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ctfchallenge | all galleries >> Challenge 150 - NO PP >> Challenge 150 - Exhibition > Red Rooster
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29-DEC-2008 lexstar

Red Rooster

candid shot of this loose rooster wondering around the zoo we visited during xmas, he appears to be posing for the camera!

Canon PowerShot A540
1/80s f/4.0 at 5.8mm full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Guest 13-Jan-2008 23:08
Wonderful contribution Lexstar. Very colorful indeed, sharp and crisp!!
BTW your photo needs to be 800 pix (for this challenge, only) you can have non800pix in other challenges, but for this challenge 800 pix on the longer side brings all entries at the same playing level.
-Cat
Guest 12-Jan-2008 19:31
Wonderful colors.
ctfchallenge12-Jan-2008 08:23
A matter of taste, mostly, but many seem to prefer smaller dimensions and less compression. There are technical aspects to consider as well. Pictures with many small details, like foliage or a lot of sharpening, don't compress too well. JPG was designed with smooth gradients in mind, not "raster" effects. You can test that by saving a purely black square on white background as JPG and GIF respectively: The GIF will get the smaller filesize. Then do the same with a gradient from black to white, and the JPG will be smaller.

Anyway: If you don't replace this charming redhead with a 800x600 version soon, it risks being expelled to the "pending" gallery. The dimension rule for longest side is absolute in this particular challenge, and the challenge ends on the 14th. Time is running out.
-k2
lexstar 12-Jan-2008 04:47
cheers,

so then is it better to go with a bigger photo but more compression? or smaller photo and less compression?

Look forward to contribute more photos!
ctfchallenge11-Jan-2008 13:23
Welcome aboard :) Took the liberty of adding "lexstar" as artist name on your images here.
As for image sizes, challenge rules always restrict that to 150Kb, (the account is free, courtesy of PBase). Image dimensions are free as such, but no larger than 800 px is recommended. Or some participants will have to scroll to view the entire image. Ruins the experience some.

Personally, what I usually do when uploading is first upload the downscaled original - to preserve EXIF data - and then I replace it with a copy where I have used the PS "Save for web" feature. The latter gives very good control of filesize, fine scaled compression. JPG isn't a lossless format, all compression will of course degrade an image a little, but then again.. all participants "suffer" and have to comply with the same size-rule.

To replace an image which is already uploaded:
- Log in as ctfchallenge
- Click on your image to view it
- Top right of the image-page is a link: "edit Image"
- Click that link :)
- On the very bottom of the "edit" page is a form for uploading, with text "Upload an image to replace the current image for this image_id. This will preserve comments and titles and captions etc. "

Use that form to upload your new version of the image, and the image will be replaced. Sometimes immediately - sometimes it can take a couple of minutes (PBase can be slow).

There are several FAQs for the challenge here, covering just about everything uses might want to know, and then some:
http://www.pbase.com/ctfchallenge/ctf_faq

Again: Nice shots, both of them :) Never seen a silk-tree blossom before, intriguing shape, good colors in the shot. Thanks for posting.

-k2
lexstar 11-Jan-2008 06:04
hi,

thanks for the comments, im quite new to this (first time posting even!).

I initially had it at 800px on the longest side, but this took it to over 150kb in size, and I didnt really want to comprise the quality even more by chosing a lower setting in photoshop. Im not sure, but would posting a picture in 800 long and lower quality be better than this?

ill go by the name of lexstar as well,

thanks
ctfchallenge11-Jan-2008 05:00
Good exposure and colors. It's too small for this particular challenge though, should have been 800 pxl on the longest side. And an artists name won't hurt either.. :P
Well done, whoever you are.
-k2