# July '09 Photo Challenge - "After Dark"



## Chris of Arabia

Hi everyone, 

Thanks to those who took part in the June challenge, let's see how the vote goes this time.

The Photo Challenge this month is on the theme *"After Dark"*

*EDIT: Prizes, we have prizes. To the winner of the vote will go a $25.00 Amazon voucher courtesy of the TPF owners.*

For all those who wish to participate in this challenge please take a moment to read through the following: 

- The deadline for submissions is 31 July 2009
- The image can be no larger then *150KB**
- *Include your forum username* when submitting
- The attached photo must be in the form of a *.jpg*
- Please *keep your photo anonymous* (no distinguishing watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum)
- Submit *no more than one photo*
- If you wish you may include a title when submitting your photo (please ensure that the attached photo is renamed as the chosen title)
- The *form must also be included* when submitting the photo
- The forum Admins and Moderators reserve the right to exclude or remove any photo solely at their discretion
- The forum Admins and Moderators reserve the right to decide the winner of the photo challenge
- All submitted photos will be posted, along with a poll, in a new thread within the first week of the following month
- Once created, *the voting poll will last for 14 days* before it closes automatically


>>>>>>>>>> Copy and Paste this into your submission email <<<<<<<<<<

*ThePhotoForum.com Username:*
**Photo Title (optional):*
*Is the attached photo 150KB or less? Y/N*
*Is the attached photo a jpeg? Y/N*
*Has this photo been posted before? Y/N*
*Please submit only one photo per challenge.*
*Please enter your email subject as "July '09 Challenge Submission"*

*Please ensure that the attached photo is named the title you wish it to have otherwise the title will not be used.
.................................................. .................................................. ...

Please email your photo to photochallenge@thephotoforum.com and remember to enter the subject as indicated.

All photos must include the form when submitted. Just copy and paste it into your email. This will ensure that no mistakes are made when photos are submitted and therefore, hopefully, no photos are excluded. If the form is not included in the submission email the photo will not be included in the challenge gallery and voting process. 

There is more important information regarding rules and procedures located in the FAQ section. We highly recommend that you take the time to read these FAQs.

Good luck to everyone and have fun with this challenge!

**150KB* will be taken as the size on disk and not the actual file size. Also some email programs consider 1KB=1000Bytes as oppposed to 1KB=1024Bytes. When these programs calculate attachment size they will often read larger then they actually are. To be safe we recommend a target size of about 140KB so that once sent it does not go over *150KB*.


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## Ecas32

i can guess there is gonna be a few fireworks in this challenge lol


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## Kondro86

sweet


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## HeY iTs ScOTtY

it was raining by my house on the 4th :-( so i could shoot. good thing there is another big show next saturday.


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## Dcrymes84

So this can be any random pic of anything after dark or does it have to have lights in it of some sort can i get a example


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## Chris of Arabia

From my perspective, pretty much anything taken at least an hour after the sun has dipped below the horizon and a good hour before it re-appears on the other side is fair game. It doesn't matter whether it's taken indoors or outside. Subject matter is entirely up to you.


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## [Tryke Eatter]

4th of July was the perfect opportunity for this!!


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## F1RacerRR

Just to clear something up ?  How much post-processing freedom do we get ?


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## jamagica

Bogus..I shouldn't have posted up my stalker pics


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## Chris of Arabia

F1RacerRR said:


> Just to clear something up ?  How much post-processing freedom do we get ?



As much as you feel you need to get across your interpretation of the subject. You are being voted on by your peers here, not by anyone else.


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## F1RacerRR

ok Chris, thanks for clearing that up.


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## manaheim

Chris of Arabia said:


> - Please *keep your photo anonymous* (no distinguishing watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum)


 
This one particular aspect of these rules is what keeps me from joining up in these things... generally, if I have a pic that I think is neat, I post it to the forum.  I have a bunch in this particular category too, since I'm such a night photography nut.  Kind of a bummer.


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## Barros VeeDub

Chris of Arabia said:


> - Please *keep your photo anonymous* (no distinguishing watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum)



i'm new to this forum, i've done a couple photo contest on my vw forum.

i'm just a little confused about this... shouldnt you have your watermark/logo on it? since your posting your own work?


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## jeremyboycool

Barros VeeDub said:


> Chris of Arabia said:
> 
> 
> 
> - Please *keep your photo anonymous* (no distinguishing watermarks, and no photos that have been posted previously on the forum)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> i'm new to this forum, i've done a couple photo contest on my vw forum.
> 
> i'm just a little confused about this... shouldnt you have your watermark/logo on it? since your posting your own work?
Click to expand...


It's to keep the contest fair. Personal marks of any kinda could create biasism.


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## Barros VeeDub

oh, makes sense. well i posted that before i knew how the poll went. i realized you email it and then its posted in the gallery. makes sense now.


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## manaheim

btw, my issue was not the anonymous part but the 'you can't have posted it before' part.


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## Chris of Arabia

You could always do something specifically for the challenge and not post it - trawling your hard drive for something suitable isn't really the idea.


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## manaheim

Chris of Arabia said:


> You could always do something specifically for the challenge and not post it - trawling your hard drive for something suitable isn't really the idea.


 
Yeah, my life doesn't generally allow me to pull that off quickly enough to participate.

Ignore me.  My challenges are mine alone.


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## johnj2803

can you post pictures that were taken way before? or does it need to be present?


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## Chris of Arabia

There's nothing I can do about members submitting older material, but it would be nice if the submissions were shot to the brief (as wide as it is)


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## Clawed

johnj2803 said:


> can you post pictures that were taken way before? or does it need to be present?


C'mon, wouldnt it be better if everyone who participated used a shot that they took during the month of the contest? Personally, I am a newer photographer, and I cannot compete against the best works of someones career.


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## Sketch

Do we need any particualr number of posts to participate?


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## Chris of Arabia

No, only to vote, for which you need to have been on the forum for 10 days and have accumulated 25 posts.


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## jeremyboycool

Clawed said:


> johnj2803 said:
> 
> 
> 
> can you post pictures that were taken way before? or does it need to be present?
> 
> 
> 
> C'mon, wouldnt it be better if everyone who participated used a shot that they took during the month of the contest? Personally, I am a newer photographer, and I cannot compete against the best works of someones career.
Click to expand...



"Personally, I am a newer photographer, and I cannot compete against the best works of someones career."

Then don't compete; just have fun.


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## Clawed

^ I plan to have fun as I love night photography. Would be cool to have a chance at winning though


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## johnj2803

how long before you get a confirmation email? 

quite excited


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## Boutte

Uhhh, where are the pictures?


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## Chris of Arabia

For those who've not taken part before, there is no confirmation email and the pictures will be loaded into a gallery at the end of the month at the same time as the voting poll is created.


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## dwol

woot! can't wait to see the other images


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## rumblebee95

Sounds cool


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## LaBajista

Chris of Arabia said:


> For those who've not taken part before, there is no confirmation email ...


Hi all,
I just wanted to point out that newbies like me will probably be waiting for a confirmation email because the FAQ says:
_"Will I get a confirmation that my image was received?    	Yes!   You should get a reply email from the forum moderator saying that your entry was received."_


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## MJI

Does it have to be taken from this month? I have something from June I think would fit the subject really well.


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## nrois02

so i took a photograph that was "after dark" but the thing is that even if it was taken during the day it would still look the same. could/should i pick it to be in this contest or just photograph something that is showing that it is after dark?


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## dwol

> Does it have to be taken from this month? I have something from June I think would fit the subject really well.


 
MJI, check the second page of this topic and the answer is there 

You can submit older material, but the aim of this is to submit new material.


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## choudhrysaab

i don't mean to be pushy but i submitted my picture 2 days ago but haven't received a confirmation email :meh:


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## Clawed

choudhrysaab said:


> i don't mean to be pushy but i submitted my picture 2 days ago but haven't received a confirmation email :meh:


It states in the rules that you will receive one, but I do not think that's true these days. I didn't either, I wouldn't sweat it too much 

Oh, and good luck  :thumbup:


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## jeremyboycool

choudhrysaab said:


> i don't mean to be pushy but i submitted my picture 2 days ago but haven't received a confirmation email :meh:




http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...photo-challenge-after-dark-2.html#post1647322


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## Barros VeeDub

yeah i never got a confirmation email either.


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## Chris of Arabia

OK, the door is now firmly closed for any further submissions. I'll sort out what's been received and get them up in a poll over the next day or so.

On the subject of confirmation emails, I must admit I wasn't aware of that when I took over the running of the Challenge, and haven't done it for any submission to date. The only time I email is to point out where entrants have not followed the submission rules. I'm not planning to start issuing confirmation emails, as I don't have enough time to do that at the moment.


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## ev1lmagic

i know this was semi covered in the rules regarding the 150kb and please excuse my noobiness in my following question as i have never entered in this contest before. 

(this is on a mac if it makes any difference) when i saved by picture in PS, the file size is 106kb. when i view "get info" for the picture afterwards it's 147kb. when i attach the file to my email composition after that, it turns out to be 130kb.

those numbers are not exact, however it is accurate in showing which step in my "sizing down" process reveals a greater file size than the other. so which size should i base my submission on? 

the rules covered how attaching it to an email will increase the file size, but it never mentioned anything about the difference in the PS stated size and the size of if when i view the picture's info.


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## Chris of Arabia

Go with what the email says and if there's a problem what the email says and if there's a problem, we'll work from there.


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## Chris of Arabia

OK, there were 27 qualifying entries during July. I'm not going to be able to deal with setting the poll up until over the weekend (that's Thursday/Friday where I am). So if you can all bear with me on this one, I'd be grateful. No one will lose out on any voting time, it'll just be a bit later than I'd normally like.


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## Clawed

Chris of Arabia said:


> OK, there were 27 qualifying entries during July. I'm not going to be able to deal with setting the poll up until over the weekend (that's Thursday/Friday where I am). So if you can all bear with me on this one, I'd be grateful. No one will lose out on any voting time, it'll just be a bit later than I'd normally like.


Wow, 27 entries, huh? That's going to make it pretty difficult to decide a favorite. 

Anyway, we just appreciate you setting it up. Thank you :thumbup:


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## johnj2803

for those of you still looking for the poll,

Its here

Good luck everyone


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