Competition Rules and Conditions of Entry 2019-20
(Amended August 26rd 2019)
The aim of the competitions is to encourage members to produce new work and enjoy themselves.
1. There are three categories of entry for all images:
a) GENERAL (G) for beginners
b) INTERMEDIATE (I) for semi-experienced / intermediate standard photographers, and
c) ADVANCED (A) for experienced / advanced standard photographers.
2. Club members will be given a membership number which they will use when labelling their prints for competition. If anyone wishes to know their membership number they should contact the Competition Secretary or Membership Secretary.
3. When club members first join the club, they will be asked to point out the address of anywhere on the internet that displays their work for review by the competition committee, in order to determine their experience and expertise. The images submitted to their first competition will also be used to confirm the member in a category before submission to the judge.
4. Those in the General or Intermediate categories who obtain sufficient points during the season, will be considered for upgrading to a more advanced category for the subsequent season. If they so desire, and their performance in competitions does not debar it, members in the Advanced and Intermediate categories may also drop down a category – subject to the approval of the Competition Committee.
5. There will be a total of ten competitions consisting of five projected digital and five print competitions for each of the three Member Categories:
a) PROJECTED IMAGES – including colour and monochrome digital images
b) PRINTS – including colour and monochrome prints
6. Each member may enter a maximum of 2 images within each of the competitions – see “Guidelines for Submission” below.
7. For a member who has submitted entries for a competition and knows that they will not be present on the judging evening, the Competition Secretary would be willing to make a note of the judge’s comments for them about their images. The member would need to request this of the Competition Secretary beforehand, as this will not happen automatically.
8. No picture may be entered if the original image dates from more than five years prior to the date of entry to the competition.
9. Images will be given a score out of 20 and scores will be totalled throughout the season towards the end of season awards. No image, which has been given a score of 16 or greater in an internal club competition, may be entered again, in the same or subsequent years, except for Best of Year Competitions when arranged.
10. Members are invited to write on the back of their print entries whether they were produced by a commercial colour process or their own darkroom or digital printing, or if it has been digitally manipulated. This is entirely optional.
12. The decision for acceptance of any print or projected image for the competition rests solely with the Competition Secretary, particularly for themed competitions.
13. Creative Photography’ is defined for the club as: “Creativity can be expressed in the taking of an image and/or in its presentation. The club is looking for an imaginative/creative approach either in taking and/or presenting an image. The image may display a change in natural colour, form, shape or any combination of these three. Creative images may be montages (where all elements of the final image must be attributable to the photographer), but they don’t have to be – creativity in-camera is as important as creativity in-computer.”
14. The definition of ‘Monochrome’ for external competition purposes has been given by the PAGB (to which we are affiliated), and this is the definition our club will use:
“A mono print is of a single colour, such as black and white, blue and white, red and white or a single tone e.g. sepia. Images that are split toned will in future be classed as “colour”, as will be lith prints showing a number of subtle shades. It is the final appearance and not the process that will determine whether a print is monochrome or colour.”
15. Under no circumstance is a judge to be contacted before or after a competition in relation to any entries into that competition. Any formal complaint confirming such an incident will be dealt with by the Committee.
16. There is an NWPA rule that members of more than one club have to elect at the beginning of the season which club they intend to represent. So that the external competitions committee only chooses images from eligible members for inter-club competitions and the NWPA portfolios, members of multiple clubs must inform the Competition Secretary in September of each year, or when joining, which club they intend to represent. Moreover, images taken at Conwy Camera Club events and special interest groups, where specific arrangements have been made for the benefit of club members (e.g. a portrait session, Creative SIGs, an Action SIG where special access arrangements have been made), must not be submitted to other clubs to be used in direct competition against Conwy Camera Club.
17. Images which do not meet the stipulated size will not be submitted to the judge.
Guidelines For ‘Projected Image’ Submission:
1) A Projected Image competition is for any digital image processed on the computer whether manipulated or not.
2) There will be 3 Categories:
a) Advanced (A)
b) Intermediate (I)
c) General (G)
3) Digital Images should: a) not exceed 1200 pixels in height for Portrait format images and 1600 pixels in width for Landscape format images. No image should exceed 1200 pixels in height or 1600 pixels in width. If borders are added to the image they must be within the 1600 x 1200 pixels.
a) Images should be saved in the sRGB colour profile
b) be saved as ‘.jpg’ files with the ‘image quality’ set at 9 (High) out of 12 or approx. 75%.
c) be named using only the title of the image –
Say you have an image called ‘Conwy Harbour Sunset’.
Then the File/Image name would be, Conwy Harbour Sunset followed by the “.jpg” extension that your computer usually adds automatically.
4) All digital images must be submitted by logging onto the members pages of the club website and following the instructions for the uploading of competition images.
5) Closure for entries will be at midnight on the relevant date as declared in the annual programme, entries received after this time will not be accepted.
Guidelines For ‘Prints’ Submission:
1) A Prints competition is for any printed image, either colour, monochrome, duotone or spot colour, etc.
2) There will be 3 Categories:
- Advanced (A)
- Intermediate (I)
- General (G)
3) Prints need to:
- be mounted on mountboard, and care needs to be taken with any adhesive tape used so that
- your submission does not cause damage to any other prints which will be stacked with it in the entry box.
- have a mount not exceeding 40 cm x 50 cm
- be a minimum size of 12.5 cm x 17.5 cm or 218.75 sq cm
- be marked on the reverse of the mount, on the bottom edge, with:
- the picture title
- the member’s category and Membership number (e.g. G, I or A and number) e.g. Conwy Harbour Sunset_A_999
4) Closure for entries will be at midnight on the relevant date as declared in the annual programme, entries received after this time will not be accepted.
5) Members are required to submit a PDI version of their print entry which will be displayed at the same time as their print to enable members present to view a larger version of their image while the judge is considering it.
This should be to same competition PDI requirements and submitted via the website as mentioned in ‘Guidelines For Projected Image Submission’ above.
Please Note:
Whilst the Club will take all reasonable steps to safeguard members’ work, it does not accept any liability for loss or damage to any prints; and entry into a competition, or allowing the club to use their work, implies acceptance of this condition.
Images which do not meet the stipulated sizes, are incorrectly identified or are presented late will not be submitted to the judge.