2010 DSM Calendar Entry Info

[Ludachris]

Do not post your entries here, read the whole message!

Entries will not be accepted for the 2010 DSMtuners Calendar unless they meet the following requirements:

- Must be no less than 200 dpi resolution (CRITICAL) - set your camera to it's highest quality setting if you're not sure! This was what most people get wrong when sending their photos. You cannot increase resolution after the photo was taken. It must be taken at high resolution. Do a Google search on digital camera resolution and dpi if necessary.

- Must be at least 2500 pixels wide. If the photo is less than 2500 pixels wide then chances are it's not high enough resolution to be used for print. And no, you cannot resize a small photo to make it larger than 2500 pixels - all that does is stretch the photo, making it look terrible when printed. Again, set your digital camera to its highest setting when taking photos.

- Compress the photo (zip it) before you attach it to an email if it's larger than 5 MB. (Download a trial version of <a href=http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm target=_blank>WinRAR here</a>)

- Must be of a photo of YOUR DSM, not some car you took a photo of.

- You must own the rights to the photo or have permission from the owner to give it to us.

- Only send 1-3 photos.

- Resolution must be at least 200 dpi.

- Did I mention the photo must be at least 200 dpi for resolution?

Do NOT waste time sending us any photos that do not meet the above criteria. We will do our best to have an equal amount of 1G and 2G cars, along with one or two Spyders and Galant VR-4 cars, as usual. But we will also be limited to what is sent to us, and we may choose quality photos over model representation.

To get started, send me an email to info @ dsmtuners.com (no spaces) and include the photo attachments and the following information:

Your full name, your address, your phone number, your DSMtuners username, the DSM year/make/model, the dimensions of your photo, the resolution, and any notable accomplishments/achievements with the car, and the actual photo(s).

I will not reply to your email.

We will stop collecting submissions by October 15, 2009. That should give people plenty of time to take some quality photos. After that date I'll have the Wisemen and Moderators help me choose the photos that we will use in the calendar. So go out and start taking some photos of your DSM now!

 

[Ludachris]

First entry received - got it wrong already. The photos must be at least 2500 pixels wide and 200 dpi by default. Do not send anything that isn't at least 2500 pixels wide without doing any resizing. I shouldn't receive anything that is 640x480, or 800x600. Please people, read the post.

 

[Trav83]

I know he's talking about me Guess I'll have to clean the car up and take new pictures with my camera on the highest settings. Honestly I did read your post and I thought I met the requirements, all my camera tells me is what dimensions the photo is.... it's not that great of a camera unfortunately.

 

[snowborder714]

When you pull the picture on to the computer, right click on it, and click Properties. Then go to the Details tab. This will show all the technical info about the picture. You'll want to look for the resolution and dimensions in here.

This is for Vista users.

 

[Trav83]

When you pull the picture on to the computer, right click on it, and click Properties. Then go to the Details tab. This will show all the technical info about the picture. You'll want to look for the resolution and dimensions in here.

That's what I thought you had to do to get that info, but I don't have a 'details tab' when I click 'properties' the only info I can get on my photos is the dimensions. (I'm using Windows XP)

My camera can take 640 x 480 up to 2560 x 1920 I was gonna take some new pics using 1600 x 1200 that should be good right? I don't have a dpi setting

 

[snowborder714]

For XP users, right click on the image, click Properties, go to the Summary tab, and click the Advanced button. This will show you all the technical info.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

I was under the impression that you cannot compress a JPEG. JPEG is likely the format these photos would be arriving in and JPEG is also a form of compression, a lossy one at that. The point is I was taught that since a JPEG is already a compressed format there is little to no compression left for a utility like winrar/winace/winzip to compress and often you enlarge the file since you have to add the .rar/.ace/.zip file extension to the file.
Maybe someone knows more about it?

 

[Ludachris]

That's what I thought you had to do to get that info, but I don't have a 'details tab' when I click 'properties' the only info I can get on my photos is the dimensions. (I'm using Windows XP)

My camera can take 640 x 480 up to 2560 x 1920 I was gonna take some new pics using 1600 x 1200 that should be good right? I don't have a dpi setting

Yes Trav, that was you. Sorry for throwing you under the bus. You'll want to set your camera to it's highest setting. Then choose your best 1-3 photos and zip them using the winzip utility before sending them. Follow Brian's instructions to verify the dimensions.

 

[Trav83]

For XP users, right click on the image, click Properties, go to the Summary tab, and click the Advanced button. This will show you all the technical info.

How the hell did I miss that thanks now I know the pictures I sent Ludachris were 72dpi doh!

Yes Trav, that was you. Sorry for throwing you under the bus. You'll want to set your camera to it's highest setting. Then choose your best 1-3 photos and zip them using the winzip utility before sending them. Follow Brian's instructions to verify the dimensions.

Any chance you know if windows xp comes standard with the winzip utility or is that something I have to download?

 

[snowborder714]

I was under the impression that you cannot compress a JPEG. JPEG is likely the format these photos would be arriving in and JPEG is also a form of compression, a lossy one at that. The point is I was taught that since a JPEG is already a compressed format there is little to no compression left for a utility like winrar/winace/winzip to compress and often you enlarge the file since you have to add the .rar/.ace/.zip file extension to the file.
Maybe someone knows more about it?

From what I remember, there's little to no compression when adding a JPEG image to a ZIP file. I believe I found this out last year when submitting photos. Maybe I'm using WinZIP wrong?

I just tried it and it didn't compress at all.

Any chance you know if windows xp comes standard with the winzip utility or is that something I have to download?

I'd recommend downloading WinRAR. It's free and can work with multiple compression formats.

 

[knochgoon24]

How small would you like the file after compression? I'm talking to a friend trying to get him to shoot some photos in a .RAW format so I can mess with some of that HDR stuff. I can save the new files to just about anything. I doubt you want a 20MB file in your inbox, or do you?

 

[Ludachris]

I think anything over 3-5 MB will be tough to send through email. As Brian said, try downloading WinRAR if you need to compress files and can't do it with WinZip.

 

[knochgoon24]

That works. I was just curious because I'm able to send anything up to 10MB as of last time I checked.

 

[i_nick_2005_i]

Off topic but here goes. Is there anyway we can vote for people's pictures, maybe start a thread or something. Because I definitely want to vote for PieEyedPiper His avatar picture should make the cut, especially for an eerie October pic If he has a high res. of it that is......Also, is there any photoshopping allowed?

 

[Jeff99GS]

The pic I want to use is 2052 wide and 300dpi. Can I widen it a little? I know you said NO enlarging...But I think mine would still meet the DPI requierments.

Or should I just take a new pic?

 

[Ludachris]

Off topic but here goes. Is there anyway we can vote for people's pictures, maybe start a thread or something. Because I definitely want to vote for PieEyedPiper His avatar picture should make the cut, especially for an eerie October pic If he has a high res. of it that is......Also, is there any photoshopping allowed?

Mods/Wisemen will be doing the voting this year.

 

[Ludachris]

The pic I want to use is 2052 wide and 300dpi. Can I widen it a little? I know you said NO enlarging...But I think mine would still meet the DPI requierments.

Or should I just take a new pic?

As long as it's truly 300 dpi in its native form, I can probably work with it even though it's smaller than 2500 pixels wide.

 

[knochgoon24]

The pic I want to use is 2052 wide and 300dpi. Can I widen it a little? I know you said NO enlarging...But I think mine would still meet the DPI requierments.

Or should I just take a new pic?

If you have a decent photo program, you should be able to enlarge it to 2500 px wide and still retain about 250dpi or more.

 

[i_nick_2005_i]

To whom it may concern,

I was in awe when I saw my camera only took pictures at 180 dpi, but at 3254 x 2448. So I did some research to see if I could change the dpi (not that I'm entering into the contest, but was curious) I found this little tid-bit of info that may help people, like me, who have awesome high res. pics, but fail in the dpi dept.....

If you open the image in Photoshop, do the following:

Go to the Image section on the menu bar.
-Drag down until you get to image size
-When the window pops up you'll see that you're looking at (x) dpi
-There are 3 boxes at the bottom of the window. All three are checked. Uncheck the last one (Resample image)
-Change the resolution to 200 from (x).
As it now stands you haven't made any real changes to your image that will cause it to look pixelated or "noisy".
-Now recheck the Resample Image box and save. It will never again come up as a (x) dpi image...unless you change it, that is.

 

[TSimage]

So are you wanting just car pics or would you also want engine bays as well..

 

[blcknspo0ln]

So are you wanting just car pics or would you also want engine bays as well..

Traditionally we've always opted for the entire car plus a nice background (motorsports a plus!)

 

[LandoAWD]

I'm talking to a friend trying to get him to shoot some photos in a .RAW format so I can mess with some of that HDR stuff.

Please don't. Most HDR I see is garbage. People go a bit nuts with the concept.

In any case, you can do this in .jpg

 

[Fabian]

. Oct. 15!? Damnit! I thought we were gonna have longer! Better get my lip on there fast and clean her up! What exactly does a "motorsports" background mean?

 

[snowborder714]

He didn't mean a motorsports background - he meant the car during a motorsports event. For example, someone taking a picture of your car during a road race, autox, or rally event, or launching at the drag strip.

 

[knochgoon24]

Please don't. Most HDR I see is garbage. People go a bit nuts with the concept.

In any case, you can do this in .jpg

I wasn't going to submit HDR stuff, it's just the reason I'd have photos in .RAW formats. I doubt I'd get good results from that HDR anyways.

The PSU car club is having some sort of event here sometime, so I might get some decent photos from that. Even if they aren't calendar caliber (doubt they will be).