Photo Competition

Hi there WDC guys and girls :)
My first post here as you can tell, Just a quick question on the photo competition. Will the photo not count if its not had our name saved as its filename? As I didn't spot that in the competition rules.
Good luck to everyone that has entered, espcially myself :P
Regards
Andy

Hi Andy - Welcome to the forum.

I would have thought it reasonable to assume that any entry that didn't conform to the rules of entry, in full, would be disregarded.

I also would assume that it would not conform with the rules and not be entered but....

on viewing comments left on the competition page it has been said that any image with out the file name being your first and last name will STILL be entered. Good for some not good for the rest.

dont know if link will work or the comment was left by anyone with the authority to say so.

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/new....html#comments

There is certainly some contradiction there. I would have thought ALL the rules apply to ALL the entrants ALL the time.

I'll try and get some official response here come Monday.

Sorry for any confusion being caused by the various comments on that page, very embarrassing. :o

thankyou for your due diligence :)

Hi guys,

Allow me to post a reply on behalf of our marketing team.

Sorry for any confusion that the rules and comments may have caused. Allow me to try and explain the situation.

It was indeed stated in the rules that your first and last names were needed as the file name. This rule was, however, inherited from a time when the gallery function of our site operated differently, and has yet to be amended. Since users now have to register on the galleries to upload, we now have direct access to the users information and as such it is less important than it was previously.

Obviously, if the rules for the competition state a certain point, then you should indeed follow them, and comments to the contrary were simply trying to clarify any confusion. We’ll be looking into the small print in the future, and hope to avoid any further issues.

Well, there are so many things that make a photo attractive, and even more that can make it bad, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Rule of thirds: A simple rule that, 99% of the time, vastly improves the composition of the picture, when you look at the picture on your camera, imagine a 3x3 grid, you are going to want the subject in either corner of the centre square, like http://digital-photography-school.co...0605022117.jpg

Focus: To get accurate focus, place your subject in the centre of the frame, hold the shutter button half way down, once it has beeped, keep the button half pressed and you can adjust the composition without the subject going out of focus.

Under/Overexposure: A simple one really, just make sure your pictures not too bright or too dark.

Depth Of Field: How much of a picture is in focus, a bright aperture (E.G f/2.8) will blur the background out and emphasise the subject, but a smaller aperture (E.G f/16) will have lots in focus, which is good for landscapes

Avoid high ISO's: Cameras with high ISO's have advantages and disadvantages, it allows you to use a fast shutter speed, but your pictures will turn out grainy, as a general rule:
On compacts, avoid going over ISO 400
On entry level DSLRs, avoid going over ISO 800
On enthusiast level DSLRs, avoid going over ISO 1600
On pro DSLRs noise is very well controlled, with ISO's up in the thousands being relatively noise free.


Those are just a few tips, there's plenty more, you can pick up some good books by scott kelby :)