Unble to load photo for competition

[sblock]

Hullo Everyone

I am a new member and look forward to participating in the discussions.

I have a photo I would like to enter a competition. The entries are uploaded through their website.

Sounds simple enough. However, my photo will not upload. Advice given is
"invalid file type" The photo I am uploading is jpg@16.7% (RGB/8).

I would be grateful for advice to what I am doing wrong. I would be grateful for a quick reponse as the competition closes on the 31 May.

[Wendy]

Hi there ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

It could be several things as not all error messages generated by websites are acurate. Have you checked that the pixel size, file size, resolution are in line with the rules of the site?

If you post a link to the site one of us will take a look for you ...

Wendy

[ATR]

sblock

Check it out again. The deadline for the "First Annual Scrappy Awards" is 12 midnight June 30, 2006, not May 31, 2006. So that gives you more time to create.

Next, as of this morning, the web site is working OK for the uploads of the Scrapbook entries.

I would suggest that you recheck the details of the contest in the Subscriber section. Also, double check your setting when you Save For Web.

Some Details From this Web Site instructions, see actual instructions for the rest.....
Image size: Image should not exceed 600 pixels in width or height, whichever is longer.
File format: JPG, GIF, PNG
File size: 300 K

Hope this helps.

ATR

[kayser]

ATR- I think it's for a different contest? I thought the same thing as you initially and rushed to the rules page in a panic.:o I then reread the post, and it seemed like a photo competition for something different.

[Wendy]

Hi Kay ...

Yes I thought it was for another site too ... hopefully sblock will come back and let us know :)

Wendy

[ATR]

Kayser and Wendy,

After I posted my response, I had second thoughts about "which contest".

Will be watching to see outcome.

ATR

[sblock]

Thanks for your responses

The Competition is for the English Magazine "Digital Camera". Website is www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk.



Since requesting your assistance I have re-read the instructions for the competition. The file size should be 2MB. Unfortunately I have little idea how to make the file size 2 MB in relation to height width, pixel size resolution etc.

I have a Mac computer and work with Photoshop Elements 3.

[ATR]

Have you explored Save for Web under the File Menu in Elements?

I did a quick search and come up with this description.

http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/save/saveweb.htm

ATR

(for this does not help, please post details from your contest web site...I could not bring them up)

[Wendy]

Hi ...

I have had a look at the site but failed to find the competition rules :(

Did they give you any indication as to height width etc ??

I did this a while back and it may help:

Open your image then do File>Save for Web
When the Save for Web dialogue box come up there is a section over on the bottom right hand side where you can change the pixels size (see A) if you tick Constrain Proportions then you only need to change the longest side then just click on Apply. Next take a look at the new size (B) ... if it is still too big then use the quality slider (C) until the size is OK

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1oU339hS3qhxM5k9hXDdeC21dpFM0

Do let us know if the suggestions solve your problem :)

Wendy

[BarbG]

Sometimes when trying use "save for web" a pop-up tells me that my photo is too large to use this feature. What is the best way to prepare a photo to use this feature? Should I save as a Jpeg even if it means I can only save at a quality of 6 or should I reduce the size of my photo using the bicubic sharpener feature and reduce the pixels per inch. What is the best way to reduce the image so that I can use the "save for web" feature?

[Wendy]

Hi Barb ...

Just ignore the warning and continue ... it will work just fine. All it does is take longer to do it.

I have used it on some very large images and it has worked every time :)

Wendy

[BarbG]

It is nice to get reassurance before going forward after a caution.

Barbara

[Wendy]

Hi Barb ...

It scared me the first few times :D :D

Wendy

[JonE]

It is better to resize the image using the Editor (Image>Resize>Image Size), then save the file, rather than to use a lot of compression in Save for Web to accomplish a smaller file size. Compression will destroy your iamge quality. (When saving for web you need small size and not necessarily quality.) Unfortunately image resizing in Editor does not directly solve for file size so you need to know what the contest wants in terms of dimensions if possible. If nothing else you can set 1024 as your largest dimension - Editor will compute the other dimension for you. This will give you a nice quality screen size photo. Then do File>Save As, select JPG and then it will take you to the screen where you select the compression amount or image quality. Select the highest quality (12?) (lowest compression). This will give you the very best quality with the least compression. At this point, the dialog box will show you the expected file size which will most likely be in the 800-950 K range. It certainly won't be 2MB. If it's too large for your requirements, set quality down 1 point and check the file size indicator again. You shouldn't have to compress much at all to get under 2MB and you want highest possible quality for competition. GL

[TonyW]

Actually Save for Web and doing a Save As from Editor do the same thing - almost. Both ask you to set the compression for a JPEG (the quality) however Save For Web also strips out the EXIF data from the JPEG, while Save As doesn't. There are a few competitions that I recall require you to include the EXIF data (the Camera data showing the settings used to take the picture) in which case you need to use the Save As route.

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi Tony ...

Thanks for the clarification :)

Wendy