Competition Rules

All photographers are on the Honor System. It is obvious that each entry cannot be evaluated to see if all rules were followed.

Competition Categories

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 do not have a slide division. There are four categories: Assigned, General, Nature and Creative. Novice and advanced photographers compete 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 as long as at least one is in the Assigned category. Two may be in the Assigned category and the balance split between Nature, General and Creative. If you choose not to submit an image in the Assigned category you can submit a maximum of 4 images.  Two of your entries are eligible for a critique by the judge. You must designate these two images as described below.

THE DIGITAL PROJECTION CATEGORIES ARE:

Assigned (A)
Images must reasonably depict the topic which has been assigned. The original image must be made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or captured digitally.  Any manipulation of the image is acceptable. A maximum of two images may be submitted in this category. If no image is submitted in this category, only four images may be divided between the remaining categories.

General (G)
The original image must be made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or captured digitally. All images must be original and may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else. Any subject matter is acceptable.  Any manipulation of the image is acceptable.

Nature (N)
Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archeology, in such a fashion that a well informed person will be able to identify the subject material and to certify as to its honest presentation. The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements enhance the nature story. The presence of scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals is permissible. Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, or obviously set arrangements, are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. No techniques that add to, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content are permitted. All adjustments must appear natural. The removal, or manipulation, of colors contained within the original image to enable the production of monochrome images is permitted.

Creative (C)
The definition of Creative is "Altered Reality." The image must obviously display a change in natural color, form, shape, or any combination of these three. Creative images are often montages (a blending or composite of multiple images). High Dynamic Range (HDR) images without further changes are not considered "altered reality."
The original image must be made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or captured digitally. All images must be original and may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else. Original images must be altered by the maker; artwork or computer graphics generated by the entrant may be incorporated, if the original photographic content predominates. Images may not be constructed entirely within a computer. It is necessary that the image's core content be identifiable. Non-creative images are not eligible for this competition. Any subject matter is acceptable as long as the Altered Reality guidelines are followed.

 

PREPARING AND SUBMITTING IMAGES

Each individual may enter a total of 5 images as long as at least one is in the Assigned category. Two may be in the Assigned category and the balance split between Nature, General and Creative. If you choose not to submit an image in the Assigned category you can submit a maximum of 4 images.  Two of your entries are eligible for a critique by the judge. You must designate these two images as described below.

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 and a 'C' at the end if you would like a critique by the judge. Date format is MMDDYY.

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 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-C
Jones-R-031108-C-5-5-Title of Image-C
Note that the last two images are designated for a critique by the judge.

SUBMITTING IMAGES

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 14 days before competition (Friday midnight 2 weeks before the 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.

PRINT RULES

Categories are the same as our digital competitions, General, Nature and Creative. For information on the categories please see above.

Submissions

  1. Each current member of the Ft. Myers Camera Club may submit up to three prints (one per category, Nature, General, Creative). Photos previously submitted in a digital competition but did not receive an award will be allowed. Winners of previous digital competitions will NOT be allowed. This includes 1st, 2nd, 3rd ,and Honorable Mention.
  2. Submissions must be labeled in the back of the photo in the upper right hand corner. Label must include:
      • Photographers Name
      • Category
      • Title of Photo
  3. No markings that might identify the maker should appear on the front of the photograph. This includes graphics, logos, names etc.
  4. Minimum size is 8” X 10”” and maximum size is 16” X 20” including mounting.
  5. Prints must be mounted on sturdy material such as foam core or mat board. Maximum size of the mounting materiel is 16” X 20”
  6. Prints may be matted but not framed nor should the photo have any covering such as glass.
  7. During intake we assign a unique number to each image, write that number on the back of the print and enter the information in a list which will be used by the score keepers.

Awards

In each category there will be one First, Second and Third Place as well as three Honorable Mentions.

Judging

There will be three judges for a print competition.

Scoring is on a basis of 9 points: three (3) for technical merit, three (3) for composition and three (3) for impact, from each of three judges. Impact is the viewer’s initial response to an image and is the WOW! or AAH! factor of an image. Based on these criteria, each judge is free to give a total score from 1 to 9. The total score is cumilative and thus the best possible score is 27.

As guidelines for judging, an entry with less than 15 points indicates that these images are below average. Photographs with 16 to 21 points are considered average while those with 22 or more points are above average.

Viewing Distance for judging will be 6 feet from the image.