Call for photos - National Museum Exhibit

[Romy Ocon]

[Romy Ocon]

[Romy Ocon]

[Romy Ocon]

I just finished scanning my emails and discovered that Godo's submission came in just after 5 pm. That makes the list an even dozen, here's updating the submission details.

1. Martin A. - 10 photos
2. Tito A. - 3
3. JP C. - 15
4. Ding C - 20 (total of 27 were received, 7 were not considered)
5. Nicky I. - 20
6. Mark I. - 7
7. Manny I. - 1
8. Godfrey J - 9
9. William L. - 9
10. Romy O. - 20
11. Neon R. - 15
12. Rey S. A. - 20

NOTES:

1. Total photos received - 149.

2. Some photographers have submitted multiple photos of certain species.

3. Some photos received are not resident forest birds, and will not be selected.

5. I've forwarded the 149 photos to Mike L. so they can start the selection process already.


Godo's Photos:

[Ivan Sarenas]

Darn, I missed this deadline as I was at Mt. Apo . Got some nice birds though . Good luck guys and more power to Philippine birds!

[alainpascua]

Yikes! I missed this deadline! I just arrived from Dumaguete.

If there will be extensions, I'm still in.

I just got picture of the Philippine Scops-Owl Negros subspecies! Will post later.

Regards!

[Agerico M. De Villa]

I miss Plain Tina's masterpieces.

[Romy Ocon]

Update – June 14, 2009 (11:15 am)

1. The Screening Committee (SC) has short-listed the entries to 55 candidate photos.

2. An email will be sent shortly to all photographers whose work were short-listed, informing them of the candidate-photos.

3. The said photographers should email a 100% crop (size 800x800 pixels, saved as PS quality 8-9, native pixels) of the sharpest portion of the bird in each candidate-photo. Note that the crops should be at actual pixel size (native to the camera used), with no upressing or downsizing done. The said crops may be processed or unprocessed, with or without sharpening. These should be emailed to [e-mail] no later than 5 pm Wednesday (June 17, 2009, Manila time). All emails on this should be titled “100% crops – National Museum Exhibit” for standardization. If anyone has a question on how to derive a 100% crop, please feel free to contact me via email, PM or SMS/voice call ([phone])

4. The crops will guide the SC in determining the image quality/resolution/sharpness of the chosen photos, if these are suitable to be printed to 12”x15” with quality deserving to be displayed at the National Museum .

5. A maximum of 50 photos will be exhibited from among the 55 in the short-list, and the SC reserves the option to exhibit less than 50 photos if more than 5 will not meet the image quality/resolution/sharpness criteria.

6. Once the SC receives and evaluates the crops, a final Exhibit List will be drawn and notice to the photographers will be sent. The photographers can then print their chosen work and submit such 12”x15” prints to Mr. Mike L. for framing. The recommended printing lab is JT Photo, although other labs are allowed if such other lab can print color-critical, exhibit-quality photos. The paper to be used should be matte finish (Kodak Pro Endura, or equivalent). The organizing committee will reimburse the printing cost of the submitted prints (please submit receipts). The deadline for submission of prints will be announced later.

7. Please feel free to contact me if anyone needs more information or clarification.


Romy (for and in behalf of the Organizing/Screening Committee)

[Romy Ocon]

I'm pasting below the Short List emailed to me by the Screening Committee:

____________________________________



The Screening Committee came up with the following list:

Godfrey
Crimson Sunbird
Little Slaty Flycatcher

Nicky
Apo Sunbird
Ashy-headed Babbler
Blue-capped Kingfisher
Cinnamon Ibon
Copper-throated Sunbird
Flame-breasted Fruit-Dove
Mountain Tailorbird
Olive-capped Flowerpecker # 2
Palawan Peacock
Red-eared Parrotfinch # 1

William Lim
Elegant Tit
Spotted Wood-Kingfisher

Tito A
White-bellied Sea-Eagle #1

Romy Ocon
Bar-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Black-naped Monarch
Blue-naped Parrot
Coleto
Flaming Sunbird
Handsome Sunbird
Little Pied Flycatcher
Mountain Verditer-Flycatcher
Philippine Falconet
Crested Serpent-Eagle
Red-crested Malkoha
Rufous Hornbill

JP Carino
Black Shama
Guaiabero
Olive-backed Flowerpecker # 2
Philippine BUlbul # 2
Stripe-headed Rhabdornis
Tarictic Hornbill # 1 female

Neon Rosell
Black-headed Bulbul # 1
Chestnut-headed Malkoha
Citrine Canary Flycatcher
Grey Wagtail
Island Thrush
Mountain White-eye
Olive-backed Sunbird
Palawan Hornbill # 1
Red Crossbill
Minivet (please check if label is correct) # 2
White-cheeked Bullfinch

Ding Carpio
Tarictic Hornbill (male)
Oriental Cuckoo
Philippine Cuckoo-Dove

Martin Alvendia
Philippine Trogon # 1
Steere's Pitta # 2

Rey Sta Ana
Blue-throated Bee-eater # 1
Hooded Pitta # 2
Indigo-banded Kingfisher # 1 (with fish)
Purple-throated Sunbird
Stork-billed Kingfisher
White-throated Kingfisher

[Romy Ocon]

Somebody asked me the following, and I'm posting my reply here for the info of others.


_____________________________

How do we do the 100% crop, 800 x 800?

After conversion from RAW to TIFF or JPEG, load the photo into Photoshop or any photo processing software. Use the crop tool to crop an 800 pixel x 800 pixel from the sharpest portion of the bird. Save this crop as quality 8 - 9 jpeg, using the file naming convention we have adopted. Do not resize (reducing or upsizing). You need not do any processing, as we're just interested to see the quality at the pixel level.

Example:

Here's a full frame capture, resized to 1200x800 pixels




100% crop from the sharpest portion of the bird (this has been processed and sharpened, you need not do such processing to your crop):





Romy

[Romy Ocon]

For those who haven't printed big yet, let me share this tip that I posted before the UP-Vargas exhibit.

____________________________________________


SHARPENING TIP:

Sharpening for prints is way more aggressive than that for web display. Excessive noise reduction is also not recommended, as this would make the smooth areas look plasticky, and fine noise visible in 100% crops is not visible in print.

Example - here's a FF shot of a Blue-naped Parrot I printed to 24"x36". I upressed this to 7200 pixels x 10800 pixels (24"x36" @ 300 ppi).


Resized FF:




Crop from 10800x7200 file ready for printing:





The 10800x7200 crop temporarily downressed to 96 ppi (my LCD's resolution) from 300 ppi.... this simulates how detail/sharpness will appear in print when viewed up close.




This simulation is very close to the detail/sharpness of the actual 24x 36 photo. Please note too that noise is no longer visible in the crop of the simulated print size.

[Romy Ocon]

For standardization of the look of the photos to be exhibited, following are our specifications for Signatures or Watermark (SOWM).

1. The photographer may place a signature or watermark either at the lower left or lower right corner of the 12" x 15" print. The choice of whether the SOWM is on the left or on the right is given to the judgment of the photographer, consistent with what is dictated by the composition of the photo.

2. The color of the SOWM should be dark gray (70% black) to black (100% black), the choice of shade is left to the photographer's discretion.

3. The SOWM may be composed of a signature, and/or website address or similar text, and the whole thing should be no larger than 1.5 inches in width and 0.75 inch high. In other words, the whole SOWM should fit inside an imaginary 0.75" x 1.5" box in either lower left or lower right corner of the 12" x 15" print. It is suggested that text in the SOWM be large enough to be readable from 1 meter away. Be cautioned though that too many things or text in your SOWM can be distracting and might degrade the aesthetics of your photo. I'd imagine the National Museum will print a photographer's directory (with details such as web galleries) anyway.

4. A clear distance of about 1 inch should be maintained between the SOWM and the edges of the photograph to allow some space for framing.


5. Here's an example of a signature, similar to what I'll use on my photos (distances not to scale):





6. TIP - for those who don't know how to place your handwritten signature on your photo, what I did is to sign a white sheet of paper with a marking pen. I photographed the sheet and then removed the white background in PS. I can then resize and place this digitized signature on my photo.