Tech Talk: Submitting Images for Art Shows

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Last Updated on Monday, 05 September 2011 15:33

by Fred Edwards

Every artist needs to keep visual records of their work especially given the internet and personal websites. Whether you plan on submitting an art image to a show or uploading to your artist website, it is important to plan ahead and maintain a current portfolio of artwork for both reproduction and online uses.

This article will focus on producing images specifically for show submission, such as EAFA’s Open Show. A more complete guide to “how to” photography is available on the EAFA website- helps tab, under my name.

Let’s assume you already have images of artwork to be entered into a show. Most problems with uploading images to the show site have to do with misunderstanding file size. It is important to realize there are two components of file size.

First is pixel size- what you see on a computer screen. There are 72 pixels per inch on any computer display with most screens capable of displaying a 1000 pixel image. Most artists take digital images of their artwork that typically are 1500 pixels or larger.

The second size component to an image has to do with its resolution- measured in bytes. Most images taken by artists are over 1 MB file size (1 million bytes per image file). It is not unusual for a digital camera to create an image size that is over 2500 pixels in size and 2.5 MB in resolution. Hence, these images are too large to send via email or to upload online.

There is an advantage for those with image editing software such as Adobe Elements or Photoshop. It is advisable to first create a separate folder on your computer’s desktop and place copies of the original images within. These image copies can then be reduced in size to 950 pixels without affecting the original “source” image file. Reducing the pixel size also reduces the file (byte) size of an image, typically to an acceptable limit.

An alternate method is to change the camera settings to a smaller pixel resolution size, then most of the resultant images will work directly for online submissions with little editing needed.

Specifically, EAFA"s online show submission require that an artist’s image files are no larger than 1000 pixels image size and typically under 300 kb. Do not confuse these digital specifications with traditional printing requirements, measured in dots per inch (dpi).

EAFA does have an Image Resizing tool on its website (Artist Center) if sizing down your image is needed and as long as your original image file does not exceed 5.5 MB. There"s a video tutorial regarding the resizing tool for those entering an EAFA show.

Fred Edwards helped with the setup of EAFA's overhead video system at EAFA General Meetings for a number of years. He also provides photographic services for the artists.