As of the start of 2013, APS changed the specifications for digital entries from 1280 pixels on the longest edge to 1920 wide and 1080 high.
The reason for the change originally was to be in alignment with PSNZ, plus take advantage of the improved specs of the new laptop/projector combination. The PSNZ has subsequently dropped their resolution to accommodate clubs that cannot afford newer equipment. APS will be sticking with 1920 x 1080 so if you enter other PSNZ competitions please be sure to check the specification requirements for each competition as they can and do vary.
Last month, over half of the digital entries had either one or both sides exceeding these new specs, this resulted in considerable work resizing images during the nights leading up to the competition night.
What does 1920 x 1080 mean?
This:
If your image is not in the ratio 9:16, exporting it with the longer edge correctly constrained will not necessarily mean that its shorter edge is within the 1920 x 1080 limit. You may need to specify the shorter edge as 1080 and let the export processing automatically set the long edge.
A square image should be sized 1080 x 1080.
Going forward, if one or both sides of your image exceed 1920 x 1080, you will be asked to resubmit the image prior to midnight Saturday before the competition night.
Also, a number of member regularly submit images incorrectly named despite the following reminder set monthly. Please make more effort to get it right, as it makes the collating of the 60+ images considerably easier and avoids errors.
Digital images need to be submitted by midnight Saturday prior to the competition night, to communications@aps.net.nz
The e-mail subject header shall read: APS Digital Competition – January 2013
File name shall follow the format:
GRADE_SECTION_FirstnameLastname_ImageTitle.jpg.
e.g. Novice_Set_JamesBloggs_BlackSkyAtNight.jpg
Image size shall be no wider than 1920 pixels and no higher than 1080 pixels , sRGB and jpg
This link is to PSNZ’s web page explaining their reasons for the change in specs and issues with out of dimension images: http://blog.photography.org.nz/2012/09/10/digital-projected-image-specs/
In the January Focal Plane, on page 5: “Images may be smaller but must not exceed these dimensions.” This is correct, however if your image is 300×200, it will be displayed thumbnail size on a large screen. An image of this value will not be accepted. However 1000×900 is acceptable, however it is preferable to have it closer to the image specifications.
For those member who may be uncertain of the correct values within their program:
Lightroom (4.x)
Once the image has been edited as required in the Develop module, right-click the image and select Export / Export… Rename as required in File Naming and set the following values in File Settings, Image Sizing These settings can be saved as a Preset, as below.
More tips
To save these settings over your existing preset, right click the preset name and choose “Update with current settings”
To format the filename you can choose File Naming | Rename to and choose custom settings. If you choose edit on the custom settings (by clicking on it) you can set like
Advanced_Set_JoeBloggs_{Title}
When you export, Lightroom will insert the title of the image so all you need do is set that in the library panel. This means you would have maybe 2 digital export templates, Open and Set. Once they are set, exporting is really easy.
Photoshop
Here’s an example of where things go wrong.
The original image was 5616 x 3744. Changing the width to 1920, still results in the height being outside the 1080 specification.
Entering 1080 for the Height, gives a correct image size with the Width being under 1920.
IrfanView
Similar to Photoshop. Select Image / Resample/Resize
Picasa
Picasa will resize the longest edge.
- If you image is square: you’ll need to resize to 1080.
- If your image is landscape: you’ll need to resize to 1920.
- If your image is portrait: you’ll need to resize to 1080.
However, there is a catch…
You may have a high landscape image approaching a square format. Resizing to 1920, may result in the height exceeding 1080, but you won’t know. So you’ll need to check the dimensions prior to submitting you image. These are shown in the Properties Panel on the right in Picasa
If this is too complicated we have spreadsheet to calculate the value for you.
Get the spreadsheet Picase resize calcs
Now use the Picasa resize screen:
More
Other free Windows programs worth looking at are
Faststone Photo Resizer which is a resizer only. It will accept 1920×1080 as a preset and produce the correct result with no juggling required. It can be found at: http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm
Paint.Net – its free and has much of the functionality found in Photoshop http://www.getpaint.net/