2008 Club Project- Crayola Crayons (and Rules for Digital submission)

This part of the site is under construction. The following is for information and will be incrementally improved over time.

To download the projector profile, click here. See below for use.

Here's a reminder about our club project which will be presented at our May 1st meeting. The Color Crayon Project will be the program for that that meeting.

Our club project this year to photograph a subject or subjects with the color that was chosen from the Crayon Box and present 3 to 5 images at the May 1st meeting. As Sara discussed at the meeting on March 20th - you have the option of presenting your images either in print, slide or digital format. If you are going to present slides - please let Sara know before the meeting so she can make sure the equipment is there. There will be easels up for print presentations. We will start off with presenting 3 images per person
and show up to 5 images depending of amount brought in for presentation. We would like to do a show at the end of the presentation of everyone's images with digital projection. Gene Wells bring in his projector and has written up instructions for sizing and sending in your images to him for the digital presentation:

The images need to be sent to Gene no later than April 28th so that there will be time to put the presentation together. The web address is found below. Please remember - even if you are presenting printed images - please send the digital format to Gene as well.

The images for digital projection at the member's night should be in JPEG format. The size should either fit 1400 x 1050 pixels or 1024 x 768 pixels. File size should be limited to 1.5 MB for the larger image, or 1 MB for the smaller.
They should bear a title concatenated with the maker's name. Additionally, since we will be possibly only have time for less than five images, please indicate your preferred order by concatenating a number from 1 to 5 after the name. Example: SunnySunrise_GeneWells3. Please adhere strictly to these specifications.

The resolution is immaterial, as the slideshow software will scale the images to fill the window on the projector (we will be using the Lightroom slide show to project, as it allow us to easily randomize the projection order). Note that if
you have a vertical, it's height should be limited to 1050 (or 768). Should you want your image to project smaller than full frame, you must adjust the canvas size in Photoshop. The total image, including the oversized canvas should fit
the specs above. Make the canvas black if you want your image to mimic a film slide.

Why worry about size if the slideshow software scales the image to fit the projector?

1. File sizes must be kept to a minimum in order to email and to project efficiently. This is also why we use JPEG's, which compress file size.

2. You keep control if you do the scaling in Photoshop or Elements or Lightroom (or another program). You get to see the image exactly as it will be projected with no artifacts from scaling on another platform.

3. My projector is 1400 x1050. For optimal projection use that size. The 1024 x 768 size is allowed since most of you who have projectors have this size, and you may have a library of already prepared images. The aspect ratios
are identical. But if we have to use a 1024 projector for some reason, it's better for the slideshow software to scale down the 1400 image than the opposite. Hint: Use the 1400 size.

This will be a color managed show. This means that if you have profiled your screen, and if you use the soft proofing technique in Photoshop with the Optoma910H2.icc profile, what you see on your screen will be almost exactly what shows up on the screen on member's night. This profile will be attached to the email when the announcement goes out, and it is available for download here. If your computer isn't color managed, don't worry. The results will be about what you've grown used to, just not optimal.

These manipulations are not especially complex, but may be unfamiliar to you. Since we will surely be moving to digital projection for competition in the near future, you need to add the technique to your repertoire. However, just
this once, if you are still having trouble after giving it the college try, you can send me a .tif or a .psd of your image and I'll scale it for you.

You should attach your image files to an email message, subject MWCC-MemberNight, and send them to Gene at webmaster@mwcc-photo.org. Because of the file size, you may have to send a separate message for each image.

Use of the Profile

The computer stores images as numbers representing the intensity of red, green and blue. A triple of these numbers represents each color in the visible gamut. For example, black is R(0)G(0)B(0). White is 256,256,256. Middle gray is 128,128,128. Pure red is 256,0,0. The rub is that each display device (e.g. your screen, printer, or my projector) creates a slightly different color than, say, pure red, when sent 256,0,0. Those of you who print your own are already familiar with this concept!

The method devised to solve this problem is to send known colors (RGB triples) to the output device (your printer, screen, or projector), and to measure the colors actually produced by the device with a spectrophotometer (an instrument that measures the hue and intensity of individual colors). In this way, a table can be created that maps the color sent to the color actually produced by the device. Using this table (the .icc or .icm profile), Windows or Mac OS/X can figure out how to correct the numbers in memory so that the desired color is produced at the output.

I have created such a profile for my projector, an Optoma 910, and you can download it here. Put the profile in your ##Windows##\system32\spool\drivers\color directory and all color management aware programs will be able to find it. If you have a Mac, the proper directory is the ColorSync directory (##HD##/System Folder/ColorSync Folder). Once this is done, you are able to use the Photoshop soft profile feature. Pull down the View menu>Proof Setup and select Custom to open the Customize Proof Condition box. Open the Device to Simulate box and scroll around until you find the Optoma910H2.icc profile and select it. Relative Colorimetric is the right selection for Rendering Intent. Check Black Point Compensation. If you want to save the setup, you can do so. Once you close the box, your screen will show the image as it will be when projected. You can toggle between the soft proof and the unadjusted image using Ctrl-Y.

Photoshop allows you to operate all your tools with the projector view active (soft proof ON), so you can color correct and adjust brightness, etc. in projector space if you wish.

Good luck!