Sportfish and Fish&Fly Catalogue Covershot Competition 2011

[Sofi]

Cap'n Fishy's winning cover - 2010

The cover shot competition is back

Sportfish were impressed with the very high standard of entries received for last year’s catalogue cover shot competition and they would like to repeat it this year. Cap'n Fishy was last year’s winner with his stunning entry "Loch Bornish, South Uist". Sportfish have decided to invite Cap'n Fishy to join them on this year’s judging panel.

It is now time to get your camera gear out of the cupboard and take it with you on a fishing adventure. Sportfish and Fish&Fly are yet again offering one talented photographer a chance to have his/her photo featured on the front cover of the Sportfish catalogue (subject to Sportfish approval).

The lucky winner receives a £150 Sportfish voucher to spend at Sportfish and a chance to be on the judging panel for next year’s competition.

This year Sportfish are looking for : "A stunning image that captures the very essence of fly fishing - the kind of image that makes you want to get the rods and go fly fishing "

Sportfish seeks exceptional photographs for printing either in a landscape (for wrap around covers) or portrait format. Please note that the original image must be high resolution, pin sharp and at least 5MB. To upload your photograph in the Fish&Fly Gallery, reduce A COPY of your image to max 100KB.

To upload your masterpiece, click here and "Upload Photo" (top right).
You have to be a Fish & Fly member to submit your entry. Please click here to join for free.

Make sure you get your entry in before 31st October 2011 and you may be the winner.

Good luck!

To request a copy of the current Sportfish catalogue please click here.

Click here for competition rules.

[Scratch]

How many shots are allowed per entrant please Sofi?

[Endrick]

Do you mean 5 megapixels rather than 5 MB?

[Sofi]

Hi Scratch,
Sportfish have not set a limit for the number of entries a member can submit, so please keep them coming

Hi Endrick,
All photos entered in the competition have to be available in 5MB or larger. We would love to see your best fishing shots

[REIDY10_0]

31st of October?
Loads of time then for a masterpiece

[Endrick]

Originally Posted by Sofi

Hi Scratch,

Hi Endrick,
All photos entered in the competition have to be available in 5MB or larger. We would love to see your best fishing shots

That means a RAW photograph! even in highest quality JPG my Nikon 12.3 MP SLR generates about 4.5 MB.

[Editor]

Hi Endrick,

You should be capable of generating an image of 5MB or more in size with a 12 megapixel camera. Should you win and only have a RAW image at that size that will be fine as it can be processed accordingly.

The important thing for now is to get your low-res jpg images posted!

Good luck,

Paul

[Cap'n Fishy]

Here's a few wee things to keep in mind...

Have a look through some tackle catalogues (including Sportfish, of course). Look for the things they have in common, like action and close-ups. Not many shortbread tin sunsets in there, are there?

Don't make your shots too 'busy'. Three elements is a good target. Make it simple, and make sure it has a focal point.

Bear in mind the layout. If your subject is smack bang in the centre of a landscape-orientated shot, it is going to be right on the spine of the catalogue And if you think that is stating the obvious, have a look through last year's entries.

Speaking of layout - think about where the Sportfish logo and other graphics are going to go.

Do something different.

Don't just look through your photos and send in the best ones. Go out there and shoot a winning entry. Leave the rod at home - it will increase your chances 100%.

When you have your entries ready, make use of the size limits for loading and display (758 pixels on the long axis and less than 100 KB). That means making your entries 758 pixels wide and 99.9 KB, and not 400 pixels and 30 KB

Hope that helps,

Col

[Cap'n Fishy]

Originally Posted by Endrick

That means a RAW photograph! even in highest quality JPG my Nikon 12.3 MP SLR generates about 4.5 MB.

If you can record your images as Tiffs, it is better than recording as a JPEG. Tiffs have the option of no file compression.

The minimum image size would be a portrait orientation of the front cover, which is 11.75 x 8.3 inches. A minimum print resolution would be 200 ppi. So, that gives you an image size of 2350 x 1660 pixels, which is a mere 3.9 MP.

If you save a 3.9 MP file as an 8-bit Tiff, the file is 11 MB. Job done!

Col

[Scratch]

Am I missing something here..... where do we see the entries?

Forget that.............. found it, eventually

View entries here.


Sofi, might be worth putting a link in your original post.