[6BQ5]

Just thinking outloud here, but whats to stop people from posting photos that they didnt even take?

Could the EXIF data embedded in the image help discern that?

[crime ahead]

This is something that I didn't want to go to as with all contests of this sort one would expect to take this risk. One solution would be to restrict the entries only to people who were actively existing members - but as I understood the competition being open not only to long term members was a way of attracting people to the forums and making some funs intentionally - which is understandable. I am not so sure if forum is going to benefit in the long run from this though.
To be honest due to simple fact that people are generally dishonest - I see how many obstacles are on ones way to simple open a contest like that... no simple solution to that as far as I am aware.
There are exif tools that can easily help you to fake anything - only having a RAW / TIFF ( film scan ) image ensures that an image is genuine.

One solution mentioned - allowing to nominate only by veteran members is certainly better than allowing everybody - buy even then some might be biased towards certain persons. So what I would propose is to have 50% of nominations from the jury, arbitrary decided from all entries, and the other half ALSO decided by the jury but picked from the pot of most nominated entries - but then the amount from which the jury selects can be set to 100 or more entries that managed to get most nominations. The more nominated entries we allow - the greater pot of images the jury will have to select the other 32 shots for the round 2.

This is what I think could do the trick - let me know what you think guys.
And thanks for raising your voice
[crime ahead]

Just thinking outloud here, but whats to stop people from posting photos that they didnt even take?

Could the EXIF data embedded in the image help discern that?

I agree - it would be much better if only real, long-term members were able to nominate photos. Allow anyone to enter, but restrict nominations to those who have been here for a while.

Crime ahead has a point.
I am new member to this forum but i have been a veteran member to other forums (mostly about graphic design and tech forums..) and every time a nominating contest begin it appears the same problem.
A good solution (that is used in many forums) is that only administrations and veteran members can nominate the entries.

[Parallax]

The reason I created this account is not because I wanted to take part in this contest, but because I wanted to remain anonymous while having my long time account here on forums, that I am using on daily basis

Apparently you missed the forum rule that states members are allowed only one account. You now have 2. (that is until I finish this reply. )

This is what I think could do the trick - let me know what you think guys.

What I think is that If what you have to say is something you're unwilling to own, then perhaps it's something that shouldn't be said.

[manntax]

Well - looks like this post is calling my name. Well I created [crime ahead] account to raise several points - BUT at the same time I am having my own entry in this contests - so I didn't want to cause any biasing because of the points raised.

I am glad that the account was banned as it proves that the moderators do their job - HOWEVER - I am very disappointed in how the whole issue is handled. By simple ignoring somebody's voice you [ I do not mean personally you - just a figure of speech] don't cause it to disappear . I still think that the current solution is very prone to cheating - it is super easy to fake the IP ( even with normal broadband one can simple reset the router to get a new dynamic IP ) - so just monitoring IP only would not solve the problem .


Still hoping that the concerns would be addressed in a serious manner [Adam? ] because I truly enjoy the forum and would like it to stay the way it used to be
--manntax

PS: My 14 years old son Kacper has also created his account in order to fully participate in forum - hopefully his account won't be banned just because we share the IP.

Apparently you missed the forum rule that states members are allowed only one account. You now have 2. (that is until I finish this reply. )
What I think is that If what you have to say is something you're unwilling to own, then perhaps it's something that shouldn't be said.

[Parallax]

I am very disappointed in how the whole issue is handled. By simple ignoring somebody's voice you [ I do not mean personally you - just a figure of speech] don't cause it to disappear

Notice that the posts were not deleted. No one's voice was ignored.

PS: My 14 years old son Kacper has also created his account in order to fully participate in forum - hopefully his account won't be banned just because we share the IP.

No, it won't be banned, and that was made clear to you earlier.

[manntax]

Notice that the posts were not deleted. No one's voice was ignored.

Yes I noted that and simple forget to point in my previous post - I appreciate that as I truly believe the points raised are valid. On the other hand however I really hope ( deep down there) - naively perhaps - that the whole issue is a product of my imagination only ( although these few responses agreeing somehow have made me doubtful ).

No, it won't be banned, and that was made clear to you earlier.

Yes I noted the PM afterwards.. thanks for his sake - the boy is enjoying his istD since few months and I am glad he joined !

[Monobod]

What size digital images are you accepting? i.e. 1050x1400 in sRGB, or can they be full size jpegs in AdobeRGB colour space?

[maleek]

Kind to host so many interesting competitions. Best of luck to all contestants.

[Sgtsween]

I'm having a hard time resizing my image and keeping the quality. I am trying to get it to a reason able size in Lightroom 5, and once I got it down to about 2048 on the long end it still looked good, but then lost a lot of quality when I uploaded it. Is this because the forum restricts the size? Any tricks on keeping sharpness/resolution?

[manntax]

As far as I know the best image quality is preserved if you don't exceed 1024 pixels WIDE - because the forum width is restricted to that.
--manntax

I'm having a hard time resizing my image and keeping the quality. I am trying to get it to a reason able size in Lightroom 5, and once I got it down to about 2048 on the long end it still looked good, but then lost a lot of quality when I uploaded it. Is this because the forum restricts the size? Any tricks on keeping sharpness/resolution?

[Sgtsween]

As far as I know the best image quality is preserved if you don't exceed 1024 pixels WIDE - because the forum width is restricted to that.
--manntax

Thank you. I'll play around with it some more, and worst case scenario will link from another site.

[fireman4792000]

I am in Venezuela. I can participate? It is a picture of my work as a FIREFIGHTER.

[Parallax]

I am in Venezuela. I can participate?

Absolutely.

[rrstuff]

Could the EXIF data embedded in the image help discern that?

Regarding using not-yours images: It is very easy to do a reverse image search on images.google.com, you can send an email to the author and ask them if they entered the photo here. I do this search every now and then to notify people who use my photographs on their websites without attribution. Very useful tool.

[Adam]

Can we use photoshoped image?
Of course from our own photo

Certianly

If this is open to any camera, or method of producing an image, then we may as well just leave this contest to the proffessionals. Those with the highest level of photographic training and top-shelf equipment are likely to have the advantage. Then again, those people probably already have a K3 or two.
I'd rather the winner was drawn out of a hat, to make it fairer for Joe Average (me). Just my two bob's worth.
Great prize, by the way.

Regards

Well, that's what sets apart a giveaway from a competition. This isn't a giveaway, and to win you have to show that you're a good photographer.

What size digital images are you accepting? i.e. 1050x1400 in sRGB, or can they be full size jpegs in AdobeRGB colour space?

I recommend a width of 1280 pixels, any color space is fine but I believe sRGB has more accurate colors in certain web browsers.

I'm having a hard time resizing my image and keeping the quality. I am trying to get it to a reason able size in Lightroom 5, and once I got it down to about 2048 on the long end it still looked good, but then lost a lot of quality when I uploaded it. Is this because the forum restricts the size? Any tricks on keeping sharpness/resolution?

Our forum will scale attachments over 1280 pixels, which will reduce the quality. Also, there is a profile setting here that constrains the width of embedded photos, which is also set to 1280 by default. Therefore, I recommend that you scale your photo to 1280 pixels, then attach it and it will appear exactly as it did originally to all members.

I am in Venezuela. I can participate? It is a picture of my work as a FIREFIGHTER.

Of course you can participate