When these programs calculate attachment size they will often read larger than they actually are. To be safe we recommend a target size of about 140KB so that once sent it does not go over 150KB.

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[er111a]

Interesting very very interesting so any photo I wish hmmm

[RancerDS]

Interesting very very interesting so any photo I wish hmmm

Yeah... hmmmmm. That really "opens" things up for them to possibly regret later. Haha.

[WesVFX]

hmmm... little confused on how to get my 2+mb file down to 150kb without sacrificing all the quality.... I went to "save as" in photoshop and selected the lowest quality JPEG possible for a 128kb file, but it looks like crap when compressed that much...

[jvw2941]

hmmm... little confused on how to get my 2+mb file down to 150kb without sacrificing all the quality.... I went to "save as" in photoshop and selected the lowest quality JPEG possible for a 128kb file, but it looks like crap when compressed that much...

I agree! how do we do this!

[kdabbagh]

yeah I have the same question...

[Chris of Arabia]

Resize the image first before saving it.

In Photoshop select 'Image -> Image Size' and a dialogue box will pop up. Set it to about 600px on the longest size, but make sure 'Constrain Proportions' is ticked before you do it, otherwise the result will get distorted.

Then do the save and select a quality level that will get you to around 145Kb. You should be safe with that.

[jvw2941]

How do the pictures get entered into the voting? because if I was a voter I might lose patience after seeing one great picture and forgetting all the other ones that come after it

[O|||||||O]

How do the pictures get entered into the voting? because if I was a voter I might lose patience after seeing one great picture and forgetting all the other ones that come after it

They all get put into a poll and you vote there.

[Sirashley]

Wow... I must be honest, I haven't been around here in 4 months because of school... but I gradumated...LOL... and now I have my free time back, this should be fun... I think once a year, an open challenge is a great idea, I can't wait to see what some people come up with.

[Chris of Arabia]

As good an idea as it seemed at the time, it looks for all the world like people have got caught up in the Christmas rush and are limited for time to take part. So far just 9 entries have been submitted and 3 of those failed the file size test (all have been informed).

I fully expect to get a bit of a rush on towards the end of the month, but for those of you for whom this has slipped off the radar, you still have time to come up with something stunning to top off your year at The Photo Forum.

Which reminds me, I haven't done one yet...

[Lisa B]

Did i enter this? I really can't remember....

[Chris of Arabia]

Lisa, you did. Yours was the first correctly sized one to arrive.

[Lisa B]

Awesome! I have no idea what it was that I sent though haha...it'll be a nice surprise when I go to vote on it and realise i can't, because it's mine lol!!

Thanks for letting me know

xx

[mrredline05]

sent mine in today. Got it right?