Entering PDIs into Clubworker competitions
This notice describes how to enter PDIs in Clubworker projected image competitions. The timing of this notice is to cater for the 3rd Clubworker competition, but it is intended to apply to future competitions unless otherwise stated at the time.
The Guidelines for digital images in member's events continue to apply. Additional guidelines and checklists are provided in this notice to help reduce the number of non-conforming entries. We will be using the DiCentra software.
For PDIs in Clubworker projected image competitions, there are 3 methods of entry:
- Entry form on paper and images on physical medium (USB Drive); the traditional method.
- Entry form by email (see below) and images on physical medium; this avoids the need to copy-type the entry forms into a computer for various purposes.
- Entry form and images by email (see below).
Entry form by email
The image on the right illustrates the format (when using Outlook Express), including the email address to use. (In this case, it uses my name and competition number as an example. You may prefer to use your own name!)
The titles should be listed on adjacent lines without extra adornment, (such as surrounding quotes), to enable them easily to be used exactly as you supply them.
They are listed as entry number 1 first, then in decreasing priority. Obviously you may submit fewer than 5 if you want.
Images by email
The image on the right illustrates the format (when using Outlook Express), including the email address to use.
There are 2 important rules to reduce the risk of overloading the recipient's email system:
- Only 1 image per email; multiple attachments may fail to be extracted properly.
- The sooner the better; don't leave it until the last minute because this will overload the system, and there will not then be time to sort out problems.
Images on physical medium, preferably a USB drive
This is described in detail in the
Guidelines for digital images in member's events.
You must supply the images within a folder, and it should look like the image on the right, mutatis mutandis, and be named after the author (2 names). This is what DiCentra expects - please don't vary it.
Checklist
The DiCentra software we use for organising, administering, and projecting PDIs is fairly tolerant. However, there is no guarantee that when it corrects errors it does as good a job as would be done if the author got it right. It is obviously desirable for the author to be able to preview the image in its final state, which isn't the case if software manipulates the image while preparing for, or running, the competition. And there are probably limits to its tolerance!
Image size
This is the source of one of the most common errors. The box on the right shows the resolution of the projector, and images will be projected accordingly. DiCentra will scale downwards if necessary, although it may not do quite as well as the author could do. DiCentra will not scale upwards, and smaller images will remain small when projected.
DiCentra will fill space, around an image that is smaller than 1400x1050, with black. There are no known quality issues with letting it do so. (But I personally space-fill with black myself where necessary, as part of my policy of "controlling the controllables" and not leaving anything to DiCentra that I can do, and preview, myself).
File type and colour space/profile
The required file type is JPEG. (But the extension will normally be "jpg"). Not TIFF! You might as well save at maximum quality, for example "12" in Photoshop. This is likely to make the file about one megabyte or somewhat more.
Ensure that the image starts in sRGB colour space, or is converted to that. Embed the profile if your software permits it. This enables DiCentra to check the profile. It will convert if the supplied image has an incorrect profile, but it is better to supply it right.
Depending on how you have configured Photoshop, your "Info" panel may look something like the image on the right. (Mine does!)
Next
Re-check the email contents, folder structure, and file names, according to the above specification.