Competition Rules

Introduction

Masham Photographic Club has about 30 members and you might enjoy the experience and challenge of a competition, with critical feedback from another photographer or interested party. Hopefully the feedback will help to improve our photographic skills!

ENTRY GUIDELINES – DIGITAL COMPETITIONS

Competition Rules

Each image has to be taken within the previous 18 months of the competition, unless stated otherwise. No image can be entered in more than one MPC competition, but can be included in the following Annual Print Exhibition.

Digital Competition Entries

Please submit up to 3 images for any digital competition to the email address: mashamphotocomps@gmail.com

Each image should be given a title (other than IMG_9087A!) Simply RENAME the images you are about to send with the image title. Each image should be a JPEG (please no RAW images) ideally with a maximum of 1600 pixels on the longest side. (If submitting a landscape image then 16:9 projects best, similarly a square image for portrait. Otherwise any aspect ratio is allowable). Please submit the images in one, two or three emails, depending on your preference (please do not ZIP the images).

Once submitted your images will be prefixed with a letter A, B, C, etc. to indicate your entrant code for that competition (only known to the competition co-ordinator).

Competition

Within the rules of our digital competitions you can only achieve ONE place within the overall rankings. So each set of entries (for example, A1, A2, A3) will be judged on merit, but only ONE image (for example, A2) will go forward to the final rankings.

Humour Competition

The Humour Competition (with trophy) is also run annually on the same basis as a digital competition, but without the 18 month restriction.

Points

The rankings are First (12 points), Second (10 points), Third (8 points), Highly Commended (6 points) and three places of Commended (5 points). The points are allocated to you and go towards your total for the end-of-year trophies.

ENTRY GUIDELINES – ANNUAL PRINT COMPETITION

Competition Rules

Each image has to be taken within the previous 18 months of the print competition, but can also include any prints of digital entries (and winners!) not entered in any previous print competition.

Theme

The theme is ‘open’ and hence any subject is acceptable.

Print Competition Entries

Please submit up to 2 images for the Annual Print Competition. Each print (with or without border), in any aspect ratio, should be mounted (with or without a card frame) to a maximum size of A3. Each print should be given a title, which should be written in pencil on the back of the print along with your name. Once submitted each title will be printed on the front in a standard format, and displayed. You should also submit your selected prints, in digital format, to the competition secretary at the email address: mashamphotocomps@gmail.com as normal.

Competition

The competition is judged by the General Public, voting by attendance at the exhibition.   The rankings carry points for the top 7. Unusually the entries are not classified by entrant, resulting in the possibility that an individual may be ranked more than once in the top 7!

Points

Each ranking earns double points towards the end-of-year trophies, all trophies being distributed at the AGM a few weeks later.

Note: The President’s Trophy is awarded to the best print from both print competitions.

Entry Guidelines (Sheep Fair Print Competition)

Competition Rules

Each image has to be taken within the previous 18 months of the competition, but can also include any prints of digital entries (and winners!) not entered in any previous MPC print competition.

Theme

The harvest theme is decided by Susan Cunliffe-Lister well in advance, during the year.

Print Competition Entries

Please submit only 1 image for the Sheep Fair ‘themed’ Print Competition. Each print (with or without border), in any aspect ratio, should be mounted (with or without a card frame) to a maximum size of A3. Each print should be given a title, which should be written in pencil on the back of the print along with your name. Once submitted each title will be printed on the front in a standard format, and displayed.

You should also submit your selected print, in digital format, to the competition secretary at the email address: mashamphotocomps@gmail.com as normal.

Competition

The competition is judged by Susan Cunliffe-Lister, with the results and awards displayed at the Sheep Fair. The rankings carry points for the top 7.

Points

Each ranking earns double points towards the end-of-year trophies plus the award of the Sheep Fair Trophy to the winner, all trophies being distributed at the AGM a few weeks later.

Note: The President’s Trophy is awarded to the best print from both print competitions.

Red Spot Evenings

A Red Spot Evening is an occasional evening held as part of the MPC programme and is an informal print competition. Those attending are invited to bring with them a maximum of three unmounted prints (maximum size A4) of images they have taken within the previous 18 months of any subject.

None of these images should have been entered in any previous competitions (print or digital) and none of the images can be used in any subsequent competitions (print or digital).  The image title only must be written, in pencil, on the back of the print.

On arrival, each member hands in their images and, in return, receives a sheet of red spot stickers (usually 7). The host adds the titles of the images to their master list. Once everyone has arrived, the host ‘shuffles’ the prints and distributes the images face up around the 5 or 6 tables setup for the evening.

(With 20 members and 5 tables, that equates to about 12 prints per table).

Members are then invited to review all the prints and stick one or more red spots on the back of the prints according to how much they rate the images.

Each member is expected NOT to identify their images to other members. Each member is expected NOT to vote/apply red spots to their own images. At the end, a refreshment break is called and the competition is closed. The host then collects all the prints and records the number of red spots against each title, ranks the image titles and highlights the ‘top 7’.

The host then announces the results by image title, asking the winning members to identify their own images.

Important Reminder: Red Dot Competition Guidelines

Our special Red Dot Print Competition will be held at our regular meeting on Tuesday, March 7th. 

The Red Dot Club Competition Award of Points:

The top seven images will be awarded points as with our other competitions. One key difference, however, is that it will be possible for a member to be awarded points for more than one of the top seven places. This is because the voting only takes into account the image. In other club competitions we have a rule that a member is only permitted to be awarded one place in the points competition (the highest place a photo has earned).