Number of images that may be entered in any competition round

Members may enter a maximum of three images. Either:

• two printed images and one projected digital images (PDIs)  

or

• one printed images and two projected digital images (PDIs)

for any competition round, except for the panel competition.

Unless otherwise stated in specific competition rules, digital copies of all competition entries (both print and projected) MUST be uploaded to the club website on or before midnight on the Thursday prior to the competition.

General Rules

Entrants must be paid-up WPS members. Online only members can enter competitions and feedback will be provided to them via a Committee member who will take notes of the judges comments. 

An image entered as a print that is substantially the same as a PDI entry is regarded, for the purpose of this rule, as the same image, and therefore can only be entered in one category on a competition night. The image that was uploaded to the club website last will take precedence in this instance.

An image, however sourced, from which the printed or PDIs were derived, must be the work of the submitting member. In the case of composite images (e.g., sky replacement), all components must be the work of the submitting member. Images taken at organised club evenings or commercial workshops where the subject and lighting were not set-up by the author will not be accepted.

An image cannot be entered that is substantially the same as one that has previously gained a placing (first, second or third) in any WPS competition or one that is awarded a trophy at the end of the season.

To maintain unbiased judging, the member's name or initials must not appear on the front of an image or mount.

During judging, members must not make any comments, call out or act in any way to try to influence the judge, either in a negative or positive way.

Monochrome Competitions

For monochrome competitions, the image may contain only varying tones of a single colour or hue.

Thus greyscale covers all tones of grey, e.g. from black to white, and sepia covers all tones of brown, e.g. from brownish grey to deep olive brown.

A monochrome image containing an additional colour or tone (even to just a part of the image) will be considered as a colour image and may not be entered into a monochrome competition.

Mounted Prints

Unless otherwise stated in specific competition rules, members can submit either one or two printed images per competition round, depending on the number of projected digital images that are entered in the same round.

Prints entered into print competitions must be mounted.

As a guide, most prints are displayed in either a black or white 40x50cm mount. However, for competitions the size and colour of the mount are not mandatory.

For club exhibitions a 40x50cm white mount is required.

Each print entered into the competition must be clearly marked on the back with the member's name, membership number and image title. 

On competition night, all entries must be present 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the competition i.e. typically before 19:50.

If entering 2 prints, each print must be placed into a separate pile, the first for “first choice” and the second for “second choice”.

When there are too many printed images entered into a competition (at the discretion of the Internal Competition Secretary and/or Chair), none of the prints from the “second choice” pile will be used. 

Digital copies of print entries must also be uploaded to the club website as described on the Uploading to the Club Website page.

Projected Digital Images (PDIs)

Unless otherwise stated in specific competition rules, members can submit either one or two PDIs images per competition round, depending on the number of prints that are entered in the same round.

These should be uploaded to the club website as described on the Uploading to the Club Website page. 

If uploading two PDIs please indicate your first and second choice of image when uploading.

If there are too many images submitted, at the discretion of the internal competition secretary or chair, only the first-choice images will be entered for judging.

Club Competitions and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Software

Editing tools that use AI technologies to edit and transform photos

The use of software for editing images such as cloning, compositing, sky replacement, blurring, etc. are accepted forms of image making, as these are methods that were originally used in the darkroom. The introduction of AI assisted editing tools is an extension of these techniques. Therefore, the use of these tools is permitted to edit and post-process images entered into club competitions. However this does not supersede the requirement that ALL assets used within an image must be the author’s own work.
 

AI software that creates AI-generated images from scratch

The use of AI software and applications to create an artificial-intelligence-generated image from scratch is not allowed, since the resulting image would not be the work of the author, but computer generated. Consequently, such images would not come within the currently accepted definition of a digital photograph.

In-Camera AI 

Modern cameras and phones include elements of AI such as autofocus, face/eye detection, etc. in their construction. Such in-camera features and processing are permitted for images that are entered in club competitions..
 

Judgement by Single External Judge

All competitions will be judged by a single external judge who will award as described here and select a first, second and third placing.

For the Photographer of the Year and Best of the Best competitions, scores will be given to all images submitted. For the Panel competition there will be a single score for the whole Panel or a rating of 1st to 3rd and highly commended.