Competitions & Battles – Updated April 2022
During the season the society gets involved in several internal and external competitions.
List of current internal competitions
Summer Competition
Simon Coates Trophy (formerly known as the Daytripper Trophy) – Prints
Jack Hemming Memorial Trophy – Projected Digital Images
Open Subject Competitions
The John Hughes Trophy – Monochrome Prints
The Gerry Coyle Memorial Trophy – Colour Prints
The President’s Trophy – Projected Digital Images (PDIs)
The Jeff Bartlett Memorial Trophy – Panel of 3 Prints
Nature Competitions
The Wally Mills Trophy – Nature Prints
The Toft Trophy – Nature Projected Digital Images (PDIs)
Merit Competitions
Walter Heath Trophy – Advanced Projected Digital Images
Lanchester Trophy – Advanced Prints
Jean Sutton PDI Trophy – Novice Projected Digital Images
Jean Sutton Print Trophy – Novice Prints
The Society programme gives details of the dates of these competitions.
Through these competitions, the Society seeks to promote the following;
1. To provide enjoyable entertainment for members as part of our program.
2. To encourage members of all skill levels to enter competitions and gain feedback on their images from peers as well as an impartial external judge with a view to seeing the improvement over time in their photography,
3. To help improve the overall status of Dunchurch Photographic Society and the standard of our entries in Battles against other Societies
Club Battles
A ‘Battle’ is one form of external competition between 2 or more local photographic societies. A pre-agreed number of prints and projected images from each club are adjudicated by an impartial external judge. Each image is given a rating up to 20 and the club with the highest aggregate score wins. Our society’s images for battles are usually selected from the previous seasons placed images.
By default, all prints and images entered into internal competitions can be used in the Society’s battles, inter-club competitions, external competitions and the Website and Social Media unless the member notifies the Secretary in writing that he/she wishes to opt out.
Judging
All competitions will have a single judge who will normally be external to the Society. The judge will comment on all entries submitted and will place the best three entries in rank order. The judge may also Commend or Highly Commend any number of entries.
Competition Specific Details
Members are free to enter all competitions, including the Advanced section of the Merit competitions. However, only ‘Novices’ can enter the Novice section of the Merit Competitions. A Novice is defined as a member who has not won a Club Trophy in previous seasons, and has not earned a recognised photographic distinction e.g., FIAP, PAGB or RPS. Depending upon the competition, the images can be presented as mounted (not framed) prints and projected digital images (PDI).
When an evening has competitions involving both prints and projected images, the prints are generally presented first. This means that they can be displayed around the room during the interval and enable members to fully appreciate the work. The results of the print competition are generally announced at the commencement of the second half of the
evening.
An external judge assesses many of the competitions and have places 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , and any number of Highly Commended and Commended classifications awarded.
In any competition for which there is a trophy, the trophy will be awarded to the author of the entry placed first or in the case of the Merit Competitions the member with the highest aggregate score after three rounds. In the event of a tied score after the 3 merit competitions the trophy is shared.
Trophies will be held for a year and must be returned upon request.
John Hughes Trophy – Monochrome Competition
Members can submit up to 3 Monochrome prints on any subject. We use the definition of monochrome issued by FIAP: – A black and white work fitting from the very dark grey (black) to the very clear grey (white) is a monochrome work with the various shades of grey. A black and white work toned entirely in a single colour will remain a monochrome work able to stand in the black and white category. A black and white work modified by a partial toning or by the addition of one colour becomes a colour work (polychrome) to stand in the colour category.
Gerry Coyle Memorial Trophy – Colour Print Competition
Members can submit up to 3 Colour Prints on any subject.
President’s Trophy – Projected Image Competition.
Members can submit up to 3 PDIs on any subject.
Jeff Bartlett Memorial Trophy – Panel Of 3 Prints Competition
Entries to this competition must consist of THREE pictures on a theme chosen by the author. The prints may be mounted individually (this is preferred) or may be on one common mount. The sequence in which the prints are to be viewed must be indicated clearly on the reverse of the prints, along with the overall title of the panel. It is not essential for each image to have an individual title: it is up to you. To encourage more entries, members may submit up to two panels into the competition.
If mounting all three on a common mount, it must not exceed the 500mm x 400mm rule.
Merit Competitions
These are run over 3 rounds each, with subjects declared by the Committee before the start of the season. Each round has two sections, Novices and Advanced and within each section there are separate Print and PDI competitions. Before the first round, a novice entrant will have to specify which section they wish to compete in.
Advanced
Walter Heath Trophy – Members can submit up to 2 PDIs on the rounds subject.
Lanchester Trophy – Members can submit up to 2 Colour Prints on the rounds subject.
Novice
Jean Sutton PDI Trophy – Novice Members can submit up to 2 PDIs on the rounds subject
Jean Sutton Print Trophy – Novice Members can submit up to 2 Colour Prints on the rounds
subject.
The scores are obtained as follows –
1st –10pts
2nd – 8pts
3rd – 6pts
Highly Commended – 4pts
Commended – 2pts
Each entrant’s score in a competition will be aggregated over the 3 rounds of the
corresponding competition to determine the overall trophy winners.
Summer Competition
A competition that includes a separate Print and PDI section for images obtained over the summer period on an activity specified by the Committee. This competition does not feature external judging. Instead, the competition is usually judged on the first evening of the season by the audience present with a democratic vote.
Jack Hemming Memorial Trophy – Members can submit up to 2 PDIs.
Simon Coates Trophy – Members can submit up to 2 Prints.
Nature Competition
Up to 2 Prints can be entered for the Wally Mills Trophy and up to 2 PDIs for the Toft Trophy. Correct descriptive titles should be used. ‘Cute’ titles are not allowed. We use the definition for nature issued by the PAGB as set out below.
Nature means Images where living organisms are the primary subject matter. The story telling value of an Image will normally be weighed more than the pictorial quality.
Nature includes:
Images taken with subjects in controlled conditions such as zoos, game parks, botanic gardens, aquariums and enclosures where the subjects are dependent on man for food. Scientific bands, tags or collars are permissible.
Nature excludes:
Images where the subjects are obviously domestic animals or plants. Images where an obviously artistic treatment has been applied. Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise
minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening, is permitted, as is cloning of image defects and minor distractions including overlapping elements. An Image appearing to meet these criteria will be accepted as Nature. The Judges will normally assume that any Image presented to them is eligible.
Competition Rules
1. All photographs must be the original work of the author and copyright of such work
must be at the disposal of the photographer.
2. The author must have completed any digital manipulation of their images by
themselves. Prints may be trade processed (Photo labs etc.)
3. To allow the Competition Secretary sufficient time to collate the images correctly, the
closing date for competitions will be no later than one week prior to the judging night.
All entries must be received prior to the published closing date
4. It is not permissible to submit the same image to both print and projected image
competitions on the same night.
5. Members must submit new and unique (in concept) images for competitions and
should avoid using identical or near identical images, especially where these have
been placed or commended/highly commended in previous seasons.
6. Once an image has been awarded a place in any internal club competition (from first
through to commended) it will become ineligible for internal competition use from the
following club year onwards. Such images will still be considered for inter-club battles
and other external competitions.
7. Any entry may be rejected if it is considered inappropriate by the Competition
Secretary.
Image Submission
Prints
1. There is no minimum size of print.
2. Prints must be mounted on a stiff card mount, which must not be larger than 500mm x
400mm and 4mm thick.
3. All print entries must be labelled on the reverse with a title along with the member’s
name.
Members submitting prints are also required to submit a 100 x 1200 digital version to help
the selection panel choose prints for battles and for showing, at a reduced resolution, on the
Society’s website and social media.
It is necessary to email a digital version of each print to the Competition Secretary using the
PDI image sizing guidelines below by the deadline of image submission.
The jpeg file should be titled ‘PRINT Image Title by photographer name’
e.g., PRINT Work Light by Bob Mercer.jpg
Members enter their images at their own risk. The Society cannot accept liability for any loss
or damage.
PDIs
1. The original image must have been made by the author on photographic emulsion or
acquired with a digital image-capturing device.
2. Only electronic modifications made by the author will be acceptable.
3. JPG file with a filename that contains the author’s name and the title of the image
4. Image resolution is a maximum of 1600 (wide) x 1200 (high) pixels
5. We recommend images should be colour profiled/calibrated using a correctly
calibrated monitor and utilising the sRGB colour space
NOTE: The Society projector projects at 1600 x 1200 pixels, you are encouraged to ensure
that your pictures conform to these dimensions. Any submissions that do not will be
automatically scaled for projection and this process may result in a poorer image quality than
if you sized them before submission. The club is not responsible for incorrectly sized
images.
Digital files should be submitted by email to the Competition Secretary, currently:
anthonytimmins728@btinternet.com by the deadline.
As a JPG with a filename that contains the author’s name and the title of the image. This
must appear as follows:
‘Image Title by photographer name.jpg’
e.g.: ‘My Best Gull by John Doe.jpg’ or, ‘WALKING BY THE SEA by John Doe.jpg’
The lowercase ‘by’ surrounded by 2 spaces is used to separate the title and author fields and
hence must not appear in your title.
If you do not receive an acknowledgment of receipt of your images, then please contact the
Competition Secretary.
Interpretation and Amendment –
The interpretation and amendment of these rules is at the absolute discretion of the
Committee whose decision on a simple majority vote shall be final.
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Footnote And Reminder –
We aim to be a friendly and welcoming Society. Members are politely reminded of the
etiquette and culture we expect during competition judging. Please refrain from calling out or
entering a conflict of views with the external judge, or other members whilst the judge is
providing their feedback. There is time to make your point constructively in the interval or at
the end of the evening. The exception to this will be when the judge specifically requests
audience participation.
Updated: April 2022