Revised January 06, 2008
Virginia Beach Photography Club
(download a pdf version of these rules here)
Competition Rules and Regulations
Competitions are held at monthly meetings. The competition themes alternate between assigned and open categories. Assigned categories for the year are listed in the newsletter or on the clubs website. The photographer may choose any topic for the open category.
Members who are in good standing and present at the meeting may enter one photograph in each of the following categories:
Slides: Color or Monochrome
Color Prints
Black & White, and Sepia Prints
Alternative Prints
Photograph Eligibility Requirements:
All submissions must be taken with either a film or digital camera and be the original work of the member submitting the photograph. Photographs that have won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in previous VBPC competitions cannot be entered a second time. Other previously submitted work, including Honorable Mention, may be reentered in a future monthly competition.
Requirements for Color, Black & White, and Sepia Print Submission:
* Prints may range in size from a minimum of 5 x 7 to a maximum of 16 x 20. Polaroid photographs may be smaller
* Each print must be mounted. Mounted prints may be matted but cannot be framed. The mounting or matting cannot exceed 20” x 24”.
* The picture title is required and must be followed by the photographer’s name on the back of the mounted print. This information is prohibited on the front of the print.
* Arrows should be drawn on the back side of the mount to indicate the proper direction for display.
* Hand-colored prints will be accepted in the Color Print Category only.
* Sepia toned prints will be accepted in the B&W category.
* The following digital dark room techniques may be utilized: dodging, burning, cropping, straightening, key stoning correction, levels, curves, contrast, sharpening, and color adjustments to the photograph as a whole.
* The following digital dark room techniques are not allowed in this section, but are allowed in the Alternate Print section: adding or deleting any items in the displayed portion of the photograph; enhancing, blurring, color adjusting, etc. any item or portion of the photograph; masking; or sandwiching photographs.
* B&W digital photographs must be devoid of any additional colors. Some digital dark room techniques that convert a color picture to black and white often leave traces of other colors in the photograph. Purple, red, and blue hues are sometimes seen in the black portions of converted photographs. It is important to remove all traces of additional colors.
If you have questions about any other digital dark room techniques please address your queries to the competition committee.
Requirements for Slide Submission:
* Slides of any size are allowed.
* Each slide must be spotted in the lower left corner to indicate how it should be orientated for viewing
* The photographer’s entry number must be marked next to the spot. The title must be written on the wide border opposite the entry number.
Requirements for Alternative Print Submission:
* Photos that have been altered in any way, other than using standard dark room or digital dark room techniques previously listed, should be entered in this category
* This includes but is not limited to:
- Adding or deleting items from a photograph
- Altering or enhancing portions of a photograph
- Stitching multiple prints together to form a panorama photograph
- Combining two or more photographs to form a montage.
- Applying filters that convert the photograph to a different form such as sketching, water color, distortions, etc.
* Polaroid
- Emulsion transfer
- Polaroid transfer
- Manipulated Polaroid print
* Cyanotype (blue) and Van Dyke (brown)
- Gumbichromate
- 4 x 5 contact prints
- Others as may be determined to not fit standard categories.
* All other requirements for print submission should be followed.
NOTE: The competition committee reserves the right to reject any photograph not meeting the requirements outlined above.
Competition Procedures:
All entries submitted for judging must be signed in between 6:45 and 7:15 p.m. Sign in sheets will be provided for each competition category. Members shall write the title of the photograph adjacent to the entry number. With the exception of slides, the entry number and the title of the photograph shall be visibly affixed to the photograph or mounting area (sticky note tabs provided). The photograph should then be placed in the hallway or on display tables, according to entry number order, for each designated category. Members submitting slides will place their slide in the slide protector sheet according to their entry number order. At 7:15 p.m., entry sign in sheets will be removed and no more entries will be accepted. The members would be allowed to view them till the start of the meeting at 7:30 pm at which time a four person team of judges (Three judges and one alternate judge) will evaluate each image and rate them by a FIVE point system based on the following criteria:
Complies with Subject category: The images for each category will be evaluated as to how well they comply with the category theme for each month. The open category months will be awarded 5 points by default.
Impact: The degree the image grabs your attention or stands out from the other images. It does not have to illicit a positive feeling or emotion.
Composition/ Arrangement: Does the photo comply with basic rules of composition or does the arrangement the photographer chooses achieve good composition without following basic compositional rules.
Focus/ Sharpness: This should be based on the content of the photo. An example is motion blur, this image should be judged as to the degree to which the motion blur was creatively used to create an effective image. Also other selective focus techniques will be judged in the same manner.
Exposure/ Lighting: This will evaluate the correct use of exposure and its creative use based on the content of the image. This includes the creative use of underexposure and overexposure to produce, for example, a silhouette.
Originality/ Creativity: This applies to the creative use of any known photography technique and its use in a way that is very unusual or original. This also can apply to the image in a general sense.
Quality of Print: The print will be evaluated on its overall presentation. This includes the mat and the photo paper, the appropriateness of the color of the mat, overall neatness and anything about the presentation that takes away from the image.
The judges will write the number of the photo on each ballot and return them to the competition committee after judging all the photos. The competition committee will then count the points on each ballot and record them. The ballots will also serve as a mini-critique of each photo and will be returned to each photo along with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and HM ribbons prior to the end of the meeting.
Any member in good standing may sign up to be a judge. Judges should have a basic knowledge of the above criteria and be capable of making an unbiased judgment as to the quality of the photos presented in all categories. Judges will not be allowed to evaluate their own photos or any photo that they have had examined prior to the competition. Each judge is responsible for notifying the competition committee or the alternate judge when this situation arises.
The competition committee will determine the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Honorable Mention place winners for each competition category by tallying the ballots. The following guidelines will be used to tally ballots and determine place winners for the monthly competition:
The ballots; three per photo, will be combined for each photo and the photo with the highest number of points (Maximum 147 points) will be awarded first place and the remaining awards in order of descending number of points.
1st Place (a minimum of 2 participants is required for an award)
2nd Place (a minimum of 3 participants is required for an award)
3rd Place (a minimum of 4 participants is required for an award)
Honorable Mention 4th highest placement (a minimum of 9 participants is required for an award)
According to the number of participants in each category, one award will be presented for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Honorable Mention. In the event of ties, the competition committee will determine the place awarded based on the number of high ratings in individual criteria. Awards for the monthly contest will be presented the night of the meeting.
ANNUAL COMPETITION
There are three types of annual awards given.
1. Category Awards (8)
2. Photographer Of The Year Award (1)
3. Photo Of The Year Award (4)
Category Awards:
The four monthly competition categories (Black and White, Color, Slide, and Alternative) are subdivided into Assigned subject and Unassigned subject for the annual competition. Thus, 8 Category Awards are given.
* Black and White Unassigned
* Black and White Assigned
* Color Unassigned
* Color Assigned
* Slide Unassigned
* Slide Assigned
* Alternative Unassigned
* Alternative Assigned
Monthly competition winners are awarded annual points toward the Category Awards as follow:
1st place monthly photo 4 annual points
2nd place monthly photo 3 annual points
3rd place monthly photo 2 annual points
Honorable Mention monthly photo 1 annual point
The member with the most annual points in a category at the end of the year will receive that Category Award.
Photographer Of The Year Award
The member earning the most accumulated monthly points for all categories combined will receive the Photographer Of The Year Award.
Photo Of The Year Award
All first place photographs from January through December of the current year will be entered in an end-of-the-year cross category competition for Photo of the Year. The board will select judges for this contest, and four awards will be presented - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Honorable Mention places.