Rules

Monthly Competition Rules 2013

Monthly club competitions are a great way to receive critique and feedback on your images from expert judges and photographic peers alike. On order to ensure that we can run the club nights as efficiently as possible, we would encourage you to adhere to the following guidelines when entering digital images, and/or prints on club nights.

COMPETITION FORMAT AND JUDGING GUIDELINES:

  • There are normally two categories for the evening, a SET SUBJECT (as outlined in the club syllabus) and the OPEN section. Photographs of any subject can be entered in the Open section.
  • Members can enter prints, and/or digital images. 35mm slides are no longer projected at Club meetings. They may, however, be scanned and presented as digital images.
  • The awards that can be granted to a photograph are: ACCEPTANCE, HIGHLY COMMENDED or HONOURS. Photos that the judge does not believe meets an acceptable standard can be “passed” – that is not given any award.
  • Members compete in one of three different Grades – NOVICE, ADVANCED AND SALON
    • NOVICE members are generally beginners, and/or have limited photographic skills. The judge is generally lenient on these members. Only quite bad shots are ‘passed’, i.e. not given an award. Some technical errors are tolerated, and criticism is generally positive.
    • ADVANCED members have more experience, and generally is high standard of work is required. The judge is usually more critical.
    • SALON members are the most experienced and skilled, and a high standard of work is expected. The photos are expected to be technically perfect, as well as of very high aesthetic quality.

 

COMPETITION RULES:

General:

  • Competitions are open to financial members only.
  • Prints must be registered by midnight on the Saturday prior to the competition night by emailing the Print
  • Convenor (aps.printreg@gmail.com) (see information below).
  • Prints must be submitted for display no later than 7.45 p.m. on the competition night.
  • Digital entries must be e-mailed to the Digital Convenor (communications@aps.net.nz) by midnight on the Saturday prior to the competition night. (see information below)
  • There are three sections – NOVICE, ADVANCED and SALON. New members will compete in Novice unless an adjudicating committee rules otherwise. Members can apply to the Committee for regrading at any time and all gradings will be revised at the end of each year.
  • You may enter a maximum of 2 images per evening. This can be made up of 1 Print and 1 Digital or 2 Prints or 2 Digitals. Maximum to be entered 2 images total.
  • Please note that entries for the SET SUBJECT category will be awarded additional points as outlined below.
  • Judges will, at their discretion, award ACCEPTANCES, HIGHLY COMMENDED, or HONOURS for each entry in each section. These qualify for the following points toward the AGGREGATE POINTS trophy at year-end. (This includes trophy competitions.)
  • No image previously submitted to a club competition may be submitted again unless it was “Passed in” on the first submission. Images by the same author that differ only slightly from one another, or differ only by computer treatment (e.g. colour vs. monochrome) will be regarded for these terms and conditions as being the same image.

 

  OPEN SET SUBJECT 
ACCEPTANCE 2 points 4 points
HIGHLY COMMENDED 5 points 7 points
HONOURS 10 points 12 points

 

  • Members with work represented in P.S.N.Z. sponsored interclub competitions gain 5 points for each entry.
  • Points are transferable if a member changes grade. In the event of a tie, the award goes to the member with the most honours for the year.

 

Digital Images:

  • Digital Images must be e-mailed to the digital convenor (communications@aps.net.nz) with the subject line headed APS Digital Competition – Month Year by midnight on the Saturday prior to the competition night.
  • Digital Images must be e-mailed to the digital convenor in the following format: sRGB, jpg file type, Image size shall be no wider than 1920 pixels and no higher than 1080 pixels , sRGB and jpg. The dpi setting is not critical (typically defaults to 72 dpi (dots per inch) )
  • The Digital Image filename must be named in the following format:

[Grade]_[Set or Open]_[FirstnameSurname]_[ImageTitle].jpg

e.g if you were entering an image into set subject as a novice member you would name it as follows:

Novice_Set_JamesBloggs_BlackSkyAtNight.jpg

 

  • The e-mail subject header shall read: APS Digital Competition – Month Year

Eg APS Digital Competition – August 2010

  • The following information must also accompany your e-mailed digital file:

Titles for your images. e.g Image One = “Black Sky at Night”, and refusal for APS to show honours images on the APS Website, otherwise approval is assumed.

  • Digitally enhanced images are acceptable provided that they originate from a photograph taken by the author and the enhancements are undertaken by the author.

 

Prints:

To register your prints please send your details together with a thumbnail image sized by email as follows.

  • Print thumbnails must be e-mailed to the Print convenor (aps.printreg@gmail.com) with the subject line headed APS Print Competition – Month Year by midnight on the Saturday prior to the competition night.
  • The email subject header shall read ‘APS Print Competition – Month Year

eg APS Print Competition – August 2010

 

Print thumbnails must be e-mailed to the print convenor in the following format: sRGB, jpg file type, 900 pixels along longer side. The dpi setting is not critical (typically defaults to 72 dpi (dots per inch) )

 

  • The Print Thumbnail image filename must be named in the following format:

[Grade]_[Set or Open]_[FirstnameSurname]_[ImageTitle].jpg

e.g if you were entering an image into set subject as a novice member you would name it as follows: Novice_Set_JamesBloggs_BlackSkyAtNight.jpg

  • The following information must also accompany your e-mailed Print Thumbnail file:

Titles for your images. e.g Image One = “Black Sky at Night”, and refusal for APS to show honours images on the APS Website, otherwise approval is assumed.

  • Prints: may be of any size up to a maximum of 400mm by 500mm, provided they are mounted on firm card having a minimum size of 297mm by 210mm and a maximum size of 400mm by 500mm. Multiple images may be submitted as a single work provided that the images are all on the same mount and that this mount conforms to the minimum and maximum size requirements. Framed and/or glass covered prints will not be accepted.
  • Prints must meet minimum size rules. “Snapshot” size prints would not normally be acceptable, except in the case of dye transfer type prints, which are permitted to be smaller.
  • Prints may be B&W or colour, and either professionally or home processed.
  • Digitally produced or enhanced images are acceptable provided that they originate from a photograph taken by the author.
  • Copies of other artwork are NOT permitted.

 

Labelling Your Prints:

  • Prints must be clearly labelled with:

The author’s name

The grade you are competing in – i.e. Novice, Advanced or Salon

The section you are entering in – i.e. Set Subject or Open

A Title (optional)

 

Publishing Honours Images on the APS Website

APS wishes to post all winning images on its Website. The APS assumes that all photographers are prepared to allow their images to be shown on the APS Website unless indicated otherwise in the registration email.