2013 CEG Calendar Discussion Thread

Yes you are reading the thread title correctly, this will be the discussion thread for the 2013 CEG Calendar. I want to get this going early so that everyone has plenty of time to take pictures year round. This should also give people time to get better photos and submitt only the best quality pictures to be considered for the calendar.

Rules:

1. Must be a current CEG member.
It doesn't make sense to have pics of cars of people that no longer are on CEG or own the car.

2. High Resolution Very Important!
We would like a resolution of 2300 X 1800 for the pictures. This is approximately equivalent to a 5 Megapixel camera. I cannot stress this enough. A fantastic photo will not make it if the resolution requirements are not met. Scanned or enlarged pics will not work. The higher the resolution the better!!! The reason I say we would like 5 megapixel resolution is because that meets the printing requirements exactly. 4 megapixel images may be able to be stretched and examined to see if they are still of quality to print, but if you want a serious shot at making the calendar, get or borrow a 5+ megapixel camera! I'll say it again, The higher the resolution the better!

3. High Quality
Pictures in your driveway, in front of your house, lined up at a car show, people/other cars/houses/telephone poles in the background, etc. are not calendar quality and make more work for us to sort through the pictures.

Suggestions: Take a look at auto magazines and see what kinds of pictures are used for cover and featured rides. Action shots, neat angles, and multiple Contiques are big pluses.

4. "Work in progress" / damaged cars
Primered parts, meshless, one spare wheel, etc. are unacceptable. Contiques with dents, scratches, etc. most likely will be eliminated.
See # 6 below.

5. No repeat pictures
Pictures from 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 will not be used. Pictures from that same series will not be used.

6. Photoshop
No digitally modified pictures will be accepted for the calendar. (lowered, additional parts digitally added, etc.) However we are allowing HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. In addition to this, we also will allow minor touch up to cars. This includes digital removal of small dents/scratches that would otherwise eliminate a good picture. Adding color or digitally fixing unpainted/unfinished parts is not allowed.

7. Submission
Submit smaller (640 x 480 or 800 x 600) pictures in this thread.

8. "Did I make it in the calendar?"
Please do not PM me asking me this. I will not answer.

9. Must be a Contour, Mystique or Mondeo

10. Must be a Landscape (Horizontal) orientation picture
This is a horizontal orientation calendar so needless to say that portrait (vertical) orientation pictures won't be able to be used.

11. No Date/Time stamps!
Just don't even submit them if there is a date stamp visible in the picture. Yes, they can be taken off with photoshop in most pictures but it is the SUBMITTER's responsibility to do so. And remember if there is a visual editing artifact we will have to reject it.

Some things that I want to point out.

Year after year a number of photos can not be used because the rules for calendar submission are not followed.

Here are some of the things to watch out for.

Make sure:
1. don't take photos in your driveway!
2. do pay attention to your background
3. resolution of the photo! make sure its large enough, had issues with photos being to small
4. make sure the car is complete and clean
5. the photo is of the car, a number of potential photos had to much background and the car got lost in the photo.
6. only submit your best photos for consideration.

one recommendation: don't use a cell phone camera. Had to discount a good photo because the resolution wasn't high enough and the colors became grainy.

I'll open up the submission thread in a few weeks. Please only submit your best photos.

Thanks and good luck.

I'm not about to start making submissions, but why is the submission thread locked?

I wanted to make sure the discussion was kept to this thread at this point in time.

Also hoping that with alot more time that people will post pictures here in the feedback thread first and get feedback instead of posting every photo in the submission thread.

I think submissions should be kept to either the last 3 months or 2 months. That way, there's still an extended period of time for people to get their pictures in.

BrApple said:

...one recommendation: don't use a cell phone camera. Had to discount a good photo because the resolution wasn't high enough and the colors became grainy.

Click to expand...

My cell phone rocks an 8.1Megapixel HD camera. Other than looking unprofessional, any reason i shouldn't use it?

High resolution.

rexxdoggy said:

High resolution.

Click to expand...

Whats the diff between 'High Definition' & 'High Resolution'?

BAD SVT said:

My cell phone rocks an 8.1Megapixel HD camera. Other than looking unprofessional, any reason i shouldn't use it?

Click to expand...

If the image is good and of the correct size then it should be fine. But like I commented we had a photo that couldn't be used. cell phone cameras are great for what they are used for, quick photos. For me they just don't cut it.

So your call if you want to use it or not. Also more megapixels don't always mean a better photo.

Have we discussed opening up the calendar to have pictures of engine bays, engines, people working on cars, etc. Not trying to open this up for myself, but what I am trying to do is spice up the calendar. It's always been the same old shots with different color cars. This would add... a bit of action to it? It could capture mod meets, a group of CEGers working on a persons car, etc. Thoughts/comments?

Down. Especially since a lot of my pictures that are pretty decent lately, have come from car events and meets with other cars around and people in the back ground. Also, I kinda broke the ice a bit last year with my gas station shot. So I'm sure opening up shouldn't be a big deal depending on how open of course. But, I still uphold the high quality of the shot itself.

CSVT#49 said:

Have we discussed opening up the calendar to have pictures of engine bays, engines, people working on cars, etc. Not trying to open this up for myself, but what I am trying to do is spice up the calendar. It's always been the same old shots with different color cars. This would add... a bit of action to it? It could capture mod meets, a group of CEGers working on a persons car, etc. Thoughts/comments?

Click to expand...

Sure if the picture is good and its choosen for the calendar. last year there where almost enough photos like this that we made a "parts" calendar.

What we need is for people to step up and take better photos, imho.

I think mike has a great idea, we need to open it up to more "casual" shots.
the idea of "no mesh".reason enough to eliminate a photo from the llist is silly. We dont all have PERRFECCT cars and you guys with the perfect cars need to understand that.
what I see is you guyys wanting PERFECTION. But perfection is boring.jmo. Ill upload some pics of miine soon.

My expectations is to pay for a quality calendar that presents our cars in similar Manner of the calendars you get for free at your local gas station or speed shop. I will agree with brapple and say we just need better quality photos. I think there are too many submitted photo that had been previously shot that year and people want to sneak it in to the calander rather then people going out shooting for purpose and trying to make the best image they can.

I will stress it again, quality of picture still needs to reign supreme. Picture 1 isn't in the league of picture 2 (pictures chosen at random and the better one isn't exactly the best either, just for comparison sake lol). For some reason, I think this is a hard concept to grasp to some people.

newb said:

I think mike has a great idea, we need to open it up to more "casual" shots.
the idea of "no mesh".reason enough to eliminate a photo from the llist is silly. We dont all have PERRFECCT cars and you guys with the perfect cars need to understand that.
what I see is you guyys wanting PERFECTION. But perfection is boring.jmo. Ill upload some pics of miine soon.

Click to expand...

yes, not every car is perfect. however do you really want to look at a picture of a car for a month that doesn't look complete? Missing mess and jack point covers just ruin the overall look of a car imho.

A high quality calendar has good looking and complete cars. I would say, as an example, if we where making a rat rod calendar then anything goes. Look at this years calendar, Poles track car was selected. In many ways its not a complete car, but as a whole it is, and it looks its part.

Everyone sees beat to crap or not complete Contours every single day. That is not the image I personally want projected on my cube wall for a month for others can see.


If anyone really wants to enter a photo without mesh go for it. You will have just as much chance as any other photo entered. However don't be suprised if the photo isn't picked.



Additionally, I will have the photos selected by two or three people again this year. They will get to pick from every photo entered.

I would also like to bring something else up. One does not have to have a very expensive camera to get a good photo. One just needs to know how to use said camera. Many point and shoot cameras have the same manual control as a DSLR camera, although it might not be as good. However being able to setup, frame and capture a good image isn't dependent on the camera.

BTW, we need photos submitted. At this rate we will not have a calendar next year.

If anyone wants feedback on there photos post them here first. The submission thread is for your best photos.

I totally agree that the pics need to be of high qaulity. But perfection is boring . Like I said, just my opinion.

We had a few in last year that had backgrounds that didn't jive with what we usually end up with. McD's parking lot - pumping gas at a gas station - DIRTY cars :nonono:


Step up and find a location. Clean your car. Put parts on it to make it complete as you can make it. Use a camera that meets the requirements. Have fun!