[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Seems out-of-date now to limit the contest to just slide film. >Or to not have one for DSLRs. All it would need is a decent > lap top to display the images.
We (the organizers, staff and assistants at the Nature Photography Weekend) have discussed this and it would take a *lot* more than just a laptop to display the images. First of all we'd have to decide on acceptable file formats and sizes. Do we allow DSLR users to keep the advantage of larger image size? Do we accept TIFF, JPEG or RAW? What about accommodating the different memory card types? Then you have the simple issue of time: It takes a second to hand over an envelope containing three slides. Downloading digital files of certain sizes takes considerable time. Then how do we know which image belongs to which person and what category it is being entered in? With slides you write this on the back of the mount. It's possible to add this information into the EXIF section of JPEG files, but not everyone has the equipment or knowhow to do so. The biggest hurdle is going to be judging. Doug Brewer and I judged the contest last year. With slides you put big batches on a large light table and you can cut out the chaff in no time (under/over exposure, bad composition - like the single-rhododendron-blossom-dead-center-in-the-frame that Doug calls the "bullseye" shot). Hundreds of entries can be reduced to a few dozen serious contenders very quickly this way. Then we go over groups of slides with a loupe. You can go back and forth between any two slides almost instantly and take in groups of slides in a glance. You slowly narrow things down to a few outstanding shots. The closer you get to the end of this process, the less the disadvantage becomes, but at the beginning when you're dealing with hundreds of images it's going to be a nightmare. Doug and I had to work our tails off to get the judging done in time for the awards. Digital will be *much* slower. >You might limit it so no one can post process How? Allow only RAW files? Some cameras don't output RAW files. For the ones that do we'd need RAW conversion software and the time to do the conversions. >I'll be bringing a 300D. I'll be bringing a 645... and an ist-D :) We expect that the Nature Photography Weekend will go digital in 2005 but there's a whole lot of planning and work to be done first. We've had many discussions via email and we'll have meetings at GFM in June. It's going to happen there are a lot of decisions, plans and hardware accommodations to be made first. -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
