Competition General Rules

 

1. Only paid-up members of the club may enter competitions.

2. Eligibility of images:
No image, in whatever format or colour, may generally be entered in more than one club competition judged by an external judge in one club season unless that image has been removed by the Internal Competition Secretary before judging as a result of excessive entry numbers. However, members will now be allowed to enter an edited/altered version of an image into another club competition  in a subsequent seasonto allow for responding to feedback/critique. No image, or versions of an image from the same unique RAW file, may be entered in to club competitions more than twice.

In line with NCPF, national and international guidelines, a monochrome conversion of a colour image is considered to be the same image for competition entry purposes.

Images entered in club competitions must be the photographer’s personal work. Whilst the use of brushes and textures bundled with imaging software may be used, all pictorial elements of the image must have been taken by the photographer. Members are particularly asked to take note of the guidance found in the club pages “Competition rules relating to workshop and remote shoot images”.

The recent rapid advances in AI applications, especially the use of Generative AI since the end of 2022, have created concern about its use in photographic competitions. We intend to introduce a formal element to the rules following a general discusssion at the 2024 AGM, but for the present time, it seems sensible to reinforce the above statement that images must be the photographer's personal work.

3. Except for the knockout competition, all entries in a competition will be assessed and commented upon by a judge (normally from outside the Club). Entries will be identified to the judge only by the image title and all entries will be ordered randomly.
Most competitions will have 1st, 2nd and 3rd places awarded. Some competitions may additionally award Highly Commended and Commended status to entries.

For the following competitions a 6 point marking system will be employed which will be used for the purposes of calculating aggregate totals in annual competitions:

Triptych
PDI (Projected Digital Image)
Nature
Set Subject
Print (both Monochrome and Colour Print competitions)
Outings
Portraits


Where:
1st Place – 20 points
2nd Place – 19 points
3rd Place – 18 points
Highly Commended – 17 points
Commended – 16 points
All other entries – 15 points

Judges will be asked to award up to a maximum total of 15 Commended and Highly Commended images in each competition. The number of these awards will be at the discretion of the judge.

4. Entries for print competitions must be accompanied by the digital image from which they were created; these digital images will be used for projection at the judging session so that the audience are able to clearly see image details to which the judge is referring. Print entries submitted without the accompanying digital image will be withdrawn from that round of the competition by the Internal Competition Secretary.

5. All images submitted for competition remain the copyright of the photographer. Images submitted for competition may be subsequently used in external competitions to represent Gosforth Camera Club, either within Northern Counties Photographic Federation interclub competitions or equivalent competitions organised by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain. Prizewinning, Commended and Highly Commended images will also be displayed in the results section of the club’s website at reduced resolution for a period of up to five years following the competition.

6. Entries are due by the date given in the Club programme and on the Club website. Late entries are normally not accepted.

7. The Competition Secretary will reject entries that do not meet the conditions for a competition.

8. Following the 2022 AGM resolutions, members will be restricted to 2 entries per PDI competition and 3 entries per Print competition. The exception to this is that for both the Knockout and Newcomers competitions which are both PDI, 3 entries are allowed.