Competitions and Trophies

Internal Competitions

Competitions are an important part pf the club. While it is up to individual members to decide if they wish to enter competitions we do encourage members to do so. Competitions provide an opportunity for members to show their work to others and to benefit from constructive criticism given by highly experienced judges, so that we can all improve as photographers. Details of the various competitions are as follows. Online only members may also submit competition entries.

1. PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION (POY)

This competition takes place over six rounds comprising four un-themed (open) rounds, two monochrome rounds. For information about the dates of the competitions see the programme section of the website.

Each member can submit up to three images per round, with a maximum of 2 in either print or projected digital image(PDI) classes. E.g. 2 prints + 1 PDI or 2 PDI + 1 print

Uploading of images for print and digital entries to the website is required for this competition.

Printed copies of entries for print competitions should be brought along on the evening of the competition.

The competition rules and Uploading to the Club Website sections of the website provides information on how to upload digital copies of images and how to submit printed copies for competitions.

For monochrome images: 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.

You can download a scoresheet to record your own personal scores here.

There are three component trophies to the POY competition: POY (Accumulator), Overall POY (Placed) & Monochrome (Accumulator).

2a. POY (Accumulator)

This is the summation of commendations awarded by the judges over the six rounds, split into print and projected digital image (PDI) classes. A member's points in each class will accumulate from all but one round, dropping the lowest scoring or absentee round. The dropped round can be different for the print and PDI entries. Only the highest scoring image for each class in each round is accumulated.

Points will be awarded as follows:

Entry = 1
Commended = 2
Highly Commended = 3

Trophies will be awarded for both the print and PDI winners at the end of the season. In the event of a tie then the member with the most first placings wins, if still tied, the most second placings will win, if still tied, the most third placings will win. If still tied the lowest score will be dropped from the accumulator and the resulting highest score wins. If there is still a tie the award will be shared.

2b. Overall POY (Placed)

This is a summation of all images that have been awarded a placement by the judge (i.e., either a first, second or third place), print and PDI classes combined.

First, second, and third places will be awarded 3, 2 and 1 points respectively, and the points accumulated over all six rounds. Scoring for the Overall POY competition combines both printed and PDIs. If a member has both of their print or PDI entries placed in a single round, both placings count.

A trophy will be awarded for the overall winner at the end of the season. In the event of a tie then the member with the most first placings wins, if still tied, the most second placings will win, if still tied, the most third placings will win. If there is still a tie the award will be shared.

2c. Monochrome (Accumulator)

This is the summation of points awarded by the judges over the two monochrome rounds, split into print and PDI classes. A member's points in each class will accumulate both rounds. Only the highest scoring image for each class in each round is accumulated.

3. PANEL COMPETITION

This competition is limited to mounted prints only. Panel entries will consist of not less than three and not more than five mounted prints, which must have a common theme that ties them together. Judges will be looking for the overall impact of the panel, so layout and consistency are as important as the individual images.

Uploading of images is not required for this competition.

Each panel should be presented with a single label giving the name of the panel. A whole panel will be awarded first, second and third places, and a highly commended category. A trophy will be awarded to the winning panel at the end of the season.

4. BEST OF THE BEST COMPETITION

Entries will be taken from the first, second and third placings together with all Highly Commended entries if not awarded a placing, of the six POY rounds of the season. Entries will be judged separately by an external judge, and the judge will determine first, second and third placings for the printed and PDIs separately.

Uploading of images is not required for this competition, the projected version of all images will be organised by the Internal Competition Secretary. The mounted prints need to be submitted by the relevant members on competition night.

Trophies will be awarded for both the print and PDI category winners at the end of the season.

5. AWARDED TROPHIES

The trophy winners will hold their trophies for one year. In the event of a tie, a trophy will be held by each winner for an equal part of the year.

The list below is a summary of the awards:

Overall POY (Placed) Printed & Projected Digital Images (PDIs)
POY (Accumulator) Printed Images
POY (Accumulator) PDIs
Monochrome Printed Images
Monochrome PDIs
Panel of the year
Best of the Best Prints
Best of the Best Digital

Competitions and trophies