Competition Rules

As adopted at AGM 2009

THE FOLLOWING RULES APPLY TO ALL CLUB COMPETITIONS:

1. All competitions shall be open to all fully paid-up members. Entry into the various competitions implies acceptance of these rules and failure to adhere to the rules will result in disqualification.

2. Print entries should be in the hands of the Competition Secretary not later than 7.45pm on the evening of the competition. Print titles and DPI entries should be submitted either:
- to the competition organiser on the preceding Thursday OR
- by email no later than 8pm on the Sunday preceding the competition

3. In most competitions there shall be two categories one for prints, one for projected digital images (PDI)—each will be awarded a trophy.

4. PRINTS. Prints may be monochrome or colour, home or trade-processed. They should be mounted in a 50 cm x 40 cm rectangle of card. The minimum picture size is 308 square centimetres. Prints should not be submitted framed behind glass or plastic. Prints should be clearly labelled in capital letters on the back (top left corner) with at least the following information:
author’s name
print title
club name
image dimensions (length by width and total in square centimetres).

5. PDI. All digital files should be 1024 pixels (width) by 768 pixels (height), jpg (quality 12), sRGB colourspace. Unused space should be filled with black. EXIF (Metadata) for author and title should be embedded into the image file as detailed on page 4 of this guide. The file should be titled:
A,B,C or DFirstname_Surname-Title e.g. BFred_Bloggs- Lone Tree

6. No image or substantially similar image shall be submitted in print and digital form on the same evening.

7. Members are encouraged to enter new work. For all, except the Theme competition, images must be no more than 3 year’s old on the date of the competition. Prints and PDI shall not have been used before in domestic competition in the current or any previous season except as allowed for under specific competition rules.

8. In all competitions except the Challenge Cup and the Theme Competition, the judge will award places (1st, 2nd, 3rd), rather than individual marks.

9. The Theme Competition and Challenge Cup set subjects, chosen by the committee, will be announced at the AGM of the previous season.

10. All trophy winners, with the exception of those for the Print and PDI of the Year, must return them at the time required for them to be engraved for the next recipient. A certificate is given to the winner and runner-up in each competition, as a permanent record of their achievement. Winners of Print & PDI of the Year receive retainable trophies rather than certificates.

11. The Committee reserves the right to request prints or PDI files from club members for use by the Club in inter-club competition or for exhibitions.

12. Prints and digital media are entered for competition/exhibition at members’ own risk. Whilst every care will be taken of members’ work, the Club cannot accept liability for loss or damage howsoever caused.

13. The judge’s decision is final.

ADDITIONAL RULES APPLYING TO PARTICULAR COMPETITIONS:
Entry in any of the following competitions does not disqualify the images from entry into any other club competitions subject to the rules of those competitions.

CHALLENGE CUP
Competed for over four rounds each consisting of 2 classes, one for prints and one for PDI. Round 2 will include a set subject for prints and round 3 a set subject for PDI. All other rounds are open subject.

Each class (print and PDI) will be assessed on a cumulative point basis.

Each entry will be awarded 1 point. In addition the judge will select the top 6 entries in each class. Points will be awarded on the following basis: 1st = 12, 2nd = 10, 3rd = 8, 4th = 6, 5th = 4, 6th = 2, with 1 point for a highly commended. The total of these points throughout the season will be used to determine the winners of the 2 Challenge Cup trophies. In the event of a tie then the winner in each category will be the entrant with the highest number of 1st places (then 2nd, 3rd, etc as necessary).
In the Print rounds members may enter a maximum of 3 prints. In the PDI rounds members may enter a maximum of 4 PDI. All entries should be labelled A, B, C, etc, so that the last one can be removed if the entry is too large.

No image may be used more than twice in this competition, whether print or PDI. However, Challenge Cup entries may be entered into any of the other competitions.

PRINT & PDI OF THE YEAR COMPETITION
Members may submit a maximum of 2 prints and/or 2 PDI.

PEOPLE COMPETITION
Entries must depict living humans and may include a single person or a group of people. Images of inanimate objects, such as statues will not be eligible.
Members are allowed a maximum of 4 prints and/or 4 PDI in each category, to be marked A, B, C, etc, so that D can be removed if necessary.

OPEN PORTFOLIO COMPETITION
A portfolio shall consist of 4 prints or 4 PDI. The 4 images making up a portfolio shall be interrelated in some way, i.e. a theme. This could be by subject matter or technique, e.g. 4 portraits, 4 contre jour, etc..

Each image in the set should be labelled with the portfolio title followed by the number 1 to 4 to indicate the showing order. Members may enter a panel in each class.

For this competition PDI should be labelled:

Portfolio title-1,2,3or4-Firstname_Surname, with the number indicating the order of showing e.g. Seascapes-1-Fred_Bloggs, Seascapes-2-Fred_Bloggs, etc

THEME PORTFOLIO COMPETITION
The competition shall comprise five themes. Each entry shall consist of 1 image on each theme, i.e. 5 PDI. There will be no print entries.

All entries submitted for this competition must be new work i.e. taken following the announcement of the themes at the AGM of the previous season.

The judge will award marks out of 10 to each image and the total marks for each entry will determine the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each class. If there is a tie for any place, the addition of the highest and lowest marks will be used to decide the placement. Members may enter one PDI portfolio only.

For this competition each PDI should be named:

THEME-Firstname_Surname-title e.g. TRANSPORT-Fred Bloggs–The Old Bus

KNOCKOUT COMPETITIONS
These are fun competitions. Rule 8 on age does not apply to these competitions, but members should try to submit work that has not previously been used in any other competition.

PRINT LABELLING

PDI

Adding EXIF (metadata) information to your image

PDI images should be titled as described in the relevant section of this guide. In addition each should have the following embedded into the image’s EXIF information (metadata):

author’s name
image title

This allows the person setting up the competition to add authors and titles automatically.
PDIs submitted for external competition selection should also have this data added.
This can be simply done using Windows explorer.

Please read the following guides:

BDCC Photo EXIF / IPTC Information
(or how to add Who and What and Whatever Info to your image) by Leigh Wood

Re-Size an image in Photoshop elements 5 by Chris Danzelman