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TOPICS
Digital Images
It is essential that the digital images of your artwork are of the highest
professional quality. The standards that apply to traditional slide
documentation also apply to the digital image format.
Images provided not using the specified guidelines will not qualify for jury.
Image Specifications
Please size your images to the following dimensions:
Please size your image to be 1920 pixels on both edges. If your image is not square, please mask your image with black to bring your image to 1920x1920 pixels. No other size will be accepted for jury use.
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If your image is vertical, please format with black vertical bands on the left
and right.
If your image is horizontal, please format with black horizontal bands on the
top and bottom.
The Importance of Square-Image Formatting
The reason for the square format is that, unlike slide projectors that can
display images in both horizontal and vertical formats, digital projectors can
only display images in a horizontal format. ("Horizontal format" means the width
of an image is greater than its height.) In order to address the potential size
differences between projected horizontal and vertical digital images, the
festival planners believe a squared format is most appropriate. Such an approach
ensures that works of art presented for jury are neither advantaged nor
disadvantaged on the basis of the initial proportions of each image presented to
a show jury. Please note that squaring an image does not remove any part of the
image.
Following are illustrations of the problem created through a horizontal
projection pattern and the advantages of squaring images.
Please see Figure # 1 below to observe the horizontal proportions of the
available image space of a digitally projected image.
Figure #1
If the
ZAPPTM
system were to allow artists to submit images of any height and width within the
confines of the standard digital-projector image space, images of horizontal
works of art would have more projected space available to them than would
vertically composed works of art. As a result, horizontal images would take up
more of the available image space, and this could advantage horizontal works in
the jury process. Figure #2 is an example of how a horizontally composed work
could use virtually all of the available digital-projector display space.
Figure #2
Figure #3 illustrates how a vertical image would be disadvantaged in this system
without application of the squaring process. The art works displayed in Figure
#2 and Figure #3 have the same dimensions as the original works of art, however,
without squaring, they are vastly different in size when projected.
Figure #3
Squaring images removes the space advantage that horizontally formatted art
works receive in this system. Figure #4 represents the squared projected image
of a horizontal work of art, and Figure #5 represents the squared projected
image of a vertical work of art. Each figure is placed on a field of the
projected image space that has been reduced to a squared field with dimensions
of 1920 by 1920 pixels. In addition, each image has been masked in black to
eliminate any white space that could surround a projected image. The black
masking also allows the image to pop out, as the black fades into the dark
background during projection. The result is a fair and scaled representation of
all projected images.
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Photographing your images
Equipment
Use a good 4 or 5 mega pixel digital camera. Do not use a camera below 3.2 mega
pixels. Always use a tripod to steady your shot. If you choose to take your
picture on film and digitize from a negative you need to use good color film
like Fuji Provia 100F (also called RDP-III) or Kodak Ektachrome 100 Professional
or Kodak Elite Chrome 10.
Film and Lighting
Lighting
affects films at varying degrees. You may use a daylight film or tungsten film
depending on the lighting scheme of your photograph.
Daylight films are color balanced to daylight and electronic flash light.
Daylight film is commonly available at any supermarket or photography shop.
Tungsten films require lighting from incandescent (or tungsten) light sources
and are harder to find. They are not available in a 35mm negative and can be
found in specialty photography stores rather than at your local supermarket. The
packaging for tungsten film is differentiated from daylight films by a T after
the film speed, i.e. 64T.
Remember that if you are using daylight film you should eliminate other light
sources, such as incandescent lights or fluorescent lights. These other light
sources may 'contaminate' the illumination. In the same respect when using
tungsten film, you should not let other light sources like daylight or
fluorescent light 'contaminate' the illumination.
Preparing Images for disc
Following are generic instructions for reducing the resolution (making the
picture smaller) in a number of photo-editing programs. The steps may vary
slightly depending on the program.
To check your
image file size, you need to check the image file properties while the image is
closed. Close the photo editing program. On a PC, find your image file, right
click and choose properties. On a Mac, find your image file and click "get info"
on the finder tool bar. Both Properties and Get Info will give your the image
file size in KB or MBs. The image must be less than 1.8 MBs or 1,800 KBs.
Photography, Software & Resolution Specifics
Basic Photographing Tips
· Photograph 2D artwork unframed to avoid glare.
· Photograph 3D artwork with proper lighting techniques.
· Use a neutral background to photograph any artwork.
· Avoid background colors that distract from the work. Avoid harsh shadows.
· Photographing indoors works the best.
· The best way to take pictures inside is to block out all other sources of light (overhead lighting, sunlight, etc.) and use two 250-500 watt (3200K) tungsten bulb floodlights. These are inexpensive and worth the cost. They may also be rented. By placing one light on each side at a 45 degree angle to your piece, you should be able to obtain good results.
· If you photograph your work in natural lighting, take your photograph on a clear day in the shade or in the shadow side of a building. This will eliminate possible glare.
· Aim for true color representation and proper exposure.
· Isolating the artwork within the camera frame is the most desirable and effective means of presentation. Move in close enough with your camera to let each piece occupy as much of the view finder as possible.
· Do not crop out any of the work.
· Do not float the object in too much blank space, although this can be digitally corrected.
· Remember, your digital images will have to represent your originals. You cannot be expected to be an expert photographer the first time you pick up a camera. A little practice along with some helpful advice from a camera-shop owner or a knowledgeable, competent photographer may be all you need to produce excellent results.
Tips on Taking
Digital Images
Taking a digital photograph instead of scanning a hard copy photograph or slide
to digital format will yield the best results. Use at least a 3.2 mega-pixel
camera. For best results we advise using a 4 or 5 mega pixel camera. Use a
camera that will allow you to save the image in a loss-less format such as TIFF
or RAW. This will give you the best opportunity to resize your image without
losing detail. If your digital camera only captures images in the JPEG format,
do not resize the JPEG--convert it to a TIFF before doing any resizing. This
way, you will keep the maximum detail possible.
Set your white balance on your camera against a neutral white source to give you
a "pure" white color. Follow the instructions that came with your camera to set
your white balance correctly.
Photoshop 7.0
Tips
WESTAF experimented with Photoshop 7.0 on a MAC G5 OS X to develop these image
sizing steps. Please note that these instructions are one way to process your
image through Photoshop. We advise that artists experiment with their own photo
imaging software to develop the best process in sizing their images.
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Resolution and
DPI
Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution is sometimes
referred to by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of
pixels in the image. Images provided must be 1920x1920 pixels.
DPI stands for dots per inch. DPI is specific to print formats. An image scanned
or photographed at a high DPI will include more dots per inch. This means the
image will include more color and detail, and the larger the image will be.
Standard publishing format is 300 dpi. For projection and web uses, images are
displayed at 72 dpi, regardless of whether the image was created or saved with a
higher dpi. For submission purposes, you want to scan or photograph artwork at
the highest dpi possible to create an image that is large enough to modify to
our specifications. Once the image is 1920x1920 pixels, the dpi is
insignificant. However, decreasing the dpi will reduce the file size of an
image. Decrease the dpi if your image is greater than 1.8MB. Remember to use
your original RAW or TIFF file that has been sized and masked (see Preparing
Images for Uploading) to reduce the dpi and save the image as a JPG.
Slide Conversion
Traditional slides can be scanned and converted to digital format at most
full-service photo labs. It is better to have the original slide scanned because
the color and detail has not been diminished from duplication.
Most photo labs offer picture CD's that come with basic photo-editing software
(KODAK Picture CD) that saves images as JPEGs.
You can also purchase a 35 mm scanner designed for scanning slides and digitize
the image on your home computer. For Example, the Nikon Super Cool Scanner 5000.
The above information was modified from
http://www.zapplication.org/imaging_tips.phtml.
