Hi from a newbie.

[Hellbelly]

Just thought I'd jump in and say "G-day". As you can see, I've just joined and I'm not sure if this is the right place to do this but here it is anyway.

Looks like a great site. I joined because I'm really getting into photography these days. We've only got a little point and shoot at the moment (Sony DCS P100) but we'll (Tracy and I) be getting a Conon 400D sometime in January.

We live in South Australia. I'm 35, Tracy is 46. I'm into fishing and 4x4'ing (oh and photography).

I'm keen to get into the photo challenges. I have a question about them though. I've only done a little looking around in the forum but cant find the answer. In the "Challenge", can the pic you enter be digitally altered in any way? I dont like that idea but if that's the way you do it then thats the way it goes.

OK, cheers for now. I'm off to work.

HB.

[STaylor]

Hi HB ... welcome to byte ..

Here are some guidelines

Photos edited using the methods below are acceptable in the competition.

’‚’‚…‚’‚‚ Levels, brightness, contrast, curves, gamma, intensity, tone, hue, saturation, desaturation, lightness, channel adjustment, colour balance, tint, resizing, cropping, burning and dodging selective areas. Various filters to sharpen, soften, blur, despeckle, add grain and remove noise, can also be used to create a better final image. Remember photos should only be edited to improve the final image not totally change it.
NOTE: In some cases judges may ask to view the original file.

’‚’‚…‚’‚‚ The use of a cloning stamp tool may be used to remove minor and small unwanted objects, such as telephone poles, cables and power lines, debris etc.

’‚’‚…‚’‚‚ No elaborate frames, however photo matting is are allowed, such as the following examples. [a] [b]

’‚’‚…‚’‚‚ Signatures, watermarks and copyright notices may be added, however, large distracting ones may weaken the chances on receiving justified ratings.

’‚’‚…‚’‚‚ In order to have your photos displayed at their best, a suggestion is to upload photos at 800 pixels in height or in width, and this way the system will not create a medium image size of average quality.

full text > photo of the week rules <
http://www.bytephoto.com/modules.php...howpage&pid=12

[Hellbelly]

Thanks Paul, very helpful. The way you've got the challenge sounds good too. I've had a crack in other challenges and have never liked the idea that it could be about who is better at photoshop. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting involved in the site. As I said, it looks great (however, I feel like the quality of photo's I see here is way above the level I'm at).

Cheers......HB

[STaylor]

HB

I think you will find this the perfect place to grow as photographer .. and that as you start participating in the things like ’‚’‚…‚’‚¹¦‚“photo of the week’‚’‚…‚’‚…¾‚ and commenting on others photos ’‚’‚…‚’‚‚¦ you will start getting quality feedback / advice on your own photos .. that can quickly elevate your skill set if you apply it