Quote -

Whomever's left standing, post a sign on the door!

But, Seriously, doesn't images taken with a digital camera have the camera information embedded in the photo? If this can be easily verified, then when a "No Postwork" rule is in effect, the camera information should still be embedded. If postwork is done on the photo, it'll be missing. Ergo, the photo should be rejected by the moderators. There should not be a small size limit on the full-sized photo forcing contestants to resize and save. You can just state what setting to use to take the photo. The photo would be uploaded directly to the Renderosity contest. No more hassles.

Just thought i would point out that you can keep the Exif data after postwork - look at pretty much every shot in my gallery - you see the information there (only times they arent are actually because the program used doesnt save the exif in its processing as it is actually in Beta at the moment).  Interesting that those shots are "straight from camera" in your estimation - i'd love that to be the case.

And size issues:

• Server bandwidth and user bandwidth -> load times and stress on server. A full size jpeg from my cam is around the 3-4MB size...
• Stealing images - wont go into it, but it is a known problem and would deter entrants.
• Ever tried looking at a 3504 x 2336px shot (that is only 8.2 megapixels and some people have 12+ megapixels) on a 1440x900px screen? (not even going into a 1024x768 or 800x600px which the majority of people use on the internet )

Michael - check the galleries for levels of postwork... what is allowed in there is effectively allowed in the contests - obviously minus the obvious new addition "Photomanipulation" (as far as my knowledge goes on the subject) - and yes there have been images disallowed for non-photographic additions etc.  Maybe the rule should be worded differently to avoid the confusion which seems to stem from the word "minimal" to something along the lines of "Postwork should be kept within reasonable limits of photographic acceptance" or whatever - you get my jist hopefully. The winners of the portrait challenge didnt use ground breaking techniques to get the shots from camera to what they are now and i would consider them to be within the realms of "normal" photography postwork... i personally see no problem with them.  But then i'm at the other end of the scale in terms of photographic traditionalism and conservatism having never shot film at any level other than holiday snaps...

And btw - you disagree that my point is applicable, not that it is true because it doesnt take a genius to understand what i mentioned is completely logical... more rules = more work for those imposing the rules. Simple.

"In every colour, there's the light.
In every stone sleeps a crystal.
Remember the Shaman, when he used to say:
Man is the dream of the Dolphin"

Rich Meadows Photography