TIKKA² contest - The Game has begun

And it's on! The TIKKA² - The Power of Light contest has begun! We've received the first submissions and they're now onliine. Judging from those on the site right now, it's going to be hard for the jury to make a final decision!

The Power of Light, as seen by Patrick
 
 

A quick run-down of contest rules

• Only one submission per household (either photo or video).
• Encourage your friends to vote for you. Winning the public's vote is the only way to win one of ten TIKKA PLUS² headlamps we give away each week (5 for the best photos and 5 for the best videos).
• The jury is made up of four international members + the public's vote. The submission that wins the public vote has a strong chance of winning one of the four top prizes.
• The jury members will grade videos and photos according to the following criteria: orginality, humor, performance, or esthetics. Be sure to take into account these criteria when working on your submission.
   
   

The Power of Light, as seen by Avneyon

Video tips:

Attention à la musique !

A few words about music...
Copyrighted music is not allowed (which makes up about 99% of the music for sale or that you hear on the radio or television). Videos that use copyrighted music will be automatically disqualified.

So that you can edit your videos with music, Petzl is providing 100 tracks  for the contest. Don't hesitate to use them. They were especially chosen for this contest and there is a wide range of styles and genres to choose from.

If you are a musician and would like to create music for your submission, or know someone who can record something for you, make sure that s/he signs the necessary copyright-related forms. Also make sure that the piece of music isn't protected by any other copyright agencies. We will be rigorously checking the music and we may ask for proof in case of a problem. 

Lighting your video: the more the better
Standard video cameras are not very sensitive in low-light situations. Make sure to light your subject (with a halogen spotlights, car headlights,a powerful headlamp, etc). That way, you won't just see a moving white spot on a black background (like the photo to the left).
 
 

Below is an example of a correctly lit video.Tony Lamiche was filmed in the Rocklands by TLC Productions. He is lit by two high-powered headlamps (ULTRA BELT) and a TIKKA PLUS² headlamp. The rock and the person are lit well enough that the cameraman can play with the color of the sky.

Tony Lamiche à Rockland, filmé par TLCprod

 
Compression formats
Video goes through several compression operations which can considerably degrade the quality of the orginal light. From the original shoot, to editing software, web-formating, and then finally the recode for Youtube, you can lose lots of information (especially during the last two phases). Therefore, try to boost up the lights when you are filming or even as a last resort with the help of your editing software. Even if it seems too lit when filming, the final result on Youtube will be a lot darker than you thought.
 

The best formats for export
Even though Youtube accepts most web export format types (AVI, MOV, WMV etc.), we advise you to use the format suggested by  Youtube (MP4 - codec H264 - 1280x720 - 44kHz - stereo).

If you have any other technical questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with us here: Contact - "TIKKA2 - the Power of Light contest."

The Power of Light, as seen by Loulou, the Hadouken warrior