Image Submission Guidelines

Tips to Get the Best Prints

Get it right, in the camera.

Try your best to follow these two guidelines while shooting. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you'll fix everything in your image editing program. You can't always 'Fix it in Photoshop'. Even when it's possible to fix an image, it takes much longer and usually doesn't look as good as getting it right, in the camera. Digital cameras have a much smaller exposure range than film cameras did. Exposures that would have looked fine on film will produce poor results from a digital camera.

1) Get the exposure right.

Don't Trust the Histogram. In-camera histograms (no matter what camera you shoot or how much you paid for it) do not provide the most precise exposure information. Histograms provide average exposure information for the entire frame. The histogram doesn't know the difference between your subject and the background. Unless your subject fills nearly the entire frame, the histogram will not provide accurate enough information about how your subject is exposed, but rather just how the overall frame is exposed. Get a Good Digital Light Meter. The best way to get the correct exposure, every time, is to use a modern digital light meter. Buy a good digital meter and learn how to use it properly. Sekonic and Gossen both make quality meters. Once you know how to use it, trust your meter. You'll be amazed at the difference nailing the exposure makes in the quality of your images.

2) Get the white balance right.

Your camera's auto white balance doesn't always produce the best results. We suggest you use a custom white balance every time you shoot. Follow your camera manufacture's recommendations on how to properly set a custom white balance. Set a custom white balance when you begin a shoot and then reset it each time there is a significant change in lighting conditions. At the very minimum you should use a custom white balance any time you are in a 'mixed' lighting situation. Mixed lighting exists when your subject is illuminated from more than one type of light source or the background is illuminated differently than the subject.

Examples might be: inside under florescent light, but the subject is by a window with some natural illumination; or outside where the background is in full sun, but the subject is under a tree with more diffused light; or you're shooting inside in a room that has both florescent and incandescent lighting. Without a custom white balance, you are likely to capture images that are 'off color' or have a dominant color cast in these situations. We hate to sound like a broken record but . . . try it you'll be amazed at the difference that setting a custom white balance makes in the quality of your images.