Slitherine

Yes we are asking again whether you would you like to see your figures depicted in future Army Lists Companion books of Field of Glory?
We are looking for some top quality paint jobs to include in future editions.
The composition can be single figures or groups, or if you are feeling a bit more ambitious you might try a complete battle scene, but this would need a backdrop and very good terrain.
You will also have to be able to supply photography to print standard of at least 300DPI. Really all this means is that you need to set your camera to a fine or high setting, and the pictures should be taken in natural day light.

If this is of interest to you, the next book we are working on is the Dark Ages Lists Companion and of course you will be fully credited for your work.

Contact jdm@slitherine.co.uk if you are interested.

The armies below will be featured in this next book being worked on and of course we will inform you of future plans

Post-Roman British
Early Welsh
Later Scots-Irish
Merovingian Frankish
Later Pictish
Early Slavic
Middle Anglo-Saxon
Feudal Spanish
Andalusian
Early Navarrese
Carolingian Frankish
Viking
Magyar
Slav
Early Scots
Rus
Norse-Irish
Early Medieval French
Early Medieval German
Norman
Early Polish
Anglo-Danish

Does this mean your done with the pictures you need for the last posting? I was just finaly finishing up some figures to photograph and send. Ahhhhhh! You guys need to give us a timeframe we need to get these pictures in by.

Really sorry about that. We are between a rock and a hard place as we get flack if the books are not out on time.

Send me the pictures anyway and I will see how they might be used.

Best Regards
JDM

I meant to say. about six weks for the next set, if you can make it great

JDM

I ask immediatly on the french ML

I'm new to ancient wargaming and history. What would be some suitable figures for "early medieval French and German" and "Medieval Frankish" figures? Is this the kite shield and chainmail era? Who would make some Carolingian Frankish figures and what would the range be called? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What do I do if my camera doesn't shoot in 300dpi. I've got an 8 megapixel camera that shoots in "superfine" mode but no matter what settings I use the dpi doesn't change. Is 300PPIX300PPI the same thing? Here is a quote I read from a photography sight on the net: "

What Print Shops Really Mean by DPI
Okay - your print shop/graphics designer/magazine has asked for a digital photo at 300 DPI. What do they really mean by this?

What they are really asking for is a photo that will print at a certain paper dimension in inches at 300 pixels per inch (PPI). If you remember from the Myth of DPI, the term DPI is a holdover from when this setting in a digital photo would set the paper output quality (resolution) of a printed image (number of printer dots per inch). This is no longer the case, but people still confuse DPI with PPI.

Back to our print shop - if they are looking for a digital photo to print at 10 inches by 8 inches, at 300 PPI, then they are really looking for a digital image with a resolution of 3000 pixels by 2400 pixels (regardless of the DPI setting of that image).

What Print Shops Really Need
The concept that 300 PPI = photographic quality is also a holdover from the quality of printing equipment a decade ago. Present day printers will output a good quality digital photo, with "photographic quality" at 200 PPI - so the requirements for a 10 inch by 8 inch paper photo become a good quality digital image with pixel dimensions of 2000 pixels by 1600 pixels.

A good quality digital photo is one:
taken with a good quality digital camera (good optics and digital sensor)
a photo that has not been enlarged either in post-processing or by in-camera digital zoom (never (ever) use digital zoom).
a photo that has been properly shot (good lighting, no blur)
a photo shot within the camera's ideal ISO range (usually a low ISO such as ISO 100)
a photo that has been stored in either a lossless format (i.e. TIF) or a very low compressed JPEG (highest camera JPEG quality setting).
Such a photo will reproduce on paper at photographic quality (assuming current printing technology) at 200 PPI.

A Note to Print Shops and Graphics DesignersI keep getting emails from poor folk who say that their print shop or graphics designer keep asking for digital phots at ___DPI (usually 300 DPI). Please STOP DOING THIS to your poor clients - ask for what you really need, ____ pixels in your prefered format (i.e. low compressed JPG or a TIF). If your need is for a digital photo that can be printed at high quality at a width of 6 inches, and you think that 300 ppi is what is required to do this (based on your equipment), then you need a digital photo that is 1800 pixels in width (regardless of its DPI setting since it's a meaningless figure). So, ask for a digital photo that is at least 1800 pixels in width. Tell your client not to resize the photo. If the photo is less 1800 pixels, ask them to send it along anyway (so that you can test it) and that if it is larger than 1800 pixels it's also okay (don't have them resize a larger photo down to your "at least" pixel figure). If you are running older equipment/software that needs a particular DPI setting, then set it in the photo after you have received it."

I can't see how and 8 mega pixel image wouldn't be up to the task. At 300 DPI that would be almost a whole A4 page.

A 640 by 480 image with the figure in the middle 1/8th of the frame would not.

I got an email telling me my pictures weren't 300 dpi and I would need better resolution for my pictures to be used. I look on my image attributes and they are not set in 300dpi but I thought dpi was a printer thing. Like you said if I have an 8 megapixel picture that is "72 dpi" wouldn't it print in 300dpi at about 11"X9"? I've been looking all through my camera manual and just can't find anyway to set the pic to 300dpi. I read it can be done on photoshop, which basically just resizes the picture but I don't have photoshop. I'm going to be so unhappy if my pictures miss the book because I don't have the software to resize them.

I would have thought that a jpeg is just that a jpeg.

What about if you took the images as bitmaps rather than jpeg? It might be to do with the lossiness of the jpeg process. My old digital camera had an option where it didn't compress images at all I think it was called RAW and I can't think of a reason why that would cause issues. Not being a printing expert I can't say more I am afraid.

hammy wrote:I would have thought that a jpeg is just that a jpeg.

What about if you took the images as bitmaps rather than jpeg? It might be to do with the lossiness of the jpeg process. My old digital camera had an option where it didn't compress images at all I think it was called RAW and I can't think of a reason why that would cause issues. Not being a printing expert I can't say more I am afraid.

JPEG or .JPG is a photo compression format which is one of several standard image formats.

RAW is not an acronym like JPEG - its "Raw" photo data from the 3 colour channels (RGB). Each camera company has is own extension name for the format (Nikon is .NEF, Canon is .CRW etc)

People get confused by what "photo resolution" means. DPI is the no dots per linear inch which make the photo up, so a 300 dpi photo at 6"x4" is at the same "resolution" as a photo set up as a 300 DPI photo at 12"x8". However if the 6x4 is printed at 12x8 the resolution is reduced to 150 DPI etc.

Spike

For printing 300 dpi means the printing company needs 300 pixels to print one inch, so if you provide a 600x400 pictures, the print could only be 2"x1" maximum.

So for a 6"x4" print, the better is a 1800x1200 pixels pictures saved with the less compression possible (eg : 12/12 for the JPEG compression) even if some printers prefers EPS or TIFF.

A previous prepress and printing engineer

Here is the link to my Ugaritic chariots...

Let me know if they pass mustard and if the camera I used is sufficient.

To be honest, I'm not the best picture taker. However, our LGS has a photo setup and I can retake these if they are deemed worthy and resubmit...

Madcam.

http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p152 ... Ugaritics/