Slides:

Keep them organized by year in transparent slide pages in a looseleaf binder, labelled with pencil. If those pages are no longer available, hang onto your little boxes and have them well-labelled. Label the slides with a permanent marker, not tape, if you are submitting slides for a competition; remember that tape can cause jams in the projector and you don't want to be the cause of that! The offending slide, when retrieved, is often thrown out.

Digital images:

Most shows are moving to digital images rather than slides and require digital images of a specific size and resolution. You can take your slides to a camera outlet and, for a fee, they will convert your slides to digital images.  If the image is to be judged digitally (on a computer screen) then the resolution is not too important. However, if the image is to be reproduced in print then a higher resolution, such as 300 dpi, will be requested. It is, therefore, important to follow the prospectus instructions carefully.

Preparing your digital image: Set your camera to the highest pixel resolution your camera can provide before photographing your artwork. Your camera should have a resolution of at least 5 megapixels. Take the photograph in good light - natural north daylight is best for high quality color. Once you have your digital files downloaded to your computer you can open them in a photo-editing program such as Photoshop Elements (available for around $99) or Lightroom or Google's free downloadable Picasa (picasa.google.com). Keep the original digital file 'as is' for future needs by 'saving as' and renaming the file preferably in 'jpg' format. Working on the 'saved as' file, do your best to adjust the color of the digital image so it matches the color of the actual painting as closely as possible. Check the show prospectus for the file size and resolution requirements and adjust your file accordingly when you Export the photograph out of the program.

If you cannot do this yourself, find a photographer who will photograph artwork and can provide you with a disc containing your digital images. Most camera outlets will take these digital images and resize and rename your files as per your requirements for a fee. Have the camera outlet put any files modified on a separate disc marked 'modified files' and ensure that they keep your original files 'as is'. Some camera outlets may offer to photograph your artwork for an additional fee.