Tutorial for saving a Digital Image for Competition in Photoshop Elements. 1. Once you’ve finished doing whatever you’ve done to your image, the first thing that should be done is to save your image as a PSD file. This saves all Layers and allows you to go back and rework the image without needing to start from scratch. Once that’s done: 2. Go again to the “File” dropdown menu and select “Save for Web”. This will open a dialog box window showing the saving options.

a. The first thing to do is some “housekeeping. Set the image type to “JPG”

3. Next thing to do is to set the Image Size to conform with club and NECCC requirements.

4. The requirement for image size is defined in the “Digital Competition Rules”. The rules can be found in the right hand column under the heading of “Quick Tips About Competitions”. The “Image Size” rule is: a. The maximum dimensions of the image should be no more than 1024 pixels along the horizontal axis or 768 pixels along the vertical axis. b. In “most” cases, if the image is formed in the landscape format (wider than tall), the width (W) should be set to 1024 and the height (H) allowed to “float”. i. If the vertical dimension still exceeds 768 pixels, the vertical dimension should be set to 768 pixels and the horizontal dimension allowed to “float”. c. In “most” cases, if the image is formed in a portrait format (taller than wide) the height (H) should be set to 768 and the width (W) allowed to “float”. i. If the horizontal dimension still exceeds 1024 pixels, the horizontal dimension should be set to 1024 pixels and the vertical dimension allowed to “float”.

5. The final adjustment needed is the maximum file size.

a. According to club and NECCC rules, the file size being submitted should be a maximum of 350 kB. This helps the receiving mailboxes keep for becoming overwhelmed with large files and allows the images to project quickly during the competition. i. This step involves checking the data available in the lower left corner of the dialog box and adjusting the Quality setting in the upper right corner. ii. Depending on the size of the original file, the Quality should be adjusted up or down to get a file size at just about 350 kB. Everyone’s images will differ and each image by a member may differ. 6. After completing the steps listed above, the “Save” button (along the lower right edge of the dialog box) should be used to commit the file. a. A second “Save As” dialog box will open asking where you’d like to save the file. You may want to have a separate folder for images you’ve prepared for competition. One warning: When you close your saved PSD file, Photoshop will ask if you want to save your latest changes. Say NO. Saying yes will change your file dimensions to those you’ve applied to your “Save for the web and devices” file, permanently reducing the size of your working file.