An Appeal to the Masses: Photo Sizing Question

[nibblesandbits]

Since it has been suggested to me to increase the maximum size of the photos for the contest, I once again come to you. For those of you who use another site to upload your photos to...what is the maximum size those sites will allow your photos to be?

(Just as a note...this does not mean that I have changed the size of the photos for the contests yet...I am just curious. Please continue to only include photos that are no larger than 700X525.)

 

[barnum42]

No limit in pixel dimensions as far as I know, but accounts will have a file size limit.

 

[Tramp]

I sometimes use PHOTOBUCKET.

Photobucket images cannot exceed 512 kb for a FREE account.
If you upgrade to a premium account for $25 per year, you are allowed images as large as 1 mb.

As Barnum said, Pixel dimension is not the determining factor.

PS: I take my photos at 1600 x 1200 resolution. When I reduce the photo to 700x525, it loses a lot of clarity. Of course, 1600x1200 is way too big for this contest, but I wouldn't mind seeing a slight increase to 800 x 600. I just noticed that my last week's Adventureland photo is 750 pixels wide and, technically, should be disqualified. I need to pay more attention to the size.

PPS: One more thing...Nibbles, you are doing a great job with the contest. It takes a great deal of time and effort to make this thing work for us every week and you don't get nearly enough credit for it. Thank YOU for a job well done.

 

[unkadug]

Just my two cents:

I love these threads, however in some other threads that contain photos,the files are so large that I have to do excessive scrolling ("left and right" as well as "up and down".)

I do realize that I could change my screen settings or buy a bigger monitor, but...it's nice to have these threads contained in my field of view!

 

[RU42]

I agree a slight increase to 800x600 is good. It is not a wallpaper contest so I don't think we need to break the 1000 barrier.

RU

 

[barnum42]

Photo contest suggestion in general:

Everyone PMs Nibbles a link to where their photo is. Nibbles posts each photo without the person's name "attached."

Result:

Each photo is judged on its own merit. There is no "favortism" and no "I'm not going to vote for _____________ because he/she ed me off."

Whilst not a bad idea to remove any personal favouritism (be it intended or not) some of the folk put a watermark or copyright message on their photos so anonymity would not be possible. Plus there is more than one kid in certain members photos we all recognise too

 

[cjb-nc]

Regarding sizes: I make my own photo albums. I post every picture in two sizes: original (3Mpixel) and "low-bandwidth" (limited to 700 in longer dimension). That way people without cable-modems can still see the pictures. Most folks viewing on the web don't need the full resolution, I just save those for future crops and/or prints. The fact that I also chose 700 pixels as my upper limit is pure coincedence, although the idea is to have the picture still fit inside a browser window on an 800-pixel-wide screen.

Regarding anonymity and favoritism: OK, I admit it, I vote by the names some times. Why? Because I want the non-regulars to have a chance too. There are some really good folks who basically live here, and many really creative and occasionally good visitors. I like to see new names in the top ranks, so I vote accordingly. It certainly cheers me up when my pictures get 2 or 3 votes. I've impressed someone, even if it wasn't nearly enough to make a top-3.

 

[nibblesandbits]

Whilst not a bad idea to remove any personal favouritism (be it intended or not) some of the folk put a watermark or copyright message on their photos so anonymity would not be possible. Plus there is more than one kid in certain members photos we all recognise too

yeah...I thought of that too...but you just shot that to hell! :lol: Thanks a lot Joe!

I agree that people should be voting on their favorite...I just wish I could think of a way to accomplish that...b/c obviously our idea, TAC, won't work.

 

[nibblesandbits]

Regarding anonymity and favoritism: OK, I admit it, I vote by the names some times. Why? Because I want the non-regulars to have a chance too. There are some really good folks who basically live here, and many really creative and occasionally good visitors. I like to see new names in the top ranks, so I vote accordingly. It certainly cheers me up when my pictures get 2 or 3 votes. I've impressed someone, even if it wasn't nearly enough to make a top-3.

I think that's different though...giving people a chance (and some self-esteem) is wonderful, however, I'm getting the sense that some people are voting for some photos just because the people who took them are well known here on the boards...now if you really like the photo, by all means, vote for it...but I don't think people should soley be voting on name. That's my $.02

 

[unkadug]

Maybe, you could leave the names off the ballot list and just number them?

As far as the watermarks - maybe black them out? put another watermark over them? :veryconfu

 

[nibblesandbits]

Maybe, you could leave the names off the ballot list and just number them?

As far as the watermarks - maybe black them out? put another watermark over them? :veryconfu

But the watermarks are there to copyright the photographs...so that won't work...nice try with the idea though...

 

[TheOneVader]

Why can't you just have a small image and link it to the full size? That's what I do...

 

[Tramp]

I think that's different though...giving people a chance (and some self-esteem) is wonderful, however, I'm getting the sense that some people are voting for some photos just because the people who took them are well known here on the boards...now if you really like the photo, by all means, vote for it...but I don't think people should soley be voting on name. That's my $.02

I agree with you 100%. The contest is intended to be harmless fun but it has no competitive purpose if votes are cast for the photographer and not the photo, or, if some sort of affirmative action is adopted to assure all entrants receive votes. Why have a poll at all if members who participate in the contest defeat the fundamentals of the competition? It makes no sense to me but, then again, not all my thoughts are lucid these days.
:wave:

 

[mrtoad]

Hi,

I was one who mentioned going to 800x600. Part of the reasoning in that is that it is a standard size for monitor resolution and used by many of the hosting companies. If you go into your screen resolution for your computer (unless you are using wide screen monitors) will be 1152x864 - 1024x768 - 800x600- etc. etc. which go down in increments.

Years ago 800x600 was the most commonly (spelling?) used resolution and then went to 1024x768 as more and more websites were going with the larger resolution when designing their sites as you could get more real estate per page to add "stuff" to it.

So with most users using 1024x768 or higher an 800x600 should fit ok with no scrolling for most folks.

Also I believe (though I am terrible at math so could be wrong) that mathmatically there is some certain percentage being used between each resolution size so when you change a photo down to 800x600 from it's original size it will be clearer than if you went down to 900xX or 700xX (not sure of the math).

Even digital cameras (aside from DSLRs) spit out a picture that is in that same aspect ratio (though much larger) as they are assuming you viewing on a computer rather than standard print sizes which is a pain if you are printing as you need to crop, though that is another story...

So that is my take on it, but could be totally wrong.

 

[mrtoad]

Oops, one more thing.

For users that are posting their shots on a hosting site, they can generally upload the full shot and the site will automatically create different size shots for the user to have available for others to view. Some of the people who take digital shots have no clue how to resize a photo (that is why a lot of times you get someone who emails you a photo they took that is huge. They just send out the original as they don't know how to resize it).

For those users, they can't choose some obscure size like the one being used for the contests. So they either post a larger than aloud size or they post one that is much smaller as the next option usually given is 600x480 (I believe).

 

[nibblesandbits]

My only remark to everyone right now is that almost everyone seems to be able to follow the rules that are set up.

I have not made my decision yet...just stating a fact for the time being. :wave:

 

[RU42]

Greetings....

On the voting stuff that was discussed on this thread, can I share something with you - just to put in the back of your mind.

I run the photo contests over at visionsfantastic.com. What I did over there is a bit different and works well. For each contest I create an album specifically for that contest. Everyone MUST submit their photo to that exact album (plus place the image in the appropriate thread.)

After the submission period I can enable a rating system for voting. A person votes on every single picture giving it a rating of 1 Mickey Head (lowest) to 5 Mickey heads (highest.) At the end of the contest I can sort the pictures by rank and viola - the contest is done. I also enable a reply feature that allows people to make comments on the pictures.

What this has accomplished is that people now vote on each picture and rate it. It has taken the 'popularity' factor out (for the most part.)

I know wdwmagic and visionsfantastic run the same bulletin board software. I don't know if the gallery software is different or what permission Steve might have to give you. I just thought I'd toss this idea out there for you to think about.

If you want to see it:
Click here for the Contest Album

Contest #9 is currently taking submissions until Sunday; at that point I turn on the voting.
Contest #8 is the most recent finished contest

(Side info - The VF contests have a 2 week submission followed by 1 week voting.)

Food for thought.

RU

 

[mrtoad]

If that is possible, it is a great way to do it. The link you have though requires a log in to view the contests.

Greetings....

On the voting stuff that was discussed on this thread, can I share something with you - just to put in the back of your mind.

I run the photo contests over at visionsfantastic.com. What I did over there is a bit different and works well. For each contest I create an album specifically for that contest. Everyone MUST submit their photo to that exact album (plus place the image in the appropriate thread.)

After the submission period I can enable a rating system for voting. A person votes on every single picture giving it a rating of 1 Mickey Head (lowest) to 5 Mickey heads (highest.) At the end of the contest I can sort the pictures by rank and viola - the contest is done. I also enable a reply feature that allows people to make comments on the pictures.

What this has accomplished is that people now vote on each picture and rate it. It has taken the 'popularity' factor out (for the most part.)

I know wdwmagic and visionsfantastic run the same bulletin board software. I don't know if the gallery software is different or what permission Steve might have to give you. I just thought I'd toss this idea out there for you to think about.

If you want to see it:
Click here for the Contest Album

Contest #9 is currently taking submissions until Sunday; at that point I turn on the voting.
Contest #8 is the most recent finished contest

(Side info - The VF contests have a 2 week submission followed by 1 week voting.)

Food for thought.

RU

 

[nibblesandbits]

Greetings....

On the voting stuff that was discussed on this thread, can I share something with you - just to put in the back of your mind.

I run the photo contests over at visionsfantastic.com. What I did over there is a bit different and works well. For each contest I create an album specifically for that contest. Everyone MUST submit their photo to that exact album (plus place the image in the appropriate thread.)

After the submission period I can enable a rating system for voting. A person votes on every single picture giving it a rating of 1 Mickey Head (lowest) to 5 Mickey heads (highest.) At the end of the contest I can sort the pictures by rank and viola - the contest is done. I also enable a reply feature that allows people to make comments on the pictures.

What this has accomplished is that people now vote on each picture and rate it. It has taken the 'popularity' factor out (for the most part.)

I know wdwmagic and visionsfantastic run the same bulletin board software. I don't know if the gallery software is different or what permission Steve might have to give you. I just thought I'd toss this idea out there for you to think about.

If you want to see it:
Click here for the Contest Album

Contest #9 is currently taking submissions until Sunday; at that point I turn on the voting.
Contest #8 is the most recent finished contest

(Side info - The VF contests have a 2 week submission followed by 1 week voting.)

Food for thought.

RU

I might definitely look into changing the way our contests are done to this method. It definitely looks like it takes some of the bias out of the contest. However, don't you have a lot of contests where people just vote all 10s...or something to that effect, which then causes like 5 people to be tied for first?

Does this make any sense?

 

[RU42]

Makes perfect sense but we have not had a tie yet, at that is after 8 complete contests using this system. (Contest 8 Headed Character was the closest because there were so many excellent entries; but even then there were no ties.) I have not seem a person yet vote the same all the way down the line. For the most part, I see pretty straight forward voting. I think there are enough serious voters that they would counterbalance anyone who wasted their time with a straight vote. And on wdwmagic you ahve even greater numbers of people who 'get it.'

There is only 2 dangers to this system and I have threatened anyone with a permanent ban if they do it.

The first is attacking a picture in order to drop their standing without merit. What do I mean by that. Someone's picture is good, a true 4 or 5 quality picture. Along comes a vindictive person who doesn't like the contestant so they give them a 1 just to hurt them, not because the picture was bad.

The only other challenge I have is a few people vote for only a few of the pictures instead of all of them. I have also issued reminders that they need to vote for all entries.

So, I have issued and repeated these warnings several times, 'do these and you are banned'. So far, no one has been completely banned. I had to issue a 5 contest suspension for a person who broke the 2nd problem by voting for just 1 picture and gave it a lower score then everyone else (but not as low as a 1.) It seemed vindictive so I suspended him for 5 contests.

All in all, it has leveled the voting field and has made the administrative nature of the contests a breeze, no polls, no placing images into the voting threads, and in the case of these boards, there would be no rounds (initial poll followed by final poll.)

RU


PS - Sorry Mrtoad, I forgot all about having to have an account to get into the VF galleries. My apologies.