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As a member of the Plano Photography Club, you may submit your photographs in the club's monthly competition.
The competition year begins with the entries submitted at the May meeting and ends with the entries submitted at the following year's April meeting.
Futher details of the competition are listed below:
- Print
- Electronic
- Note: Color and black & white images are co-mingled
A note about image enhancement
It is required that the entered image originate as a photograph created by the entrant. It may include post processing enhancement
(chemical or digital processes) and added design elements if they were produced by the entrant.
The image must be the entrant's original
photograph and not merely graphic art created from scratch on the computer.
An image may originate on any media (film, digital or other - who knows what the future might bring) and may be entered in either division.
Film based images may be entered as either prints or electronic images, and digital images may be entered as either prints or electronic images.
An image must be the creation of the photographer. An image of solely other people's artwork (e.g., a wall mural, painting, etc.) is not acceptable.
If other people's artwork is included in an image, the photographer must contribute additional compositional elements, unique lighting, etc.
In all cases, the contest judge has the discretion to disqualify images that don't meet these criteria and/or to award points as they see fit.
Beginner (B)
Learning the basic operation of their camera. Learning the basic concepts of composition, exposure, lighting, and post processing of images.
Advanced (A)
Comfortable with the technical aspects of their camera. Knowledgeable to proficient in concepts of composition, exposure, lighting, and post processing
techniques for creating images. May be skillful in more than one genre of photography (e.g., landscape, portrait, macro, photojournalism, still life, etc.)
Master (M)
Can teach others concepts of composition, exposure, lighting and post processing of images. Has provided significant service to the club as an active
officer. Continues to provide service to the club as an active teacher, tabletop host, activity leader, etc. Has skills necessary to provide meaningful
critique of other's images. Skillful in multiple genres of photography (e.g., landscape, portrait, macro, photojournalism, still life, etc.)
New Entrants
New members choose to start in either Beginner or Advanced. Members are encouraged to select the proper class to compete in based on their
photography skills. No sandbagging, please.
Advancement
Each April, members who have earned 35 or more Beginner Place Points in the previous year must move up to Advanced class for the next year's
competition. Members who earn less than 35 Place Points the previous year can select which class they wish to compete in during the following
contest year (Beginner or Advanced). Members must remain in their competition class for the entire contest year.
Advancing to Master class requires achieving 35 or more Advanced Place Points the previous year, and service to the club and its members as an
officer. Members are selected into Master class via the annual review of the Board. Remaining in Master class requires continuing, regular service
to the club
and its members (officer, teach workshops, critique images, organize events, etc), and earning a minimum of 100 Image Points per year.
The Club
board will decide if each Master class member has met their service and Image Points requirements each year. Members achieving 35
or more
Advanced Place Points in a given year but not meeting the service requirement to move to Masters must continue to compete in the
Advanced class.
Six (6) assigned subjects and five (5) open subjects will be used for each contest year. Assigned subjects are selected annually by the Board.
One month each year the assigned subject will be Club Activity, where the image must have been taken at a club activity.
2 Electronic files or prints, or 1 electronic file and 1 print, per month, may be entered to be judged by the outside judge. Beginning with the May, 2007,
contest submission, only 2 electronic files or 2 prints per month may be entered, depending if it is an electronic contest or a print contest month.
Submissions to be judged must not have placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a previous PPC contest, in either division, print or electronic. Additionally,
substantially similar images created by the entrant who has already placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in either division with a given image should not be
entered. Finally, the same or substantially similar images should not be entered in both electronic and print in the same month.
Submissions must meet the following requirements:
Prints
- Prints must be mounted (with optional mat on top), cannot be framed
- Must be no larger than 16" x 24" and no smaller than 64 square inches.
- On the back of a print, indicate the top of the image and write your, name, class, and entry's title on a pre-printed label provided by the club.
- Sheets of these labels can be picked up at the contest table at the club meetings.
- Prints must be entered before the end of the meeting by placing prints in the appropriate stack on the Contest table.
Electronic Images
- Source of image can be any scanned photo, negative, 35mm slide or digital camera
- Color Space: sRGB (recommended)
- Maximum file size: 300Kb
- 72 dpi or less
- Maximum image dimensions: 1024 pixels wide x 768 pixels high. Images wider than 1024 pixels, or higher than 768 pixels will not fit
projection format and will be returned to maker.
- Format: JPEG
- Image file naming convention:
- INITIALS-imagetitle.jpg e.g. JD-africalandscape.jpg
- Use CAPS for initials and lowercase for Image title
- "INITIALS" = first and last name initials of submitter unless middle initial required for duplicates
The File Dimensions for submitting electronic images for the contest should adhere to a maximum size 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels tall
with 72 or smaller dpi. Finally, the file size should be 300kb or smaller. Do not confuse the image parameters with any printing parameters.
They are not related!
If you want to save your original image, make a duplicate to use for resizing and for submitting. These instructions are for Photoshop and remain the
same for every image you submit by email.
- Click on Image, followed by Resize and finally Image Resize...
- Set Resolution for image to 72 pixels/inch.
- Make sure that Constrain Proportions is checked on
- Resize your final image to a maximum of either 1024 pixels WIDTH and/or 768 pixels HEIGHT.
- NOTE: Images with a vertical orientation must still not exceed 768 pixels high, and thus your horizontal will be much less than 1024 pixels wide.
- Photoshop Image sizing example:
File size/Format is regulated by using EITHER "Save As ..." OR "Save for WEB", both options found under File drop down menu in Photoshop).
- Click OK. Your Image will now fit into 1024 x 768 dimensions.
- You can then use 2 options to save your resized files:
- OPTION 1: Save As ...
- Under File drop down menu, Click Save as... and enter a file name beginning with your initials in CAPS followed by the image title.
- Under Format, choose JPEG.
- In the JPEG Options dialog box, under Image Options, set Quality to 10 and Baseline ("Standard")
- Under Size, your file size should read less than 300K.
- Click Ok and this is the file you will submit.
- Photoshop Save As ... example:
- OPTION 2: Save for Web
- Ignore Option 2 if you are using Option 1 above.
- Under File drop down menu, Click Save for Web...
- In Preset, choose JPEG, Very High
- Check Optimized, but do not check Progressive or ICC Profile
- Under Quality enter the number 82 or move slider to about 82. You can move slider until you see a number near or under 300K
appear under image.
- Click Ok on the Save for Web box
- In the Save Optimized as, enter a file name beginning with your initials in CAPS followed by the image title.
- Click Ok and this is the file you will submit.
- Photoshop Save for Web ... example:
These Image Guidelines applies to both contest images and presentation images.
No images that depict the desecration of religious symbols, or show more female nudity than a bikini would show, or more male nudity than a
swimsuit would show, will be permitted at any Plano Photography Club activity at the Grace Presbyterian Church. See through fabrics will be
considered the same as exposed skin. The Program Chairperson is responsible to assure our speakers understand this and comply, and the
Contest Chairpeople (print and electronic) may disqualify any image that violates these guidelines before the contest results are presented to
the club.
Contest Chairpeople will scan all submitted images as soon as possible after receipt, and notify the submitter of any image disqualified due to the
above guidelines. The submitter will have an opportunity to enter a different image or to appeal the Contest Chairpeople's decision to the club
President(s). All contest entries will be forwarded to the judge for scoring, pending the outcome of the appeal process. Every effort will be made to
decide an appeal before the images are sent to the judge for scoring, but if images are submitted too close to the contest entry deadline, that may
not be possible. If the submitter chooses to not enter a different image and decides to appeal to the club President(s), they knowingly are taking a
risk that they may lose the appeal and not earn any points for that image. If a member is considering submitting a borderline image, they should
submit it as early as possible.
Members and presenters are asked to be considerate and to use good judgment when selecting contest and presentation images for our club.
Note: The disqualification of an image due to not meeting the contest subject is at the sole discretion of the judge, not the contest chairpeople.
Judge gives each entry 6 to 15 Image Points. Each image will be judged on its own merit and not in competition with other images. Image
Points will be awarded based on:
- Interest (2-5 points)
- Composition (2-5 points)
- Technique (2-5 points)
Judge may also select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place images and up to three Honorable Mentions in each class and division based on the creativity and
impact of the images. The judge will have total discretion in deciding which places to award, if any. Judge's scoring should also reflect
appropriateness of image when there is an assigned subject.
Image Points
- Begin at zero at the beginning of each contest year
- Determine the Photographer-of-the-Year (with the most points), top photographer in each Class, and Most Improved Photographer awards.
Place Points
- Begin at zero at the beginning of each contest year. Once 35 or more points are earned in a given year, the person is advanced to the next
Class at the end of the year, except Master Class which also requires service to the Club
- Are given for 1st place (10 points), 2nd place (6 points), 3rd place (3 points), and Best of Show Print or Digital (1 point). No points are awarded for Honorable Mention.
Monthly, the judge may select 1st, 2nd, 3rd places, and up to 3 Honorable Mentions for each Class and Division, and a Best of Show Print and a
Best of Show Electronic. Annually, the Club presents awards for:
- Photographer-of-the-Year (most Image Points). In case of point total ties, multiple awards will be given.
- Most Image Points in each Class
- Most Improved Photographer (largest increase in average monthly Image Points from the previous year for members that have participated
in at least 9 monthly contests both years)
- Electronic Image of the Year (selected by a judge). All images receiving a 1st or 2nd place award are eligible to be entered.
- Print of the Year (selected by a judge). All images receiving a 1st or 2nd place award are eligible to be entered.
All first place images, and all images receiving the same number of points as the first place image, will be included in the next month's newsletter.
A note about image critiques: It is the intent of the PPC board to implement a Master member image critique process during the 2007-2008 contest year. However, since this document deals with judged contests, it does not address the image critique process. The image critique process will be
published when it is available.
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