COMPETITION RULES

1. Only members of the club, who have paid their current season’s membership fee appropriate to their class, shall be entitled to enter competitions organised by the Club.
2. All league competitions shall be “open” as to subject except for those selected as a set subject.  The set subject/s for the season will be as agreed at the preceding AGM.  A member may submit up to 3 images into each round of competition.  A title for each image is recommended but is not compulsory.  However, each image shall be labelled as either 1, 2 or 3.  At the competition secretary’s discretion if there are too many entries to be comfortably or properly marked, then each entry labelled as “3” will be discarded.
3. An image may only be entered once, as either a Print or PDI, into the current season of league competitions.  An image originally entered as a Print may be entered into a subsequent season’s competition as a PDI and vice versa for an image originally entered as a PDI which may be entered as a Print.
4. All entries shall be submitted to the Competition Secretary by the date given in the Club programme or as otherwise notified to members.  In general, the final date for entry is one week before before the competition date.  Images submitted after the due date are not guaranteed to be accepted.
5. The original image must have been produced by a photographic process, either film or digital.   Each entry must be a single image but this may consist of different elements from different images combined together.  A panel of separate images is not acceptable.  The member must own the copyright to all elements of any submitted image and all elements must have been taken by the member submitting the entry.  No element of the image may be copied from the internet or other media.
6. The competition secretary is entitled to refuse any entry of any image if, in their opinion:-

1. It does not comply with these competition rules.
2. It may give rise to offence.
3. It is in a condition not befitting the standards of the club.
4. it is not sufficiently different from any previous image entered by the member.
5. Is a copy of another image or piece of artwork where the intention is to pass off the image as the member’s own work.  If necessary, the competition secretary may ask to see the original image from the camera before accepting any entry.
6. The competition secretary’s judgement in the above matters is final.

7.  PRINT Competitions

1. All Prints should be mounted with a maximum mount size of 20” x 16” (50cm x 40cm).  The image itself may be any size within that maximum.
2. The member’s name, and title if one is given, should be on the reverse top left.  If you do not want a title then write "No Title".  The print number as given by the Competition Secretary should be placed on the reverse top right.  These will be used to correctly orientate the print on the judging lightbox.  No name or title should be on the front of the mount or on the image itself.
3. The Club reserves the right to record, label or mark on the back of the mount.
4. Whilst the Club will use their best endeavours to ensure that entries are not damaged or lost, member’s submit Prints into Club competitions at their own risk.

8. PDI Competitions

1. All entries must be submitted as 8bit jpeg files (no other format is accepted), have maximum dimensions of 1600px wide and 1200px high regardless of orientation, have a maximum file size of 10Mb and be in sRGB colour space.
2. Entries can only be made using the PhotoEntry Portal - found here -                                           https://compent.photoentry.uk/compent/  using your username and password.  The competition secretary will allocate individual usernames and provide instruction on setting a password.  General guidelines as to the use of the PhotoEntry Portal are given below. 

1. From the Main Menu select the Competition Group. This will be e.g. the competitions for a particular season.
2. Select the competition. You can only submit/change/delete entries when the competition is “Open”.
3. Check the number of entries that you are allowed for this competition. It is shown as "Entries Allowed" on the entry screen. The number of entries varies by competition and by the class that you are in.
4. Export your images as a jpeg. Pay particular attention to the image dimensions, and the colour space. It doesn't matter what the filenames are. You cannot upload a jpeg that is larger than 10MB. 
5. Click on “Add New Entry”.
6. Supply a Title (watch out for the limited characters you can use), optionally supply a Reference, and select the publishing options and click “Save”.
7. Upload the correct number of images. This will normally be one per entry, but could be higher for different competitions (e.g. My masterpiece).
8. Once the messages for the entry are green, your entry is accepted.  You will get a warning if you have used the wrong colour space.  You may still have a warning about image dimensions. This warning is only because your image is below the maximum size permitted.
9. Add further entries if you want to and have not already reached the limit for your class. The "Add New Entry" button will only be visible when the Competition is “Open” and you are allowed more entries.
10. It is recommended that you enter images in your order of preference.  If an image needs to be discarded, as stated in (2) above, then this will be the image at the bottom of the list.
11. The PhotoEntry Portal has a Help section and The PDI competition secretary can be contacted for advice on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

9.  AWARDS and TROPHIES

Awards and trophies as described below will be presented at the AGM.

PRINTS - Overall Winner

The scores for each member from all the league competitions including the Set Subject league competitions will be totalled to decide the overall winner.

PDIs - Overall Winner

The scores for each member from all the league competitions including the Set Subject league competitions will be totalled to decide the overall winner.

NEW MEMBERS - Overall Winners

New members who have only started entering competitions in the current or previous season will have their scores totalled as above, for both Prints and PDIs, to determine the overall winner in each category.

BEST of YEAR

Members may choose up to three images, both Prints and PDIs, from those they entered in the current season’s league competitions for judging in the ‘Best of Year’ Competition. The images in each category shall be judged and first, second and third placings will be selected.  Prints and PDIs will be judged separately.

MOST OVERALL POINTS 

The scores given for all images submitted by each member throughout the season, both Prints and PDIs, will be totalled to determine the winner of this category. 

MOST IMPROVED PHOTOGRAPHER

This will be presented to the most improved photographer for the season as determined by the committee.