Entering Contests and Competitions

Contests and competitions with cash prizes are great but maybe have more entrants. Some I enter to get exposure to curators and gallery owners I would normally not get exposure to. Tis rare to find one that does not charge entry fees any more. I think what kind of photography you create is the type of competition you should try for. This one had international jurors from France, Italy and the Curator of Photography for the Library of Congress and and the International Photo Editor for Time Magazine. This is also a way to have your CV "branch out" of your local region, sometimes without having to even ship anything.

Tax Day Tea Party on Jones Plaza Houston, TX: 13,000 Strong

PRESS THE HQ BUTTON TO GET A BETTER QUALITY PHOTO

The Difference Between PPI vs. DPI

Infinity in Fog Marilyn Davenport Photography copyright 2009

DPI = Dots per Inch. This has to do with your printer and how many dots you want to use to print something out, depending on how detailed you want it, along with how much ink you want to use. Less expensive printers have a lower maximum output of DPI than more expensive specialized printers.

The term we should be using is:
PPI (Pixels Per Inch) is the pixels per inch in a given image. Then it gets more complicated by the resolution you choose or your camera has. I found this very good chart that shows up to 16 megapixel cameras at various resolutions (too bad mine is 21) and it also includes 35mm film. There's also a chart on what's the maximum size photo one should make to get the maximum quality photo. Some will disagree with that section because of sensor size or if they know how to upsize an image without going too far.

Here's the link to the chart: PPI Chart

Free Photoshop Plugin Filters

This image is archived to the permanent collection at the Dishman Art Museum.

I love to play around with my images by trying out different third party photoshop compatible plug ins from time to time. (Actually the photo posted uses only a frame plug in but I felt it was an appropriate to give the idea and there are some free filters that sort of emulate the same look.

You can find all the links free plug in filters to the right under Links to Cool Stuff...

Photoshop 11.0.1 CS4 Update That Fixes Crashes and Slowdowns

I don't know about you folks, but I had a lot of crashes until I did the following update. It's a lot better now.

The latest Photoshop update according to Adobe updates the following issues:

Adobe Photoshop CS4 11.0.1 update - multiple languages
February 24, 2009
The Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 11.0.1 update addresses a number of issues discovered after Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended (11.0) software were released.The most significant fixes in the Photoshop CS4 11.0.1 update include the following:

A number of issues that could cause slow performance have been addressed.
Pen barrel rotation with Wacom tablets now works correctly.
Photoshop now correctly recognizes 3D textures edited by a plug-in.
The quality of the results of Auto-Blend Layers (Stack Images) has been improved.
A problem that could result in a crash when pasting formatted text has been fixed.
A crash that could result from a corrupt font no longer occurs.

Here's the link to the updates and downloads page:

Adobe Downloads and Updates

JPG Magazine Relaunches!

Yes, it's true! They don't have a new office or all the positions filled yet but it's supposed to happen. Read the JPG Magazine's Blog

The Photographic Dictionary

A is for Apple, right?

Check out this fun and clever version of a dictionary The Photographic Dictionary