Photos can be any size, black and white or color, retouched and tweaked in any way or left in their original form.

Enter the Technofile / Stars photo contest

Dec. 24 , 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000 Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers    

   An enhanced version of my original digital photo "Provincetown Sailboat," shown here (see How I took the photo below) is just the kind of picture we're looking for in the first annual Technofile / Stars Magazine Digital Photo Contest. My photo isn't eligible, but you can enter up to three photos of your own.
   The contest deadline is Jan. 31, 2001. Winners will be announced in mid-February. Stars will publish the top three winning photos, and the top 10 photos will be shown on the Technofile Web site.
    The rules:
   1. Everyone is eligible except for Al Fasoldt and the staff of Stars Magazine. People who enter the contest can be any age and can live anywhere. (In other words, you don't have to be an adult, and you don't have to live in Central New York or the United States.)
   2. Pictures must have been taken by a digital camera. Do not submit photos taken on film and scanned into digital form. They will not be eligible. Photos grabbed from videotape aren't eligible either.
   3. You must have taken the pictures. Pictures can be old or new. They don't need to have been taken within the last year.
   4. You can submit up to three pictures.
   5. Photos can be any size, black and white or color, retouched and tweaked in any way or left in their original form.
    How to submit entries:
   Send your entry as an attach ment to an e-mail letter. If you are entering more than one photo, send each entry as a separate mailing. Tell us the title of each picture, and write a short explanation of the photo. Tell us the make and model of the camera, the location of the picture and any other pertinent information.
   If you cannot send by e-mail, you can copy each entry to a floppy disk or CD-ROM and send each one by standard mail.
   Please note: We prefer e-mail attachments. Don't use the alternate method unless you have no choice. (Note that some digital photos may have file sizes too big to fit on a floppy disk.) Do not send Zip disks or Superdisks. Floppies and CD-ROMs are the only disks we will accept.
   You MUST type your name and address in the e-mail letter that accompanies entries and in a separate letter for disks you send to us.
   Send entries by e-mail to this address: features@syracuse.com. Be sure to put "Stars Digital Photo Contest" in the subject line.
   Mail floppy disks and CD-ROM disks to Stars Digital Photo Contest, Syracuse Newspapers, P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221. Be sure to put "Stars Digital Photo Contest" on the package. Do not send prints. Disks cannot be returned.
   
   How I took the photo
   'Provincetown Sailboat' was taken in the summer of 1998 near the Provincetown Inn at the tip of Cape Cod. The camera was a JVC combination still camera / digital camcorder, shooting at a relatively low resolution (640 X 480). The image was enhanced four ways:
   I enlarged it to approximately 6000 X 4000 through a resampling technique that reduced the 'jaggies' typical of a low-resolution photo.
   I reduced noise and digital-camera artifacts in the greatly enlarged version.
   I sharpened the enlarged image using an improved version of the common "unsharp mask" technique.
   Because the colors in the original photo lacked focus, I made them dramatic using a false-color technique. The black sun is particularly effective as a way to catch the viewer's attention.
   Finally, I smoothed the resulting image and resized it for standard viewing. (I always keep the high-resolution versions of my photos, but I like to resize them to about 1600 X 1200 maximum for easy viewing on the computer screen.)