All photographers are on the Honor System. It is obvious that each entry cannot be evaluated to see if all rules were followed.
The competition category defines what is to be the main or predominating part of the picture, while observing the basic principles of good photography (impact, interest, composition and graphic quality). Images must be presented digitally only. We no longer have a slide division. This year we have made changes to the categories increasing them to four, adding a creative category. We have removed the novice group so that all participants are in the same group. Awards will be based upon the scores. There will be a first, second, and third in each of the four categories. Each individual may enter a total of 5 images. At least one must be in the Assigned category. Two may be in the assigned category and the other three or four split between Nature, General and Creative.
THE DIGITAL PROJECTION CATEGORIES ARE:
·Assigned (A)
-Images must reasonably depict the topic which has been assigned. Any manipulation of the image is acceptable. At least one image must be in this category with a maximum of two. If no image is submitted in this category, only four images may be divided between the remaining caregories.
·General (G)
-Any digital image which prevents that image from being accepted in the nature division. Manipulation of the image that alters the truth of the photographic statement are not allowed.
-Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide), straightening, noise removal, dodging and burning, exposure adjustment, color balance, color correction, white balance, saturation, and sharpening, “HDR” (High Dynamic Range), are examples of acceptable modifications.
-Adding elements to your images, combining separate images or rearranging and/or cloning elements in your image, removing elements from your image other than by cropping, are not acceptable and will lead to disqualification of your image.
·Nature (N)
-Any digital image that contains nature which may consist of all forms of botany, geology, and wildlife. Human elements (hand of man) may not be present. Those depicting cultivated plants, domestic animals or pets, still-life studies, mounted specimens, museum pieces or similar subjects are NOT eligible. The presence of scientific bands on wild animals is acceptable. Zoo and game farm images are acceptable provided the artificial habitat is not apparent in the image. Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, or obviously set arrangements, are ineligible, as are some forms of manipulation manual or digital (see below) that alters the truth of the photographic statement.
-Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide), straightening, noise removal, dodging and burning, exposure adjustment, color balance, color correction, white balance, saturation, and sharpening, “HDR” (High Dynamic Range), are examples of acceptable modifications.
-Adding elements to your images, combining separate images or rearranging and/or cloning elements in your image, removing elements from your image other than by cropping, are not acceptable and will lead to disqualification of your image.
·Creative (C)
-Any digital image that is not eligible in another category. This includes images where all or part of the image is manipulated, created, edited, fixed, or duplicated. All the components of the image must be original work created by the photographer and all manipulation must have been performed by the photographer.
-Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide), straightening, noise removal, dodging and burning, exposure adjustment, color removal, adding one color, white balance, saturation, and sharpening, “HDR” (High Dynamic Range), are examples of acceptable modifications. Images are not limited to only these modifications.
-Adding elements to your images combining separate images or rearranging and/or cloning elements in your image, removing major elements from your image, are examples of acceptable modifications.
Competition Entries
-At least one image must be in the assigned category. Two may be in the assigned category and the other three or four split between Nature, General and Creative. There is a maximum of five entries. If there is no entry in the assigned category, only four images may be submitted to the remaing four categories. There is no distinction between novice and advanced. Everyone is in the same group.
Naming Format
-All files must be in JPEG format. The naming format is as follows:
Full Last Name, First Initial, Date of Competition, Category, Image Number, Total Number of Images, Image Title. Date format is YYMMDD.
-The file naming code is as follows:
A – Assigned
N – Nature
G – General
C – Creative
Image number is the image sequence of your total submissions.
Total number of images is the total number of images you are submitting.
-Example:
If you are entering 5 images, your image number would range from 1 to 5. Your image number-total number of images would look like this: 1-5, 2-5, 3-5, 4-5, 5-5.
-The file names of your images would look something like this:
Jones-R-031108-A-1-5-Title of Image
Jones-R-031108-N-2-5-Title of Image
Jones-R-031108-N-3-5-Title of Image
Jones-R-031108-G-4-5-Title of Image
Jones-R-031108-C-5-5-Title of Image
Images may be submitted for competition by one of two methods:
-Email
Images should be sent to Karen Lund as email attachments.
-Postal Mail on Disk
Images should be sent on a CD.
Note - Images must arrive no later than 9 days before competition (the Saturday before the Monday prior to competition). This is necessary to prepare and provide the images for the judges.
Tips for preparing the images
The projector displays the images with a 1024x768 resolution. To maximize the quality of your displayed image, your images should be prepared with either 1024 pixels for the horizontal or 768 pixels for the vertical but neither limit should be exceeded. Images can be displayed with different pixel ranges but the projector then makes adjustments to the images which may not be optimal.
Images must be saved in JPEG format. I recommend maximal image quality (12) to optimize quality
