Rules
1. The Club will hold four trophy competitions each season. One of the competitions will be ‘Themed’, the remainder will be ‘Open’. The subject for the themed competition is usually decided at the end of a Club season (and prior to the Summer break) to allow members ample time to prepare their images for the following season.
2. Only fully subscribed members of the Club are eligible to enter trophy competitions.
3. All entries can be produced by any method and manipulation and composites are allowed, but all parts of an image must be the author’s own work. The use of clip art or wholly computer generated images (such as fractals) is not permitted.
4. Images which do not comply with the previous definition or might be deemed inappropriate may be excluded from a competition at the discretion of the Committee.
5. There are three categories in each of the four competitions: (a) Colour Print, (b) Monochrome Print, and (c) Digitally Projected Image. No image may be entered more than once in a trophy competition. This also means that an image cannot be re-submitted at a later date, but in a different category.
6. A member can submit up to a maximum of TWO entries in each category, ie two colour prints, two monochrome prints, and two digital images. It is entirely a member’s choice whether to submit the full complement of six images, or a lesser number, and in whichever category they prefer.
However, the number of entries per member may be varied at the discretion of the Committee to ensure that the total number of images entered for a competition is not too large for judging in the time available. If this is the case then it is only likely to affect one category (Monochrome Print, Colour Print, or Digital Image). The Competition Secretary will then contact all those who have submitted more than one entry in that affected category, requesting them to nominate the one entry in that category to go forward into the Competition.
7. The hand-in dates will normally be two weeks prior to the competition – the competition and hand-in dates will be published in the Club Programme.
8. During the season, each competition will be judged by a different external and independent judge.
9. The judge will award a mark of between 1 and 20 to each entry. However, the image placed 1st will receive 20, the one placed 2nd will receive 19, and the one placed 3rd will receive 18. These 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placings are exclusive – that is, there can be only one image that receives a 20, a 19, or an 18. Whereas the marks below 18 are not exclusive – there could be several entries that receive a 17.
10. The total marks for all entries, in each separate category, and for all four competitions, will be cumulative and count towards the final result at the end of the season.
11. Members entering competitions do so on the understanding that their entry may be used in any of the Club’s approved external competitions, and may also be displayed on the Club website, unless the member indicates otherwise at the time of entering.
12. Whilst every care will be taken when handling prints, the Club cannot be held responsible for loss or damage to members’ entries.
13. The Club’s Rules empower the committee to change or vary the competition rules and to arbitrate in any disputes. The committee’s decision shall be final in all respects. Amendments to the rules will be notified at the appropriate time to all members.
Prints
1. The maximum mount size is 50 cm x 40 cm (or its imperial equivalent, 20in x 16in), but the actual print size may be chosen by the photographer. Whilst this is not mandatory, the mount size of 50cm x 40cm is also the preferred mount size since smaller sizes can damage other prints in transit, and 50cm x 40cm is also the size required for external competitions.
2. No mount should be used that can cause damage to another member’s print. All Velcro or any other exposed adhesive which could damage other prints must be removed or covered prior to submission.
3. Framed or glass mounted submissions cannot be accepted.
4. Monochrome prints are defined as black and white images – these can have shades (tones) that vary from very dark grey (black) to very clear grey (white). A print that is similarly toned entirely in a single colour will qualify as a monochrome print. However, the addition of one further colour to any part of the image will classify it as a colour image.
5. In addition to submitting the print, a digital version should also be provided. The digital version should conform exactly to the specification as required for the standard Digital Projected Images (see below). Whilst the print is eligible for an external print competition, similarly the digital version will be an automatic candidate for an external digital competition.
6. Information on the BACK of the print is no longer required. It should be left entirely BLANK, ie no title, no membership number, no club information, and no name.
7. There must be no identifying mark or title on the FACE of the print or mount.
Digitally Projected Images
1. Entries can be submitted on either a memory stick, CD, or DVD – although the preference is the memory stick. Whatever the device, they must be marked quite clearly with the member’s name – and they will in due course be returned to each member. The entries should be included in their relevantly named folder, that will be either ‘Digital’, ‘Mono’, or ‘Colour’.
2. Images should be submitted in JPEG file format (use ‘maximum quality’ option if this is available).
3. For colour consistency, images should preferably be saved using the sRGB colour space. Images are projected as sRGB files and entries received in other (or no) colour space are converted by the competition software (DiCentra).
4. Images must be resized so that they are no larger than 1400 pixels wide by 1050 pixels high (including any borders). Note that the maximum height for an image in portrait format cannot exceed 1050 pixels. Smaller images are acceptable, but will appear smaller on the screen and the competition software will fill the height or width dimension with a black background to make it the correct proportion.
5. Images can be either colour or monochrome.
6. Files must be carefully named to include the chosen title (max 30 characters), this is followed by an underscore character (_), followed by the photographer’s name.
Example filenames:
Beautiful Whippet_Michael Wells
Brasenose College_Norman Hedge
The hills are alive with the s_Cyril Chudley (here the title bit is max 30 characters)
Note that the title itself should not include any punctuation characters.
For pre-judging and during the competition itself, the competition software will remove the photographer’s name, and the images will be judged and critiqued anonymously.
Trophies ( Temporary stopped)
Scores in each category are accumulated from the four competitions and three trophies are awarded at the end of the season:
i. The Phillips & Co. Shield – the highest score in Monochrome Prints
ii. The John Mason Memorial Shield – the highest score in Colour Prints
iii. The John Parkhouse Cup – the highest score in Digitally Projected Images
In addition the Allan Miles Cup is awarded to the most promising newcomer. The winner of this award is determined by the Club Committee.