Christmas Photo Contest?

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Because it's really not fair to have heavily Photoshopped picture against something that was taken with a regular camera or a cell phone. Even in Art competitions they break out the two.

This is exactly why if "Photoshopping" is allowed, it needs to be a separate category. It isn't fair and I have no desire to hear the complaints about that next. Their is a big difference between a photo contest and a photo manipulation contest, it's better to just leave 'em separate.



At this point, I'm back to thinking of nixing the "Photoshop" category and leaving it an "All Reptile" category for now. We just keep going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Deadline's fast approaching and I don't see this coming to a satisfactory conclusion for anyone. I again, do not agree with their being no minimum requirements for a "Photoshop" category (you can call it "Abstract" all you want, but we all know that it'll still be "Photoshop" entries).



At the point we're at, here's the "additional rules" I have in the two categories if the "Photoshop" category remains:

STANDARD PHOTO: No image editing that adds or removes image content will be permitted. You can make MINOR adjustments to the lighting and color. Cropping and resizing is permitted. Color and originally taken black and white or sepia tone images are allowed.

PHOTOSHOP: To qualify for the "Photoshop" category, an entry must be SIGNIFICANTLY altered. Adjustment of brightness/contrast/lighting/color or basic Filters does NOT constitute photoshopping. The use of the Filter sets Artistic, Brush Strokes, Sketch and Texture are discouraged without SIGNIFICANT additional editing. Need some help with Photoshop? Try these websites: Photoshop Tutorials & More Photoshop Tutorials.

The amount of prizes for the Halloween contest was ridiculous.

I don't see what was wrong with 3 categories having 3 placings/prizes. :shrugs: US donation was really great. The International category...Not so much...

 

[Jadie.Glitch]

Well, it can be set up however you guys choose... but if the "Photoshop" category is dropped then I'm most likely going to be dropping out too... I honestly don't mean that as a threat, just my thoughts. It's just that my main intrigue in the contest was the Photoshop category...

[Oh, and I was thinking... it's probably better that if we DO keep the "Photoshop" category to not actually CALL it a "Photoshop" category... there are plenty of other programs out there used for photo-manipulation. GIMP for example is a freeware version. Photoshop is expensive and not everyone has it. I understand some of us have ways of getting it for free, but not all of us do that... anyways.. that observation was probably unecessary, it just popped out at me all of a sudden and I thought I'd bring it up... oh and I didn't read the whole thread word-for-word so if someone else already mentioned that then just slap me ~_^]

 

[Drizzt80]

"Photoshop" is to digital picture manipulation as "Kleenex" is to getting the snot out of your nose. :grin01:

D80

 

[Tula_Montage]

I don't see what was wrong with 3 categories having 3 placings/prizes. :shrugs: US donation was really great. The International category...Not so much...

Perhaps because in the UK we cannot ship snakes unless you have a special account which are few and far between. Only businesses have them. Therefore anyone offering a live prize would need to hope the winner lived less than 20 miles away...

I offered prizes. And actually it was quite a lot in my opinion, since I sell my prints for £20 each, and people pay that!

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Oh, and I was thinking... it's probably better that if we DO keep the "Photoshop" category to not actually CALL it a "Photoshop" category... there are plenty of other programs out there used for photo-manipulation. GIMP for example is a freeware version. Photoshop is expensive and not everyone has it. I understand some of us have ways of getting it for free, but not all of us do that... anyways.. that observation was probably unecessary, it just popped out at me all of a sudden and I thought I'd bring it up... oh and I didn't read the whole thread word-for-word so if someone else already mentioned that then just slap me ~_^

Yes, actually I was using "Digital" as opposed to "Photoshop" (I even suggested that GIMP program for those that don't have Photoshop! ) in the original Halloween thread, but I don't think everyone understood "digital" and reverted to calling it "Photoshop." :laugh: How about "Digital Manipulation"? Think that make enough sense?

That does remind me though! I wanted to link that program in the contest so it's right there for anyone to download if they want it.

 

[Tula_Montage]

Gimp is good, if you know what you are doing. But I wouldn't think it was very user friendly for those who know nothing about photo manipulation...

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Perhaps because in the UK we cannot ship snakes unless you have a special account which are few and far between. Only businesses have them. Therefore anyone offering a live prize would need to hope the winner lived less than 20 miles away...

I offered prizes. And actually it was quite a lot in my opinion, since I sell my prints for £20 each, and people pay that!

I didn't mean any slight at your print donations. It was a great, thoughtful and appreciated prize donation for the International category. I also didn't mean just live animals either. I had suggested membership donations for Cornsnakes.com and Faunaclassifieds.com earlier in the thread. Could also do donations of a Personal Forum here on CS or maybe advertising dollars for CS or Fauna banner advertising? Do you have popular online reptile stores in your country that gift certificates could be purchased from? That might be an idea too?

 

[Tula_Montage]

Sure theres shops that offer gift certificates, but if we were to go down that route could we not offer things like amazon gift vouchers if a few of us were to donate to that?

 

[ArpeggioAngel]

STANDARD PHOTO: No image editing that adds or removes image content will be permitted. You can make MINOR adjustments to the lighting and color. Cropping and resizing is permitted. Color and originally taken black and white or sepia tone images are allowed.

PHOTOSHOP: To qualify for the "Photoshop" category, an entry must be SIGNIFICANTLY altered. Adjustment of brightness/contrast/lighting/color or basic Filters does NOT constitute photoshopping. The use of the Filter sets Artistic, Brush Strokes, Sketch and Texture are discouraged without SIGNIFICANT additional editing. Need some help with Photoshop? Try these websites: Photoshop Tutorials & More Photoshop Tutorials.

I think this should be enough and is enough of a compromise that the majority should be happy with it. See how it goes and if it needs adjustments before the next contest then worry about it at that time.

 

[Blue Apple Herps]

STANDARD PHOTO: No image editing that adds or removes image content will be permitted. You can make MINOR adjustments to the lighting and color. Cropping and resizing is permitted. Color and originally taken black and white or sepia tone images are allowed.

PHOTOSHOP: To qualify for the "Photoshop" category, an entry must be SIGNIFICANTLY altered. Adjustment of brightness/contrast/lighting/color or basic Filters does NOT constitute photoshopping. The use of the Filter sets Artistic, Brush Strokes, Sketch and Texture are discouraged without SIGNIFICANT additional editing. Need some help with Photoshop? Try these websites: Photoshop Tutorials & More Photoshop Tutorials.

Stephanie, this sounds good to me. I think its a good start, and if adjustments need to be made, then so be it. It's not going to be perfect the first few times anyways - a work in process so to speak.

 

[Susan]

I've been silent for most of this...basically because I didn't get a chance to read past the first few posts until just this past hour or so. It looks like most of the details have been taken care of, but I still see some areas that might need some "tweaking".

Brent had a good idea about the size of the photo entries...I resize all of my photos to the 800X600 pixel limit. But since Steph will be receiving all of the entries via e-mail, she should have the final say as to the photo size. I see nothing wrong with 600X450 pixels.

I think you've got the photoshop vs. non-photoshop thing squared away...and I'm glad that my contest rules helped a little on that subject. Personally, I can't photoshop worth a darn. I don't have that particular program anyway...I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 and have only figured out a small percentage of it's ability. To me, a photoshopped image has some major changes from the original version, such as placing part of one image onto another one. I would one day like to be able to manipulate images that way, but for now, if it isn't "one-click simple", I'm lost.

I like the idea of a non-corn, non-photoshop category. There are alot of people who own reptiles other than corn snakes, myself included, and I think there would be enough entries to make that one worthwhile.

Now the issue of prizes...I personally couldn't care less if I won a prize or not. I simply adore the 3 snakes I've won over the years and wouldn't trade them for the world. But having been on the other side of the coin as well, it can get quite expensive for those people donating prizes, especially for as many contests as has been planned. Limiting the number of prizes, if any at all, per contest might be the best option. If you want to have one or two of the contests have multiple prizes, then the rest should simply be for fun. Not allowing our international friends to compete due to the prizes is a bit unfair. I fully understand about shipping, etc, especially of live snakes, but in this age of computers, an on-line gift certificate of a set amount that could be used in a multiple of stores would allow anyone the ability to win a prize, plus they would have a wider choice of prizes. Sure it would be cheaper for me to just give hatchlings that I have hanging around, but there are options to make the gift certificate work as well.

I'm not fond of only one entry per member per category per contest, but can fully understand and accept the reasoning behind it. However, I am definitely not in favor of limiting the number of wins per member...per se. Yes, someone hogging all of the prizes would be unfair and I think we should "spread the wealth around" in that area, but to have someone's excellent and possibly winning photo disqualified because the member has already won twice just doesn't sound right to me. I would be considered a monster if I were to say to my son, "I'm sorry, but you can no longer play this game with the rest of the family because you have won twice." I may have misinterpreted what has been said with regards to that subject (I admit to some skipping after about post 100), so if I'm totally off base here, I'm sorry.

And just an FYI...I saw a maximum limit of 6 poll options, not 4, when I just checked.

(Edit) Since it took me a long time to type this up, having to wait 45 minutes at the bus stop for my son about halfway through, I see that some ideas have already been touched upon.

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Sure theres shops that offer gift certificates, but if we were to go down that route could we not offer things like amazon gift vouchers if a few of us were to donate to that?

That's a GREAT idea too! I didn't even consider that!

Did you have any alternative open source program suggestions other then GIMP? I've never used it (no need to owning Photoshop), so I really had no knowledge of how user friendly it is.

And just an FYI...I saw a maximum limit of 6 poll options, not 4, when I just checked.

I think the maximum limit thing was someones confusion (might have even been my own keyboard slip up) having to split the Cornsnake category in two because we had 9 entries and all 9 wouldn't fit on one...So I split it 4 & 3 and then had a finals voting. I don't remember what the maximum count is for polls options in vBulletin, but I really don't want to bug Rich about this again right now.



Just an FYI, :-offtopic
Doctor told me tonight they're taking me in and inducing me tomorrow evening. So I will be unavailable probably until Sunday or Monday after I'm admitted. I'm going to go ahead post the rules in the WIR area tonight as they are written, and as mentioned, if something doesn't work out this round, we can look at adjusting things for next time. I would like to try and have this a combined US/International contest (with separate prize sections) this time around to see if that'll work. As for the prizes, I'm going to go ahead and leave that as a "Coming Soon!" until we have lists to put up. Some prizes from the Halloween US category are going to be rolled over into the Holiday one (still waiting on Lindsey to pick, has anyone seen/heard from her?)...But if anyone would like to donate, please PM me.

 

[Corny Noob]

Never fails, with scheduled induction you always gointo labor beforehand!
So yaaaaaay.

ps- Something I was itching to say for most of this topic so I'm gonna say it, steph is under a lot of real world stress and hormones, and I think it often gets forgotten

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

.:HOLIDAY PHOTO CONTEST:.
Click to view rules thread​

 

[measley]

Good luck!! I can't wait to see pics of your baby boy!!

 

[Jadie.Glitch]

Can't remember if it was mentioned yet or not, but do we know what the prizes are yet?

 

[RobbiesCornField]

Can't remember if it was mentioned yet or not, but do we know what the prizes are yet?

They aren't listed on the other posts, but I still entered anyways. LOL.

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

34 votes for the Holiday Contest and only a handful of entries! One week left for submissions!