Preparing Images for PDI Competitions
Derek Smith • 18 August 2021
Preparing Images for PDI Competitions
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m looking forward to meeting up together as a club again and participating in the club, and inter-club competitions. Today I’m going to write about my thoughts on preparing for competitions.
Intentional photography: what are you going to photograph today? Look at the club programme and think about the images that would be needed for each competition category. I spent a few days in the Peak District recently with the full intention of capturing images for the “Trains”, and “Buildings in a Landscape” categories, I’m not sure that I achieved my goals, but the most important thing about our hobby is the pure pleasure, and enjoyment of taking pictures. Don’t get hung up if you haven’t come away with a “great” photo, it is far more important that you have been out, and experienced the sights, sounds, and people around you.
Editing photos: my advice here is to find a photo editing suite that you are familiar with, and comfortable in using. YouTube has a great many tutorials to assist with learning the software, Nigel Danson is a landscape photographer producing regular YouTube videos with tips on composition, as well as editing techniques. Gary McIntyre is another favourite of mine on YouTube, talking you through the editing process easily.
Preparing an image for competitions: once the image has been edited, I would suggest saving the edited image at full size, for example a 6000-pixel x 4000-pixel image. Resize this image to one of the maximum dimensions, either 1200-pixel, or 1920-pixel to suit the required size for the projector, possibly saving the resized image to a temporary folder.
For the next stage an image editor that allows for working in layers is required, Adobe produce software for layering of images, as does Serif Affinity Photo, there are also free photo editors available Gimp, which is cross-platform, and Paint.Net for Windows. Open the image editor with a blank tab and create a 1920-pixel x 1200-pixel blank background image with a white, or possibly a black background, open the edited image of your choice, then copy this image, and paste onto the background, then centre the edited image onto the background. There may well be space to either side of the image, or to the top, and bottom of the image, but this is immaterial as the composite image is now optimised for viewing on a projector screen. Save the complete composite image into a memorable folder, I have a temporary folder on my drive called simply “Upload”, the composite image will now be devoid of any EXIF data, but the author's name, and title of the image can now be added, detailed instructions for doing this can be found on our website.
Sending competition entries: the edited images for submission to the competition should be sent to the Competition Secretary. The majority of us send the images via “WeTransfer”, this free to use internet software is easy to use, and notifies when the images have been sent, and when the images have been downloaded.
This portrait of Chloe has been optimised for the projector as described and is on a black background as I thought that it looked better.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m looking forward to meeting up together as a club again and participating in the club, and inter-club competitions. Today I’m going to write about my thoughts on preparing for competitions.
Intentional photography: what are you going to photograph today? Look at the club programme and think about the images that would be needed for each competition category. I spent a few days in the Peak District recently with the full intention of capturing images for the “Trains”, and “Buildings in a Landscape” categories, I’m not sure that I achieved my goals, but the most important thing about our hobby is the pure pleasure, and enjoyment of taking pictures. Don’t get hung up if you haven’t come away with a “great” photo, it is far more important that you have been out, and experienced the sights, sounds, and people around you.
Editing photos: my advice here is to find a photo editing suite that you are familiar with, and comfortable in using. YouTube has a great many tutorials to assist with learning the software, Nigel Danson is a landscape photographer producing regular YouTube videos with tips on composition, as well as editing techniques. Gary McIntyre is another favourite of mine on YouTube, talking you through the editing process easily.
Preparing an image for competitions: once the image has been edited, I would suggest saving the edited image at full size, for example a 6000-pixel x 4000-pixel image. Resize this image to one of the maximum dimensions, either 1200-pixel, or 1920-pixel to suit the required size for the projector, possibly saving the resized image to a temporary folder.
For the next stage an image editor that allows for working in layers is required, Adobe produce software for layering of images, as does Serif Affinity Photo, there are also free photo editors available Gimp, which is cross-platform, and Paint.Net for Windows. Open the image editor with a blank tab and create a 1920-pixel x 1200-pixel blank background image with a white, or possibly a black background, open the edited image of your choice, then copy this image, and paste onto the background, then centre the edited image onto the background. There may well be space to either side of the image, or to the top, and bottom of the image, but this is immaterial as the composite image is now optimised for viewing on a projector screen. Save the complete composite image into a memorable folder, I have a temporary folder on my drive called simply “Upload”, the composite image will now be devoid of any EXIF data, but the author's name, and title of the image can now be added, detailed instructions for doing this can be found on our website.
Sending competition entries: the edited images for submission to the competition should be sent to the Competition Secretary. The majority of us send the images via “WeTransfer”, this free to use internet software is easy to use, and notifies when the images have been sent, and when the images have been downloaded.
This portrait of Chloe has been optimised for the projector as described and is on a black background as I thought that it looked better.
Louth Photographic Society
Good Morning All Sand racing starts again this week at Mablethorpe, this Sunday is practice day, times are on their website. Last week at the club we held a local competition, with the categories of: "Straight out of the camera" and "Open", there was a very good entry in each subject with Tony Gaskins having the task of judging the unedited ones and Robin Begley judging the Open. There is a full report on our website but well done to Harry for first place in the Straight out of the camera and Keith Rossington for first place in the Open. This week, Wednesday 14th, Steve West will be our speaker, talking and showing PDI's on the subject of the Louth cinema. The following week will be a print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open", you need to bring your prints in this week and send an email to Dave Turner with your titles. Regards Graham
At our meeting last night we held a PDI (printed digital image) competition, with the categories of "Local Unedited", and "Open". As this was a members competition one of our members judged the competition, Tony Gaskins was our first judge for the "Local Unedited" category, these were .jpg images taken straight from the camera, without any editing, apart from the resizing for projection. Presenting an image such as this in a competition is quite a difficult task, the photographer has to ensure that the correct exposure is chosen, the composition, and subject matter has to be precise, everything done in camera. Normally for competition entries, a degree of post processing would be involved, simple edits like toning down highlights, or even removing extraneous objects from a scene, emphasising a moody sky, all not allowed. Tony Gaskins did an excellent job with his judging, providing clear and concise critique of the images presented, he "held back" 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally choosing the top three placements. After the break it was Robin Begley's turn to judge the "Open" category, as these were post process edited images the standard was higher than the unedited images, but surprisingly not markedly so. Robin is potentially hoping to become a N&EMPF approved judge, and he had a different style, able to suggest edits that could have improved an image, again his critique was clear and concise communicating well with members. Robin chose 8 images for further consideration, awarding higher points, and finally selecting the top three placements. It was a fabulous, and interesting competition with excellent images, many thanks to both our judges, it's not an easy job, probably nearly as bad as being a referee in a football match!! Many thanks to both our judges, well done.
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Roger Hance Memorial Lecture 16th October
Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", there was a very high-quality entry in both competitions and judge Mike Bennett had quite a job on his hands scoring the entries. Well, done to Dave Turner for first place in the Objects in the Air and Tony Gaskins for first place in the Open. All the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 30th September, our speaker will be Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club showing us his natural history, Creative and many other photographs he has taken. It will be the first time Lee has shown his photographs at our club. If anyone else wants to enter PDI's in the 2027 N&EMPF Exhibition, the deadline is this Wednesday at midnight. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight from Camera" (unedited .jpg), and "Open", to be held on Wednesday 7th October. Regards Graham
At the meeting last night Mike Bennett judged our competition with the categories of “Objects in the Air”, and “Open”. The standard of entries was excellent, and it gave Mike a tough task of judging the images, Mike gave some very good critique of the images displayed, the feedback helps members to develop compositional skills. Dave Turner was awarded first place for his image of the “Tiger Club Display Team” in the “Objects in the Air” category. Tony Gaskins was awarded first place for his image of the “Spectacular Rustgill” in the “Open” category.
Good Morning All, Last week at the club we watched the N&EMPF PDI Exhibition for 2026, it was a very good evening viewing very high standard images from all over the East Midlands. Dave Turner and I did manage to get images accepted; there is a full report on our website. This week, Wednesday 23rd September, we will hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", please send entries to Harry by midnight tonight. Harry is also accepting images for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight out of the Camera (only resizing permitted)" and "Open". Regards Graham
Members were shown the 2026 N&EMPF PDI Exhibition video last night with all of the accepted PDI images in the first part, and after the break the awarded PDI images. There were some stunning images on view, and Louth was successful in having 3 PDI images accepted, Graham Harrison with his image of a Stonechat, and Dave Turner with his portrait of Paul Rudd, and his monochrome image of Kings Cross railway station "Going Down". Overall it was a good inspirational evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club members had 15 minutes to show what they had done over the summer. It was a very interesting evening with eight members taking part. There were many locations on show and as usual some excellent photography. There is a full report on our blog. This week, Wednesday 16th September, we will be showing the N&EMPF exhibition, this is part one showing all the PDI's that were accepted. This is the highest standard of photography we as individuals take part in as a club. Members sent around 50 entries but only 3 were accepted. If you are inspired to enter the 2027 Exhibition after seeing the show, I send the clubs entries and I can give you more information. Closing date is the end of September. The Maximum size for N&EMPF is 1600 x 1200 3MB sRGB Harry is still taking entries for the monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry did ask about what can be accepted, and we couldn't really say as long as it's an object in the Air. The best way is to look up the definition of an object first. Harry is also accepting entries for the Local and Open competition in October. Robin is going to judge the Open competition, does anyone fancy judging the "Straight from the camera" category? Regards Graham
