Hi everyone
To our astro imagers - the time has come to start preparing your images for inclusion in our 80-odd page compendium.
Please DO NOT PM me with any images just yet - read on.
Mike Salway will be issuing a statement soon regarding costs, etc, so I'm not going to discuss those here, suffice to say that I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised. We will, however, need to cover ALL print costs before we go ahead and print, by accumulating orders an asking for pre-payment ahead of time. No-one here can be asked to carry the burden of paying for an entire print run out of their own money - so we know you'll all understand.
As far as subject matter goes, there are no rules that we're setting. There is one single point I'd like to make:
"This is not a competition, and all images are accepted - even if they are of the same object that another imager is submitting." All skill levels of imagers are being treated equally. This is your chance to see your own baby in print - irrespective of how long you've been imaging. Think of it as a record of the way you were imaging "way back" in 2009!
Of course, if I do get double-ups, I'll offer that information to the two or more imagers involved in an attempt to ascertain whether or not any of them have an alternate offering. Easy! Otherwise - no problem.
What I'll need from you:
1) Main image - this can be an object or collage of objects that you've imaged - and it does not have to be from this year. It just has to be your best. The image will be placed on a 200x200mm (8" square) page with 5mm bleed all around (which is trimmed from the page after it is printed) - so the total image area needs to have a print document dimension of 210mmx210mm. Resolution at this size needs to be 300dpi - or as close to this as possible. I've set a lower limit of 250dpi - but NO lower, otherwise we can't use it.
2) Insert image (around 1/6th page) - this image should be of yourself, your imaging rig, both, observatory, or whatever is relevant to how the main image was captured. It will take around quarter of the page and be laid over the top of your main image in one (least busy) corner. I reserve the right to rotate or resize your main image a little to accommodate this.
3) A description of your main image (including both common name and catalogue number) and basic processing technique. 30 words or less. A description of you and your rig - again, 30 words or less please. Please supply this in a plain text file using Notepad, SimpleText or similar, and make sure your file extension is ".txt".
Main image: In Photoshop (or other image editing program you use), go to the "Image Size". Disregard "Pixel Dimensions" and make sure that your "Document Size" is sized to no smaller than 210mm on its smallest side at 300dpi.
If you have a planetary 640x480 pixel webcam image to present as your main image, then at 300 dpi it will print no larger than a couple of inches across on the page. We do not want to artificially increase the images' resolution in Photoshop, so we will ask that you supply at least two variations and hopefully three. I'll arrange them in a mosaic that will fill the page at their original resolution just nicely. The other quarter of the page will be used for your secondary (rig, etc) photo.
As a general rule, please do NOT crop any images. I'd rather have the full thing and work with it here to suit. Better I have more to play with than less.
Colour model: Please be aware that I will be
separating all RGB imges received to
CMYK colour space for printing using a fairly generic "US Web Coated (SWOP) V2" colour space setting. Luminance will be a little critical, so in general, pump up your luminance a little as images generally lose a bit in print. If you know what you're doing, you can supply with a pre-separated TIFF or PSD file if you wish, otherwise, just give me your best RGB JPG file as you would normally print on your own colour laser or inkjet printer and I'll do the rest. I will be receiving a few random proof prints from the printers as we go, and will use these to judge how the images we have are performing on press. Proofs will NOT be issued back to individual imagers - so please don't ask. We cannot guarrantee absolutely faithful colour reproduction in print, so please be aware that your final image will be presented the best way it can in print, but may not necessarily be the same as you'd print yourself in RGB colour space at home. Just a warning!!! Those of you who have seen your own images in professional print before will know what I mean.
Finally - please KEEP your images ready for a week or so, as I'm off this afternoon to Border Stargaze and won't be back until the 23rd of August. Mike Salway will be issuing a statement regarding where to upload your ZIPPED folder of image and text files to shortly. I will be on my little iPhone's web browser for the next week, and will try and answer any questions you may have if I can. Otherwise, please be patient and I'll be back in just over a week.
Have fun selecting your best image, and make sure to take one of your rig or you at your rig as well.
IIS people wo have already uploaded their submission, and whose folder I have downloaded and emptied:
1) Big Dave
2) sheeny
3) Matt Wastell
4) Astrobserver99
5) RobF
6) Alchemy
7) erick
8) Quark
9) turbo_pascale
For instructions on uploading, please see
post#11.
