New Zealand Camera: How we Select the Images

By Paul Whitham APSNZ

By the time you are reading this article, the 2023 edition of New Zealand Camera will hopefully be complete and very shortly on its way back from the printers in Hong Kong.

Before the issue arrives I thought I would share some insight into the process by which the images are selected and the book is laid out.

The PSNZ Council appoints a panel of four selectors to compile the images that make up the book. They are assisted by an administration officer. Except for finances, all decisions relating to the contents of the book are up to them, and there is no involvement of any member of Council. In making appointments we are looking for photographers who the Council believes are at the top of their game and also represent the major genres that photographers shoot. This is to ensure a balance in the book, with no one genre having dominance over the others.

The maximum number of years that a member can be on the panel is three years. Ideally not all of the panel will change at once, to maintain continuity. The 2023 panel was made up of

Chris Helliwell LPSNZ Nature

James Gibson APSNZ EFIAP/b Landscape

Julia Rae APSNZ Creative

Helen Wilkin FPSNZ MNZIPP People

Handling the administration this year was Lee Boddington.

The process for selection is as follows:

1. After the close-off date, the administrator downloads all of the images that have been submitted and creates a Lightroom catalogue with them. This year 712 images were submitted by 472 photographers.

2. The images are then exported into a separate folder so that they are all of a consistent size.

This ensures that when the selectors view the images, they are not having to scale them up or down. Anyone who has assessed a club’s work that does not have image standards will know the issue that is faced when dealing with multiple sizes.

Before anyone complains that this will affect the way the images are viewed, this practice has been followed for a very long time. The only difference now is that before 2020 the images were printed at 6 x 4 inches and the physical copies were used for the selection.

3. All metadata associated with the exported images is stripped so that the selectors do not know who the photographers are.

4. The administrator prepares a scoring sheet listing each image, again without any information about the photographer, and this is sent to the selectors.

5. The selectors then grade each image on a scale of one to five. This grading is done independently of the other selectors.

6. When the four assessments are complete, the administrator compiles the four separate scores into a single sheet that is ranked based on the combined scores.

Obviously, with an individual grading of one to five and four selectors, images will score anywhere between five and 20. This will also identify a potential cut-off point given that only 150 images can make the book.

7. The administrator will also identify images above the cut-off point where there are two images submitted by the same photographer. I should point out that this cut-off point is only a guide as you will see as we move into the actual layout stage.

8. The selectors now arrange to meet over Zoom and finalise the selection. Since 2020 they have used the Lightroom Book module for the layout. One selector always takes a lead in this process and will start by laying out the high-ranking images in a very rough order so that the group is not starting from a completely blank page.

Anyone who has laid out a book, or put an honours set together, knows that trying to get images to flow from one page to the next, and then have images that work together when they appear next to each other when the book is open, is a very tricky exercise. Complicating it further is that the book needs to be representative of all styles and genres, and we do not want to see too many images that are similar to others.

For this reason, while achieving a very high score will enable an image to be considered for selection, it does not guarantee that it will make the final cut. In fact, images that scored lower than others may be included because they better fit the overall design of the book.

9. As mentioned above the two images in a spread have to work together, and sometimes this can only be achieved by flipping one of the images. However, this is never done without the express permission of the photographer.

10. Once all images are selected, a PDF of the book is created. This enables the flow to be checked away from Lightroom and is also used as a reference for the printers when they take over the layout.

11. The final role for the selectors is to choose the cover image. This has to be already in the book, but not all images will be in consideration. The book is almost square in format (255 x 245 mm) and the selected image has to fill the space, allowing space for the titles. This will rule out many of the images; since 2017 only one non-square image has been used and that was heavily cropped.

I hope this will provide you with an insight into the selection process. Later this year James Gibson APSNZ EFIAP/b will be sharing his thoughts on how you can improve your chances of having images considered for selection.