Competition Rules

There are two main types of competitions: Individual challenge and League competitions.

  • Challenge competitions are conducted in a single round and have a theme. One print and one PDI may be entered.2 3
  • League competitions PDI & Print are conducted over four rounds of two images in each round1. There are trophies awarded at the end of the season, one each for the overall league winners of the print and PDI leagues, one each for the print and PDI monochrome entries, one each for the print and PDI colour entries. The competitor who gains the highest total of points in the league competitions during the season will be awarded the appropriate trophy.

1 (19 Nov 24) Now that print entry numbers have increased, number of entries has reverted to two.

2 (Apr 25) Due to increase in entries PDI challenge competition entries now restricted to one. League and Print competitions remain as a maximum of two entries.

3 (Nov 25) Due to an increase in entries for Print challenge competitions, entries are now restricted to one. League and Print competitions remain as a maximum of two entries.

Competitions are open to all fully paid up members of the Club.

All competitions shall be judged by an external judge with the exception of the Safari which is judged by the organiser.

We no longer charge an additional fee for entry into competitions, this is included in your membership fee.

Trophies will be presented at the Club’s annual Presentation Evening.

The following rules shall be strictly adhered to. Entries not meeting these conditions will be excluded from the competition.

  • Entries, unless stated elsewhere, must be submitted on or before the Sunday preceding the competition. Also, prints must be brought to the venue before 7:30pm on the evening of the competition.
  • All competition entries will be scored out of ten; half marks may be given.
  • For all individual challenge competitions the judge will also be asked to select 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, and they may optionally award “highly commended” to any images.
  • Unless otherwise stated, entered images may be colour, monochrome or a mix of both.
  • Similar images, cropped or manipulated are to be considered as if they were the same image. Where similar images are produced from photographs taken at almost the same time, or minor changes have been made to an existing work, for these rules they will be treated as if they are the same image.
  • No work may be re-entered in the same competition or class and no image may be presented more than once on the same evening.
  • Unless specified elsewhere in these rules, a piece of work containing multiple images (such as a triptych) may be entered.
  • Titles are for identification purposes only and shall be read out prior to judging – a title should not be reused on a different image by the same member.
  • No markings on the front of a mount, image or within an audio-visual sequence may identify the entrant.
  • The work will be shown to the judge in a random order.
  • Before every competition the judge is entitled to see every piece of work prior to starting judging. For PDIs this is by viewing each image for four seconds and for Prints by viewing on the stands or in piles if there is insufficient space.
  • Images that are obscene, pornographic, likely to cause offence or have been obtained illegally may not be entered in Club competitions.
  • Monochrome images must be standard ‘black and white’ monochrome images. They may be modified by the addition of a single colour tone to the whole image.

    All other images are defined as colour images. Any partial colour toning of the image renders it a colour image.

  • The Club does not distinguish between Amateur and Professional status.

In an effort to make the challenge competitions more interesting and fair the following rule applies:

All images entered into the challenge competitions must be new work and must not have been used in any other competition in any season. There are two exceptions to this: if the picture has been used within an AV, or only entered into the “His & Hers” competition, the picture will still be considered as “new”.

Therefore if an image has been used in one of the challenge (Themed or Portrait) competitions, it may not be entered into any other challenge competition. It could however still be entered into the PDI and/or print leagues at a later date. An image that has been entered into the PDI and/or print league, cannot be subsequently re-used in any future challenge competition. However, PDI league images can still be re-entered into the print league and vice versa.

If you are in any doubt over the eligibility of an image, please check with the Internal Competition Secretary before entering the work.

Copyright

The Club applies the current PAGB rule for eligibility:

Images entered into competitions must be entirely the work of the photographer. Composite images are permitted provided all component images meet this requirement. 

For the avoidance of doubt, use of images from any other source including, but not limited to, royalty free image banks, computer generated images, and clipart (including textures and borders, other than simple lines) are not permitted.   When editing images the use of content aware cloning and spot healing is permitted, however Generative AI is not permitted if this utilises parts of images that are not the work of the photographer.

How to create a competition print

How to create a competition PDI

Use of Images

It is assumed all entries may be shown on the Club website, in Club promotional material, in local media (online/print) and represent the Club in its exhibitions and external competitions (SCPF and elsewhere) unless the author advises the Club.

If a member is also a member of another PAGB federation affiliated club it is their responsibility to ensure that each item of work represents only one club.