Timing

• You can enter up to two images in the current month, or any future month's competition that has a "set" listing. The theme and month are displayed as the file "set".
• At month end, the voting is opened which lasts for two weeks.
• At the end of the second week, the winning entries are announced and the winners' gallery is displayed for the remainder of the month.

Entering Photos

Images should be entirely your own work, hence have your copyright.

Photo files are entered via the site File Manager; the button is located below the display gallery (you need to register/ sign-in to see the button).

File Manager

Once you're in the file manager, click the "Browse" button at the top right to locate and select your photo from your hard drive. Once selected, click the "Upload" button (just next to the browse button). If the file size of your image isn't too large, it should upload fairly quickly.

Once your photo has uploaded, the next screen will be a file upload dialogue with image preview. Here, you can edit the title to whatever you wish by clicking on the word "Title" and replacing the default; save by clicking the pen and paper image on the right when you've finished. (You also have the option to add a brief description which will be displayed under your image together with the title; just click the word "Description".) Next, click the "Sets" tab at the top left of the box and click to tick the month/ theme set you're entering your image to; lastly, click the "Update" button, bottom left, and you're done.

(Please don't tick the "Add to New Set" check box at the bottom, as this will create an unwanted new, unnamed set; just tick an existing set from the list.)

Manage your entries

You can go back and edit the title or description later, at any time, by clicking your photo listing in the File Manager and selecting "Properties". As explained above, you have to click the actual words "Title" or "Description" for their fields to become editable. Don't forget to save your changes by clicking the pen and paper image at the right before closing the dialogue box. You may have to refresh your File Manager page to see your changes.

To review which images you've entered to each month and theme, look to the left in the File Manager and you'll see the "Sets Menu". Here just click to tick the relevant box and the corresponding files will be listed on the right. You should only have one set ticked at anytime, or no images will show. If no sets are ticked, all your images will be listed.

You can delete or replace your images, or change the month/ theme set it's allocated to, at any time before the voting has opened for a particular month.

File Sizes and Editing

If you usually edit before uploading ...

The image gallery restricts the width of images to 550px and their height to 450px; if you usually prepare web images at 800 x 600 or thereabouts, they should be fine.

Upload large files straight from your camera ...

You can upload large image files straight from your camera to the file manager, but you might not get the notification dialogue if the server is busy. However, you'll know when your image is uploaded when the message in the bottom left of your browser changes from "Waiting ..." to "Done".

If you refresh your file manager window, your file should be listed, but it mightn't have a preview until you resize it, which you can easily do via the Picnik editor. You'll also have to allocate the image to a month/ theme set; just click the image and choose "sets", choose your month set and click update.

Resize, sharpen and edit you images after uploading using Picnik!

The File Manager has the facility to resize and edit/ optimise uploaded files using the image editor, Picnik. If you haven't resized or edited your photo before uploading it, simply click on your photo listing and choose "Edit" from the drop-down list.

You may, however, find it quicker and easier to do a basic resize before uploading.

How to optionally resize large files before upload

In Windows Explorer, right click on the thumbnail of your photo and click Edit. Next, locate the re-size button and resize to to 800 x 600, 600 x 450px or similar, and save your image with a different file name, or to a different location such as a new folder called "Photo Entries".

Your resized photo will now upload quicker using the File Manager, and you'll get the confirmation dialogue allowing you to set a proper title and allocate your image to a month/ theme set.

You can do more extensive editing before uploading to the site using Faststone Image Viewer - a freeware photo browser, converter and editor. You can read more about photo editing software at the Software section of this site.