Competition Rules

2017 – 2018

Members are reminded that some of the images displayed during club evenings may not be to everyone’s taste or liking. Members should bear this in mind and be encouraged to adopt a more sensitive approach when submitting entries to competition.

Images which have been taken illegally, or the content of any image whose subject is in contravention of any law in the UK or other legislation as deemed necessary, or doubt exists to the authenticity of the image, or images which do not belong to the club member and infringe any other persons copyright will not be permitted to be entered into competition and may lead to the member being disqualified from future competitions within the club.

  1. Members are required to submit competition entries to the Competition Secretary at least three weeks prior to the competition date. Submission nights are shown on the club website.

  2. Members entering competitions will submit entries online through the Photoentry system which can be accessed from the club website and competition page. This will be the only method of entering competitions. Members shall login to the web portal using details provided. (Members who do not have internet access or other difficulties will be allowed to enter club competitions after informing the Competition Secretary).

  3. The competition entry online (Photoentry) must be completed with Author number, and Image title and all details required in place of the current paper form.

  4. Members may submit a maximum of three digital (projected) images and three prints.

    a. All prints submitted must be accompanied by the corresponding digital file from which the print was produced. (This digital file submitted must be sized in accordance with club rules and guidance below). If a print has been produced from a film negative then a scanned copy of that negative must be submitted.

    b. All digital images for the Projected Images section of competitions and the print matched digital images must be submitted online via the competition portal. Prints will be handed in on or before the published hand-in dates.

    c. Prints may be of any size but MUST be mounted on 20”x16” (or metric equivalent) mount board. (Nothing other than card mount board will be accepted)

    d. Maximum thickness of mount is 1/8th”

    e. Prints must have on the reverse of the mount the print title and include the author’s club membership number.

  5. The online competition portal will remain open until the competition closing date as published or later until the Competition Secretary deems fit. The closing date will be assumed without exception to be the published hand-in date. Competitions will not close before the published date.

    a. Until the closing date, an entry to a competition can be amended or deleted by the member.

    b. If an image is deleted by a member prior to competition closing there is no recovery option. If the member chooses to submit that image after deletion it will have to be added again through the software.

    c. After the competition is closed by the Competition Secretary or delegate, entries cannot be amended by the entrant. They can be removed at the request of the member by contacting the Competition Secretary.

    d. Images will be submitted in order of preference and numbered accordingly. In the event of any competition receiving too many entries, it may be necessary to reduce the number of prints/images. This will be achieved by removing the print/image numbered 03 from each author’s entry.

  6. Digital images shall be submitted in JPEG format only. Images must be

    a. MODE:- 8 Bits

    b. RGB Colour or Greyscale

    c. Sized:- 1600 pixels horizontal, 1200 pixels vertical. (For images in Landscape format the maximum length on the longest side of the image = 1600 pixels. For images in Portrait format the maximum height on the longest side of the image = 1200 pixels. This means a portrait format image could have dimensions 900 x 1200 etc).

    d. Images which are larger than the specified sizes will be automatically re-sized by the competition software. Although it should not happen, The club does not accept any responsibility for any change or degradation in image quality as a result of this re-sizing.

  7. Images should be numbered 01, 02 and 03 etc uploaded in that sequence through the competition portal followed by the title followed by the authors’ membership number

    a. Example, the file name of for the 1st image, “Misty Loch Ard” from an author with the membership number 12 would be 01_mistylochard_012

  8. The Competition Secretary, or any committee member delegated to do so has the right to refuse any entry not complying with the club rules and that decision will be final.

Images which are either:

a. In any format other than jpeg format, or

b. Set to the wrong colour profile, or

c. Incorrectly sized either larger or smaller than the specified sizes or

d. Missing Titles or

e. Any other information missing may be disqualified and withdrawn from the competition.

9. Any print or image entered in an ‘In-Club’ competition is ineligible for ANY future ‘In-Club’ competition except the Annual competition of that season.

10. Any print or image entered in any Annual Competition is ineligible for any future ‘In-Club’ Competition.

11. Any image entered as a print in one competition cannot be entered as a projected image in a later competition or vice versa

12. The same image (or one so similar as to be indistinguishable) must not be entered in both print and digital image competitions on the same evening.

13. Members entering club competitions must make their work available to the club for entry to external competition and must not permit their work to be used by any other club for this purpose.

14. Copyright and content of every photograph entered must be owned by the member submitting.

15. The competition Secretary shall produce score sheets for each competition and make these available to club members as digital and/or paper copies.

a. Scoresheets will be collated and archived and a League Table will be available at the end of the season.

b. Scoresheets will be added to the club website after a competition.

16. There are three in-club competitions held throughout the season. These consist of two sections, one each for prints and projected digital images (PDI). Entry to competition is available to all club members. Competitions will be judged by a competition judge invited by the club and the three competition results will form a league. Images and Prints will be judged and reviewed using a ‘pointless’ scoring system. 

a. Competition Judges will be requested to award First, Second, Third, Highly Commended and Commended places to the top images and prints

b.The number of awards given shall be at the discretion of the competition judge (under direction from the Competition Secretary.  It is preferred that there shall be one image/print placed in each of First, Second and Third places. Highly Commended and Commended will be at the discretion of the judge .)

c) For the purposes of the Competition League table, The Competition Secretary on conclusion of the competition will award the following points to those images and prints placed:

c.i . First place shall receive 20 points

c.ii Second place shall receive 19 points

c.iii Third place shall receive 18 points

c.iv Highly commended place shall receive 17 points

c.v. Commended place shall receive 16 points

c.vi. All other images receive 15 points

d. The club competition league will comprise a table of all scores from all three competitions. The member with the highest accumulated number of points will be declared the winner and awarded the League trophy.

e) In the event of a tiebreak for First place in the League after the three competitions, the member with the highest number of placed images or prints in the three competitions will be declared the overall winner.

e.1 First placings will carry weighting over second and the number of second placings, i.e. A member with two first places, one second place and one third place across all competitions will be counted as higher than a member with one first place, two second places and two third places across all competitions.

f. Placed images as above will be added to a competition gallery page on the club website.

g. The Competition Secretary shall publish the competition results and league tables on the club website. The final league table positions will not be disclosed until the Annual General Meeting when League Cup winners will be announced.

17. The Annual competition will have two sections, one each for prints and projected digital images (PDI). Entry to competition is available to all club members. The competition will be judged by a competition judge invited by the club. Images and Prints will be judged and reviewed using a ‘pointless’ scoring system. 

a. The Competition Judge will be requested to award First, Second, Third, Highly Commended and Commended places to the top images and prints

b. The number of awards given shall be at the discretion of the competition judge (under direction from the Competition Secretary – It is preferred that there shall be one image/print placed in each of First, Second and Third places. Highly Commended and Commended will be at the discretion of the judge.)

c. The members achieving First place in either section of the competition will be declared the winner and will be awarded the annual competition trophy.­ 

d. Placed images as above will be added to a competition gallery page on the club website.

18.Images submitted to the Photoentry system may be used by the club to enter external competitions through the Scottish Photographic Federation (SPF), Glasgow District Photography Union (GDPU) and Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB).

19. Full SPF guidelines and a very useful PDF on image preparation will be available on the club website.

Please ask the Competition Secretary, David Ritchie, for advice about any matter relating to submission of competition entries.