Competitions Rules

The following rules apply to both the Print and Projected Digital Image (PDI) competitions. Every competition must have rules. The following set of rules have been developed over many years to ensure a fair and open playing field for all members.

To allow for the different skills and experience levels of our club members, and to allow the judge to adjust their comments and scoring accordingly, the Open Competitions are split into three classes: Advisory, Standard and Advanced for both PDI and Print competitions.

• Newcomers and less experienced members may feel more comfortable entering at Standard class.
• Members who are not competitive, or would prefer to receive positive, impartial feedback on their images from a judge without receiving a score, may be more comfortable in the advisory group.
• Members choose their class at the beginning of the season.
• A member may change from one class to the other, once only, during the season by informing the Chair of their wish. The accumulated score at one class is not transferable to the new class.

There are four Open competitions that are run throughout the year with an end of year table for each competition. Open competitions are of unspecified subjects.

• Colour Print and PDI competitions, each competition having four rounds
• Monochrome Print and PDI competitions, each competition having two rounds

In addition, there will be two single round competitions:

• PDI of the Year
• Print of the Year

There are two or three set subject competitions each year. The set subject competitions run as standalone competitions, the marks do not contribute to the yearly placings. Set subject competitions are typically fun competition and all members entries are in a single class. These competitions are normally judged by club members or on occasions by an invited guest judge.

General

1. Entries must be entirely the work of the club member who must own the image copyright. With composite images all component parts must meet this requirement. The use of royalty free or copyright-free images is not allowed. It is the sole responsibility of the competition entrants to ensure that their images do not breach any legal requirements.
2. Members may submit up to 3 entries in any open competition, unless otherwise stated in the programme. In the event that the total number of entries (across both competition classes) for a competition exceeds 65, the number of images per member will be restricted in the following order until the total is 65 or less:
• The third image (as determined by the image order set by the member in PhotoEntry) will be dropped for all Advanced class members.
• The third image (as determined by the image order set by the member in PhotoEntry) will be dropped for all Standard class members.
3. The number of entries for one-off competitions will be set out in the club programme.
4. Members may submit up to 2 entries into each of the Print of the year and PDI of the year competitions. Images may only be used if they have been submitted into any club competition in the current club year.
5. In the Open Print and PDI competitions, only the two highest scores from a member’s entries from each competition will count towards the yearly placings.
6. Entries will be marked by the judge on a scale of 1 to 10. A plus mark is used to indicate the winner in the yearly placings. Where more than one entry is marked 10, the judge will be asked to award one of them a plus mark, thus 10+ to indicate the evening’s winner. The number of plus marks is only taken into account if there is a tie at the end of the season. In all competitions, the decision of the judge is final.
7. An image produced as a print and entered into a print competition shall not be used to enter a projected digital image competition (PDI) or vice-versa. Each print or PDI can only be entered once in any competition where scoring is recorded. Except for the Print or PDI of the year competitions.
8. Entries gaining 6.5 or less in the Advanced Class or 7 or less in the Standard Class may resubmit their image on one other occasion in the same or another form. Members resubmitting an image on this basis are encouraged to let the Chair and/or the member chairing the Club evening know in advance
9. Both colour and monochrome entries are accepted in Colour Print and PDI competitions.
10. Only monochrome entries may be entered in Monochrome Print PDI competitions. Specifically, the term monochrome means an image produced in varying densities of a single hue. Conventionally that hue would be a neutral grey, with densities from white to black. However, the neutral grey could be replaced by any single hue. An image that is partially toned (e.g. duotone) or has “colour popping” (i.e. the image includes an item of one single colour that is not monochrome/single hue as defined above) is treated as a colour image.
11. Images to be entered in Print and Projected Digital Image competitions must be uploaded to PhotoEntry no later than midnight of the Monday immediately before the competition. Entries received after this time may not be included in the competition.

Projected Digital Image Competitions

1. Digital images must be in jpg format at maximum quality.
2. Images must be in sRGB colour space.
3. Image sizing – images must be no more than 1440 pixels wide and no more than 1080 pixels high for landscape format. Images submitted in portrait format must be no more than 1080 pixels high.
   • Note: Members are recommended to resize images before uploading to PhotoEntry to achieve best quality results, if not possible then PhotoEntry includes an option to automatically resize the image
4. Images uploaded to PhotoEntry should be given a title as it is required to appear on the screen during the competition.

Print Competitions

1. Prints must be mounted on a board measuring no more than 500mm x 400mm.
2. All prints should be securely mounted on a board (preferably within a cut-out frame), and clearly marked on the back with:
   • the image title,
   • the member’s name; and
   • the PhotoEntry sequence number for that image.
3. Print mounts should not exceed 50 x 40 cm, members may submit prints of any size that fit within such a print mount. It should be noted that wide borders are not only more conventional, but they also invariably set prints off to greater effect than mounts with narrower borders.
4. Mounting should not be done with masking tape or any other type of adhesive that may damage another member’s prints when they are stacked on top of each other.
5. Entries to print competitions must be accompanied by the corresponding digital images, following the sizing and file naming rules above for digital images.
6. Prints must be submitted to the Club not later than 7.50 pm on the evening of the Print competition.
7. Whilst the organisers will exercise reasonable care of Print entries, responsibility will not be accepted by the club for any loss or damage.