Federation of Camera Clubs NSW

Submit your entries for the club’s digital image competitions.

Display a personal album of images that you want other club members to view and comment on.

Share your images and receive feedback through “Special Interest Albums” on topics such as monochrome, nature, macro, landscape and portraits.

Review special albums of images – such as the winning images in our annual Image of the Year competition or images from special club events.

The entire Coppermine gallery is only accessible to members of our club and to invited guests such as judges. It is not possible to access the gallery without a username and password (see below).

HOW DO I GAIN ACCESS TO COPPERMINE?
Each member of the Belmont 16s Photography Club is able to gain access to the Coppermine Gallery by doing the following:

Email Andrew Styan (andrewstyan@belmont16footers-photoclub.com.au) and request access.

You will receive an email with your UserName and Password, a test file called CopperTest.jpg and an identification number to use when you submit images to EDI competitions (see later information).

When you have these, log on to the club web site and follow the link to the Coppermine gallery as described above. You will be taken to the login page where you will need to enter the Username and Password that were emailed to you.

PLEASE NOTE: The Username and Password are case sensitive - enter them EXACTLY as they were sent to you, including spaces between words in the username.

The reason that you have to log in with a Username and password is to restrict access to the site to members of the Belmont 16s Photography Club who have requested registration. This will provide some protection against the theft of images from the site.

You will then be taken to the Coppermine home page where you will see a list of “categories” – these are groups of albums that contain images. You can click on any of the underlined category titles to see what albums they contain.

The home page also contains thumbnails of the “last additions” to the site (the most recently uploaded images) and thumbnails of the “most viewed” images on the site. If you click on a thumbnail you will be taken to a larger view of the image. In most cases there will be an area below the image where you can add your comments and/or ratings. (Some albums have this comment feature disabled, so it will not appear.)

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WHAT SHOULD I DO THE FIRST TIME I LOG IN TO COPPERMINE?
At the top of the COPPERMINE page there are a number of links you can click on to take you to different parts of the site or to do other things. Please note these three very important links:

Logout: Click on this when you have finished in Coppermine.

Upload file: This is how you get your images on to the site. See instructions below.

Back to main Club site: This takes you back to the Belmont 16s Photography Club site. Use this link if you want to temporarily go back to the club site (then use your browser “back” arrow to get back to Coppermine). You may also use this link to go back to the Club web site after you log out of Coppermine.

Below these links there are some buttons:

Create/order my albums: You will not need to use this as your personal album has already been created for you.

Modify my albums: PLEASE DO NOT ALTER ANY OF THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE. The details set up here are exactly how they need to be in order for the system to work correctly for all members. If you alter any of the “Permissions for this album” (such as entering a password) your album will not be visible to other members (other than the site administrators).

My Profile. This will take you to a window in which you can add some information about yourself. At the bottom of this page is a “CHANGE MY PASSWORD” button. Please change your password on your first visit. Remember, passwords are case sensitive. Your new password may contain letters and numbers but no spaces or other characters. You can change your password as often as you like but you cannot change your Username.

While you are editing your profile it is very important to add your current email address. Then, if you ever forget your password a new one can be emailed to you automatically.

Sort my pictures: Most users will not need to use this feature.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I FORGET MY PASSWORD?
If you forget your password you can request a new one by clicking on the “I forgot my password” link on the login page – a new password will be emailed to you – provided you have entered your email address in your “My Profile” area – see previous section.

GETTING READY TO UPLOAD IMAGES
Near the top of the Coppermine home page you will see a section headed “CATEGORY” and it contains a list of the groups of albums that are on the site. Each category contains a different type of ALBUM. Below the title of each category there is a brief description to tell you the types of albums that are in the category. If you click on a category title you will be taken to a new page that shows these individual albums.

If you click on the MEMBER ALBUMS heading you will be taken to a page that displays thumbnails of the albums for each registered user. You should see an album there with your name on it.

Click on the thumbnail for your album and you will be taken to a page that displays the images in your album. You should see just one image – a test image that has been placed there so that your album will be visible on the list of member albums. DO NOT delete this image until you have uploaded at least one other image – otherwise your album will not be visible to anyone (including you ).

BEFORE you try to upload any images to your album (or any other albums – see later), get them CORRECTLY SIZED and organised on your computer. Note the following:

The image must be JPG.
The maximum file size is 300KB.
The maximum pixel dimensions for the image are 1024 x 768 when viewed in the correct orientation. That means the image cannot be wider than 1024 pixels (horizontal dimension) and not higher than 768 pixels (vertical dimension).
The colour space should be sRGB (if it is not you may see colour changes in the images you post to Coppermine).

If your images are wider than 1024 pixels the system will NOT upload them. At the present time the system will accept images that are higher than 768 pixels but all images will be checked and if your images are higher than 768 pixels you will be asked to resize them.

The system will NOT accept files that are larger than 300KB. Please note that the image sizes shown in Photoshop (and other image editors) before you save a file are only approximate.

If you do not know how to get your images into the above format then refer to this tutorial. on resizing images in Photoshop. If you have difficulties resizing images in other software please ask for help from Andrew Styan or Roy Killen.

PLEASE NOTE: An image that is 1024 x 768 pixels (which is acceptable for "landscape" orientation images) is NOT the same thing as an image that is 768 x 1024 pixels (which is NOT acceptable for a "portrait" orientation image). No image, regardless of whether it is landscape or portrait orientation can be higher than 768 pixels when viewed in its correct orientation.

For images that are being uploaded to the monthly EDI competition albums there are rules for the naming of files (refer to later instructions). For images uploaded to other albums there are no naming rules.

It is a good idea to create a separate directory (folder) in a convenient place on your computer and call it COPPERMINE. If you copy images to this directory before you try to upload them you will save a lot of time – because Coppermine will come back to this directory every time you ask it to upload an image.

The first image you should place in this directory is the one called CopperTest.jpg that was attached to the email that contained your password. This image is “good” – it meets the requirements described above. If you try to upload this image and it does not work you will know there is something wrong. If you first try with another image and the upload does not work you will not know whether the problem is with the image or with something you are doing wrong.

TO UPLOAD THE TEST IMAGE, click on the “Upload file” link near the top of the page. This takes you to the upload page.

Click on the arrow next to “Select album” and select the name of your album. (Later you can upload images to other albums if you want to.)

Then click on the “Choose File” of “Browse” (different names for PC and Mac) button and navigate your way to the test file on your computer. Select the file.

You will be returned to Coppermine and the name of the file (CopperTest.jpg) will appear next to the “Choose File”or “Browse” button.

Give the image a title and, if you want to, add a description. Then click on the “Upload file” button.

The file should upload in 10-20 seconds (unless you have a slow internet connection). If you get an error message, or if the file does not upload after a reasonable time click on the “back arrow” of your web browser and try again. If the file still does not upload there is something wrong with what you are doing. Check that you have selected the correct album and the correct file. If you can’t work out what is wrong call me for help.

Once you have successfully uploaded the CopperTest.jpg file to your album you should repeat the above process to upload one or more of your own files. If you have trouble uploading your own files the most likely cause is that the file is too large (greater then 300KB) or the image dimensions are too large (greater than 1024 x 768 pixels).

Note: Do not delete the CopperTest.jpg file from your own computer as you may need to use it again later if you have any uploading problems.

When you have successfully uploaded at least one of your own images you can delete the two test files from your album (see later instructions).

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SHOULD I PUT ANYTHING IN THE “File Description” AREA WHEN UPLOADING AN IMAGE?
When you select an album and an image file to upload you will also have the option of entering some other information:

File Title: Give you image a short title using only numbers and letters - no strange characters such as # @ * /.

File Description: Here you may wish to put a brief description that will help people interpret the image. This will appear below your image when it is being viewed. Please do NOT put anything in this field for EDI competition entries.

Keywords: These can be used to help people search for images on a particular topic. You do not have to include any keywords if you don’t want to.
Some keywords will be reserved for the administration of the system and will be prefixed with “Admin”. They will be managed by the site administrators so do not add or delete these from your own images.

Author’s Comments: Here you may wish to put information about the conditions under which you took the image (shutter speed, ISO, time of day taken, etc) and some information about your post-capture processing. You may also wish to provide brief information about what it was you were trying to achieve with the image. This information will appear if the viewer cliccks on the "i" (information icon) while viewing the image. Please do NOT put put anythig in theis fieled for EDI competition entries/

WHAT ALBUMS CAN I UPLOAD IMAGES TO?
When you click on the “Select album” drop down arrows to upload a file you will see a list of albums - the one with your name on it plus others with names such as “Landscape” or “February 2010 Grade A”.

If the album to which you want to upload an image does not appear on the list it means that you do not have upload access to that album. If you think you should be able to upload to the album please send an email to Andrew Styan and request access.

UPLOADING YOUR PORTRAIT
To help new members “put names to faces” it is recommended that you upload a portrait of yourself to your personal gallery and make it the “thumbnail” for your gallery. Just follow these easy steps:

Prepare a portrait of yourself. Make it at least 200 x 300 pixels, but it doesn’t need to be any larger than about 500 x 700 pixels.
Upload the file to your personal album on Coppermine in the usual way.
To make your portrait the thumbnail for your album – click on the thumbnail for your portrait so that it opens. Click on the “Edit file information” button immediately below the image. Put a tick in the “Make this my icon” box near the bottom left of the screen. Click on the “Apply modifications” button. Return to the Coppermine home page, click on “Member Albums” and you should now see your portrait as the thumb nail for your album.

When you are uploading your portrait you might like to put some information in the “File description” section about the equipment you use or about your special interests. Don’t forget that all members are encouraged to put information about their photographic interests in the “Profiles” section of the main web site – information for these profiles should be emailed to Diane Schofield or Keith Davey.

DOES MY NAME APPEAR ON IMAGES I UPLOAD?
Not unless you put your name in the “File description” when you are uploading it.

When people are viewing an image in your personal album they will know whose image it is because your name will appear just above the image.

When people are viewing an image you uploaded to a Special Interest Album they will not know who uploaded it unless you put your name in the “File description”. It is a good idea to do this. However, you should NOT put your name in the “File description” of images you upload to the EDI competition albums.

WHY IS THERE A LIMIT ON THE SIZE OF FILES I CAN UPLOAD?
The 300K limit is a trial. We want to see how many members start using Coppermine, how much space we use on the server and what the site traffic is over the next few months. If we are well within the capacity of the site to handle the traffic and storage we will consider increasing the allowable file size. We thought it better to start low and later increase rather than start high and later have to decrease the allowable sizes.

WHY CAN’T ALL USERS UPLOAD FILES TO ALL ALBUMS?

Only the owner of a MEMBER ALBUM can upload to that album – so no-one else can upload to or modify the images in your personal album. They can only view the images and add comments.

All registered members will be able to upload images to the MONTHLY EDI COMPETITIONS albums. The person who uploads an image to one of these albums can remove it if they want to.

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HOW DO I REMOVE AN IMAGE I HAVE UPLOADED?
You may delete any image that you have uploaded.

Select the image you want to delete by clicking on its thumbnail from anywhere that you can see the thumbnail. (If necessary, navigate to the album that you know contains the image.)

Below the image you will see a ‘DELETE THIS FILE” button – click on it and then confirm that you want to delete it.

You are not able to delete images that were uploaded by other club members.

HOW DO I ENTER THE EDI COMPETITIONS?
In preparation for 2010, ten EDI competition albums have been created – one each for the A and B grade competitions for February, April, June, August, October. You can upload images to these albums as soon as you like, ready for the relevant monthly EDI competition.

You can enter a maximum of TWO digital images in any month and these images will count towards your quota of a maximum of SIX images (print and digital) for that month’s club competition. Please refer to the monthly competition rules if you are unclear about this.

Images that are uploaded to the EDI albums will be visible to other members up until the closing date for the relevant competition. We have to leave the album visible during this time so that members can check that their EDI entries have been uploaded correctly (and so that they can remove their images from these albums if they decide to do so). If you are concerned that others may see you EDI competition entries before they are judged just remember that for 2010 we have a new judging system - there are no "places", just merits and honours, so each image is judged on its merits (rather than being judged in comparison to other images).

No-one can comment on EDI images until after they have been judged.

After the nominated closing date (which is written next to the thumbnail for that album when you view the list of EDI competition albums) it will no longer be possible to upload images to that album. The album will no longer be visible to any member.

After the competition night the album will be made visible, members will be able to see the judge’s comments, and members will be able to add comments.

HOW SHOULD I NAME MY EDI IMAGES AND FILES?
When you register you will be given an EDI competition IMAGE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER such as 75. This number should be placed at the beginning of the image title, for example: “75 Belmont Sunset”. This number should also be placed at the beginning of the file name, for example: 75 sunset.jpg.

Do NOT include your name in the title of your image. Do NOT put anything in the “file description or "author comments" fields. Viewers can still see who uploaded the image by clicking on the"i" (for information) icon at th etop left of the image area. The identification number is need to make it easier for the administrators to match images and downloaded comments for use on the competition nights.

HOW MANY IMAGES CAN I UPLOAD TO COPPERMINE?
Each registered member has a quota of 20 images on the site at any one time. This does NOT include images you have uploaded to monthly competition albums.

Members are encouraged to upload images, receive comments on them over a reasonable period of time (perhaps a month) and then remove the images and replace them with fresh images.

When you upload an image to Coppermine so that others can comment on it please put the image in only ONE album - either your personal album or one of the special interest albums. There are two reasons for this:

If you upload the image twice you are unnecessarily using up your allocated quota of space on the server.
Viewers might get confused if they see the image once with comments on it and another time with no comments.

If you upload an image to one of the competition albums you should NOT also upload it to your personal album or a special interest album. After the images have been judged that competition album will be opened up for comments from members.

CAN I UPLOAD MORE THAN ONE IMAGE AT A TIME?
For now, the site is configured to allow only one upload at a time. This is a precaution to make it easier to track down problems that members might have when uploading. Later, when members have become more familiar with the site and how to upload etc this may be changed to allow multiple uploads.

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ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS ON IMAGE CONTENT?
You can upload images on any topic to your personal album. Images placed in the special interest albums should be related to the album topic.

Images that are considered offensive will be removed by the administrator.

Keep in mind that the only people who will be viewing your images (apart from the competition judges) are your fellow club members. So when uploading images to your personal album or one of the special interest albums try to give people something new to look at and comment on – don’t just recycle the images you have been using in club print competitions.

CAN I CHANGE THE POSITION (SEQUENCE) OF IMAGES IN MY ALBUM OR IN AN ALBUM I AM VIEWING?
You can change the position of images in your album by clicking on the "Sort my pictures" button (near the top of the page). This takes you to a page where you can select your album and then manually rearrange the files (select the one you want to move and used the up/down arrows on the screen.

The order in which images are stored in the album doesn't matter much - by default they are ordered by image title when someone goes to your album. However, the viewer can change this. If you select a member's album the default view you get is a page that shows two panels - one with "Last editions" so you can quickly see if the member has added anything new since your last visit, and one showing "Most viewed". If you click on the thumbnail just below the member's name (near top left of page) or click on their name you go to a page that shows all the images in that member's album. Here you can sort them by title, name, date or position by clicking on the relevant +/- symbol near the top right of the page. Sorting by title is the default view. Sorting by name (i.e. file name) will not be very useful because the file names probably mean nothing to the viewer. Sorting by date uses the date when the images were uploaded to the album. Sorting by position places the images in the order determined by the album owner (see previous paragraph).

HOW CAN I MOVE AN IMAGE FROM ONE ALBUM TO ANOTHER?
After you have uploaded an image you may decide that you want ot move it to a different album (for example, from your personal album to the nature album). If you want to move an image to a different album just do this:

1. In Coppermine, click on the thumbnail of the image to open it.
2. Just below the image is a button labelled "Edit file information" - click on that button.
3. The file description will show the name of the album where the image currently sits - click on the double-headed arrow next to this name. This will drop down a list of albums - just select the album where you want to the image to appear.
4. Click on the "Apply modifications" button near the bottom of the window.
5. The screen will refresh and you can then click on "Home" (near the top of the screen) to continue.

HOW I PUT THE SAME IMAGE IN TWO DIFFERENT ALBUMS?
This is possible, but please do NOT do it as it will unnecessarily use up the available space on our web server. At the time you upload an image make your decision to put it in a special interest album (e.g., landscapes) or in your personal album.

HOW DO I COMMENT ON OTHER MEMBERS’ IMAGES?
When you click on the thumbnail of an image it will open in a larger view. Below the image there will be space for comments (unless that feature has been disabled for the album you are viewing). You will be able to read the comments others have made and enter your own comments.

When you complete your comment, click on the small “OK” button to the right of the comment box. The screen will refresh and you will be able to see your comment the way other viewers will see it – so you might like to check that it has no spelling errors.
If you need to edit your comment you can click on the “E” button just above the comment.

If you want to delete your comment click on the “X” button just above the comment.

When you are entering comments, if you press the return/enter key Coppermine will think that you have finished the comment. If you were not finished you will need to edit your comment (as described above) in order to continue with it.

COPPERMINE ETIQUETTE
The main purpose of Coppermine is to provide an avenue for club members to gain feedback that will help them to improve their photography. For this to be successful, we all have to be willing to provide and to receive constructive feedback. Here are a few brief suggestions that will help to make this process a pleasant and rewarding one for all members.

When placing images in your personal album, choose images on which you genuinely want feedback. There is not much point uploading images that have previously done well in club competitions.

Try to upload a range of different images rather than multiple versions of substantially the same image – unless you want to upload two versions of an image and ask for comparative comments.

When reviewing other members images remember that you will only see the 10 most recent uploads in the latest additions window on the home page so please make the effort to regularly look through the individual member galleries.

If you like an image, say why. Simply saying that an image is “great” does not help the photographer to make it even better (or to produce other “great” images).

If you don’t like an image, say why. Be honest but not rude. Try to make all your comments constructive – keeping in mind that we are trying to help one another improve our photography.

Don’t base all your comments on just the technical aspects of the image (sharpness, composition, etc). Try to also comment on how you feel when you view the image and what the image is communicating to you.

When you read comments that other members have made on your images do not take offence if you disagree with the comments. Try to learn from whatever others say about your images.

It is OK to put an image in your personal album, receive comments on it and later enter it in one of the EDI competitions (but before doing so you should remove it from your personal album). You may also enter such images in club print competitions provided you follow the normal club competition rules.

After each EDI competition is judged the competition album will be “opened” so that club members can see the comments made by the judge on each image. It will also be possible for club members to add their own comments to these images. When doing so, you may wish to agree/disagree with a comment made by the judge or comment on something that was not mentioned by the judge.

WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG WHEN I TRY TO USE COPPERMINE?
During the early months of operation of the Coppermine gallery there may be some minor hiccups, so please be patient. If you do experience any problems that you cannot solve please contact Roy Killen, Andrew Styan or Keith Davey. Some of the problems that may occur are:

Problem	What to do
Login fails	Click the “back” button on your web browser and try again.
File will not upload and no error message appears.	Try hitting the escape key to cancel the process and then repeat the upload procedure.
File will not upload and error message appears.	Check that the file is not too large. If in doubt, try uploading the test file “CopperTest.jpg” that was emailed to you when you first registered. If the test file uploads there is not a problem with your computer or the system – the file is almost certainly too large. Reduce the file size and try again.
When trying to change the name of a file in the "Edit file information" window the message "Forbidden file extension" appears.	Check that you have named the file with ".jpg" on the end - for example sunset.jpg
Album to which you want to upload a file does not appear on your uploads album list.	Contact Andrew Styan and request permission for upload access to be activated.

If you have any suggestions for improving these notes please email them to Roy Killen.

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All images on this site and all documents and tutorials linked to this site are copyright.

This page last updated 19th January 2010 (RK)