Internal Competitions: Overview and Rules
1 Overview
1.1 Internal Competitions
The Club has the following annual internal competitions that members can enter:
Nature Competition – open to all members.
Members Competition– for newer or less experienced photographers.
Advanced Members Competition – for photographers who consistently produce work of a high standard.
Each Competition section has two different internal competition series:
PDI (Projected Digital Image) which is held across 4 ‘heats’ (or evenings) across the season (PDI 1, PDI 2, PDI 3 and PDI 4).
Print which is held across 4 ‘heats’ (or evenings) across the season (Print 1, Print 2, Print 3 and Print 4).
In addition to the Nature, Members and Advanced members competitions there is also an annual Panel Competition (known as Three of a Kind) which has its own rules (see 2.2).
The annual internal competition series is summarised in the table below.
1.2 Choosing the right competition to enter
Club members are placed in either the Members or Advanced Members competition at the start of each competition season (September each year). New members who join during the season will be placed in a section when they join.
There are no fixed rules about which section a member can enter, but we encourage everyone to choose the section that best matches their experience and ability.
If a member is consistently achieving strong results in the Members section, we would also expect them to move to the Advanced Members section at the start of the next competition season, which begins each September.
1.3 MEMbers competition
For each heat (evening) Members are allowed to submit a maximum of 4 images in a maximum of two sections (Members Open and Nature). The Nature section is open to all club members and if club members decide to enter this section they will be competing with Advanced Members.
The annual Members competition format is shown in the table below.
* In an Open section Members can enter a photograph of any subject (colour or mono), as long as it follows the competition rules. Members can enter the Nature section which is open to all members. If Members do not wish to compete with Advanced Members they are permitted to submit nature images into the members Open section.
1.4 Advanced Members competition
For each heat (evening) Advanced Members are allowed to submit a maximum of 6 images overall in a maximum of three sections (Colour, Mono and Nature). For each heat the maximum number of entries for each section is 4 images. Advanced members are not permitted to enter nature images in Colour or Mono sections.
The annual Advanced Members competition format is shown in the table below.
1.5 Scoring
The same scoring system is used for Members and Advanced Members competitions:
Judges will score out of 20
For each section there will be one winner that scores 20.
For each section there will be two Highly Commended awards which score 19.
Commended images will score 18 and the number of awards will be at the discretion of the judge.
Judges will be advised that images that are competent but not award winners should be scored 16 to 17 depending upon merit.
Judges will be discouraged from scoring images less than 14.
A Photographer of the Year award will be given for both Print and PDI competitions which will be calculated as the sum of the top 6 scores in each of the 3 categories (Advanced Colour, Advanced Mono and Nature).
2. Internal Competition Rules
Detailed rules for these internal competitions are covered in the sections below. Entrants are responsible for reading, understanding and following these rules. Any comments or questions should be addressed to the Internal Competition Secretary (James Sidgwick (jamsidg@hotmail.com)).
2.1. General Rules
Images must be entirely the work of the photographer, including all components of composite images, and all post-processing. If any further guidance/advice is required please, in the first instance consult the Internal Competition Secretary.
All images entered in internal competitions must be eligible for use by the club in future external competitions (for example, they must not have already been used in previous external competitions).
In all competitions no images are allowed that are ‘substantially similar’ to images entered into previous internal competitions. However, any image that has been entered before and has scored 16 points or less may be entered again in another competition (this allows photographers to amend the image in light of the judge’s comments).
Any image that is entered to our internal competitions must be appropriate for displaying at our club nights. Any image which contains content which is considered to be excessively/unnecessarily obscene, vulgar, pornographic, hateful, threatening, racist, sexist or discriminatory will be deemed ineligible and will be removed from the competition.
All internal competitions (including Prints and PDIs) are managed through Photo Entry software; Photo Entry is an online program which lets people upload their competition photos directly. To sign up to Photo Entry, please send your first name, surname and email address to the Internal Competition Secretary, James Sidgwick (jamsidg@hotmail.com).
The deadlines for entries are given on PhotoEntry; they will generally be 11 days before the competition for a competition held on Zoom and 4 days if held in the club room.
Digital images should be jpegs and sized 1600 x 1200 pixels with colour space sRGB.
Prints can be any size up to 40 x 50cm and must be displayed in a 40 x 50cm mount; the prints must be brought along by 19:15 on the evening of the competition (to allow time for the judge to view them beforehand) and titles must be provided on the rear of the mounts.
In the event of a tie in any of the competitions, a countback system will be used (the photographer with the most 20’s will the winner, and if there is still a tie, then the photographer with the most 19’s…, until a winner is decided).
In order to ensure that the number of images to be judged for a given competition remains manageable, it may be necessary for the Competition Secretary to reduce the maximum number of images per entrant for some sections of the competition after entries have been submitted, which will result in some entries being ‘culled’. Photo Entry will cull images according to the priority order of the entries (the lowest in the entry order being culled first); with this in mind, entrants should ensure that their images are ordered correctly when submitting their images on Photo Entry, with the highest priority image being ordered first and the lowest priority image being ordered last. Culled images may be submitted into subsequent competitions.
2.2. Three of a kind competition
A panel will consist of three images that should ideally follow a theme (i.e. be three of a kind).
For this competition entrants will not be assigned to a class and there will be just 2 sections: print and PDI.
Prints are to be unmounted, and sized A3 or A4 at the entrant’s choice.
Members of the club can enter up to 2 panels (2 PDI, or 2 print, or one of each).
The winning panels will be chosen by members who will vote for their favourites on the night:
Members will pick their top 3 print and top 3 PDI panels (where a 1st place is worth 3 points, 2nd place is worth 2 points and 3rd place is worth 1 point).
Members cannot vote on their own panels, and voting will take place in the club room (members joining on Zoom will not be allowed to take part in the vote for the Print panel).
The scores will be compiled on the night, with the winners being the panels with the highest total number of points.
Panels must contain at least 2 images not used in any previous or future club competitions.
All panel competitions (including Prints and PDIs) will be managed through Photo Entry software. When submitting your entry on Photo Entry, 4 images should be submitted for each panel:
Images 1-3 : The three individual photos that make up the panel (for which titles can optionally be provided), each sized at 1600 x 1200 pixels.
Image 4: The panel itself: a composite of your PDIs for which the image size should be 1600 x 1200 pixels.
A title should be provided for the panel.
2.3. Advanced PDI and Advanced Print
Mono entries must only be monochrome or black and white.
No Nature images to be entered into the Advanced Colour or Mono PDI or Advanced Colour or Mono Print competitions.
2.4 Nature PDI and Print
If an image is entered into the Nature section, the same image may not be entered into the Members or Intermediate Members section, and vice versa.
Nature entries must comply with the PAGB 2018 Nature Definition rules (see below).
Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict all branches of Nature except anthropology and archaeology, in such a fashion that a well-informed person will be able to identify the subject material and certify its honest presentation.
The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement.
Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening, is allowed.
Cloning of image defects and minor distractions, including overlapping elements, are permitted when these do not distort the truth of the photographic statement.
Images entered as Nature can have landscape, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with the subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where the subjects are totally dependent on man for food.