Many of you use many types of image editing and management software, and there are many more sources “out there”. The majority do seem to lean to the Adobe products (Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom). There are other sources available as well (e.g. Apple’s iPhoto). Some use free programs such as Picasa or Gimp.

Most photography software will resize your image. If yours does not, you can try Free Picture Resizer (Windows) or RapidoResizer (Mac). Make sure the aspect ratio is locked.

For our assignments or anything presented at our meetings using our digital projector, your image must be saved in JPEG format (*.jpg or *.jpeg), in the sRGB colour space, and should be no wider than 1400 pixels, nor higher than 1050 pixels. In the image size dialog of most image editing applications, look for a check box to lock the aspect ratio. For horizontal images, set the width to 1400 pixels and make sure the height adjusts itself to 1050 pixels or less. If it comes out higher, or if the image is a vertical or square format, instead set the height to 1050 pixels and check that the width adjusts to no greater than 1400 pixels. Be careful to save the resized image with a new filename and do not overwrite your original file. (It is always best to work only on a copy of your original file.) When editing, avoid repeatedly re-saving a work in progress in JPEG format as this will progressively degrade your image. Instead, choose a non-lossy format such as TIFF, and only after you have completed your work should you resize and save as a JPEG copy.

Lightroom users can download this export preset that you can use to export correctly resized and formatted copies of your images for submission. The downloaded file must be unzipped and copied into a specific folder on your computer, the location of which will depend on your operating system. To find this location on your computer, in Lightroom’s “edit” menu choose “preferences…”, then select the “Presets” tab and click on “Show Lightroom Presets Folder…”. This will open your file explorer at the Lightroom directory that contains the “Export Presets” folder. Inside this folder you will probably see a sub-folder named “User Presets”, and this is preferably where you should place the downloaded and extracted *.lrtemplate file. After you restart Lightroom, when you select “File”>”Export…” you should see the new preset in the left column of the Export panel. For the photos you want to submit, select this preset and run the export.

The sizing and saving format specifications described above also generally apply to the CAPA competitions in which we participate (North Shore Challenge, Celebration of Nature). Any variances from this will be announced with the competition notice.

Be aware that, as a member of the club, you have accepted that any image you submit to us may be displayed on this website, our Facebook page or in the WPC Newsletter, accompanied by your copyright information. Often images will be resized smaller and/or compressed. Facebook Cover Photo selections will be cropped to about 2.5:1 (width to vertical) ratio to suit the allocated space.