Gold Coast Photographic Society
Competition Rules 2010
Grades. The club has 3 Grades - a Beginners (B) Grade, an Intermediate (AB) Grade and an Advanced (A) Grade. There is a non-competitive New Member category for absolute beginners.
New Members may, for a limited period, elect to submit their work to the judge on competition night for assessment and comment. They may also present a folio of work to the Competition Committee for assessment. Once their presented work is judged by the Competition Committee to be of Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced Grade then they will be placed in the appropriate grade.
Beginner (B) Grade is for beginners and new members who do not have any work or past competition results that they can submit to the Competition Committee for grading.
The society’s recommended guideline for advancement to Intermediate (AB) Grade is the achievement of a minimum of 8 awards (Merits or Honours) from the date of joining the society. B-Graders who achieve 8 or more awards (Merits or Honours) will automatically advance to AB (Intermediate) Grade. If the work of a new B-Grader is clearly well ahead of the current B-Grade standard then the Competition Committee may elect to move the member to a higher grade.
Intermediate (AB) Grade is for members who have received the required minimum of 8 awards.
The society’s requirement for advancement to A-Grade is the achievement of a minimum of 8 awards (Merits plus a minimum of 2 Honours over the preceding 12 months). If the work of an AB-Grader is clearly well ahead of the current AB-Grade standard then the Competition Committee may elect to move the member to the higher grade.
Advanced (A) Grade is for members who have either reached the required standard for A-Grade (8 awards including 2 Honours in one year) or who qualified for A-Grade in 2008 or earlier and who elected to remain in A-Grade when the new Intermediate (AB) Grade was introduced (from 2009).
From 2010 a Certificate will be awarded to a member when he/she qualifies to move up to a higher grade.
Entries for monthly competitions: The monthly competition is only open to financial members. Members may enter up to 2 images in each of the “Set Subject” and “Open” sections in each of the following categories with the proviso that the maximum overall number of images that a member may enter each month is 4. This includes “Set” and “Open” entries in each of the 3 Categories above.
1. Mono Prints 2. Colour Prints 3. Digital Projected Images.
- Entries to the monthly competitions of GCPS should best represent the current work of the maker and, as such, a time limit of the previous 5 years should apply to all entries. Members are expected to make their entries in good faith and within the spirit of the society. Obviously older images are not encouraged.
- The Set Subject list for the competition year (the list of subjects for the competition year from January to November) will be announced by the outgoing committee before the end of the current competition year. The Open Competition is for all other images submitted
- Print Images are submitted a month in advance at the prior Competition/Exhibition Night meeting (2nd Thursday of the month) in accordance with the listed subjects. Entry details are to be recorded on the forms provided at the time that the prints are submitted.
- Digital Images are also required a month in advance and should be prepared and sent to the Competition Secretary as follows: (critical requirements are underlined)
- Email your entries to sparrowk@optusnet.com.au
- Subject title of the email to be the Month you are entering - eg GCPS March
- Image file-name must include PIN, Grade, Open/Set and Title (eg 72A Open Tree)
- Image dimensions to be no larger than 1024 pixels wide x 768 pixels high
- Image should be in the sRGB colour space.
- Maximum size (Kb) of each image no larger than 1,000Kb (1Mb)
- Emailed entries to be received no later than the previous competition night.
- Alternatively images may be supplied on CD at one of the previous meetings
- External judging. The images are usually sent away to a Photographic Society of Queensland (PSQ) accredited Judge who will subsequently give a critique for each image at the following “Exhibition” night. On occasions a non-PSQ judge may be invited to carry out the judging.
- A print or projected image may be entered twice in the same or subsequent year (unless it receives a Merit or Honour in which case it may not be re-submitted) in the same or any other category, format or grade (eg open/set, print/digital, B-, AB- or A-Grade).
- New members who are intending to enter the Monthly Competitions must contact the Competition Secretary to obtain their Personal Identification Number (PIN) and are asked to submit a small portfolio of their work to the Competition Committee for assessment and grading if possible.
- All Print Entries are to be identified with
- GCPS and your PIN and Grade (eg GCPS 65A) plus
- Mono Print or Colour Print section
- Set Subject or Open Competition category
- Title of the Image No personal names should appear on the entries. This is very important for External Judging but is not so critical for Internal “Impact” Judging.
- Where the orientation of a print may not be obvious to the judge, it should be marked with an ↑ (up arrow) at the top middle on the back of the print.
- All prints must be mounted (except for New Member “entries for comment”). Entries need to be either surface mounted or mounted in a cardboard mat. The back of the print in a mat should be covered with cardboard the same size as the mat with care being taken not to leave bits of sticky material on the cardboard as this can damage other member’s work.
- Thickness of the print and mount should not exceed a maximum of 4-5 mm for External Judging while a thickness of 5-6 mm is acceptable for local Impact Judging.
- Maximum Mount size for any print being sent for external judging should be 400mm x 500mm (absolute maximum size is 16” x 20”) to facilitate packing in the print box. Oversize prints cannot be accepted as they will not fit into the transport box.
- Minimum Print size is 125mm x 175mm (5” x 7”) before mounting.
JUDGING: The Judge is encouraged to view each image according to the following criteria :
- Visual/Artistic Impression – eg Holds Attention, Artistic Impression, Originality,.
- In line with PSQ’s emphasis on art in Photography (The SMART Guidelines)
- Subject – eg Viewpoint, Isolate distractions, Format, Centre of Interest, Perspective etc.
- Technique – eg Cropping, Sharpness, Exposure, Printing Contrast, Use of light, Degree of difficulty (control of focus, depth of field, shutter speed, aperture) etc.
Judges are asked to assess the entries by grade in each section and to make awards as they deem appropriate, awarding an Honour for outstanding work and a Merit for excellent work that is not quite at the Honour level. All other entries are deemed to be “Acceptances” unless the work is considered by the judge to be “off category” in a “Set Subject” section or not an acceptable photographic or technical standard in which case it is considered to be a “Non-Acceptance”.
When we have 3 judges using the RMF Electronic Scoring system:
- An image scoring an average of 8.3 to 9.0 will be awarded an Honour
- An image scoring an average of 7.0 to 8.0 will be awarded a Merit.
- An image scoring an average of 6.7 and lower will be an Acceptance only.
AWARDS: At the end of the year there will be a small trophy plus a certificate awarded to the Best Performers in each of the 3 Categories (Mono Prints, Colour Prints and Digitally Projected Images) based on the points total for Merits and Honours gained throughout the Exhibition Year. There will be a Certificate for 2nd and 3rd places in each category.
Points are used to determine the winners. A Merit = 1.0 point and an Honour = 2.0 Points.
The trophy will be engraved:
Most Awarded Performer………………….. Category………………….Year…………………..
The iMMAGE Perpetual Trophy will be awarded at the end of each year to the member with the Most Awards (Merits and Honours points) from all 3 categories combined. Points are used to determine the winner with 1 Merit = 1.0 point and 1 Honour = 2.0 points. This trophy will be laser engraved with the recipient’s name and year. The winner will also be presented with a trophy or medallion to keep.
The trophy will be engraved:
Most Awarded Performer………………….. Year……………….
The Brian Hall Nature Award.
This competition will not necessarily be held on a Competition Night and may be held on the 4th Thursday of a nominated month. From 2009 there will be 2 categories – Print and Digital Projected Images with a maximum of 4 entries per person in either or both categories. In 2010 the Brian Hall Nature Award will be held on the Competition Night on 14th January, 2010.
These entries may have been entered in competition previously but must not have been entered in “The Brian Hall Nature Award” in any previous year. There is a Perpetual Brian Hall Trophy for Nature Prints, donated by Brian Hall’s Family, which is passed on to the winner for a period of 12 months each year and which will be engraved with “Winner’s Name”, “Year” and “Title of Image”. Other awards may be presented. All members are encouraged to participate in this event. A similar trophy for digital entries is presented (since 2009).
END OF YEAR COMPETITION
This will be held on the 2nd Thursday in December (9th Dec 2010) (Competition/Exhibition night). Members are invited to submit up to 4 images in each of the following categories.
However, no more than a total of 20 images may be submitted in categories 1 - 6 by any one member in this competition. The “Creative” sections stand alone.
All images in categories 1- 6 must have received a Merit or Honour during the year.
1. Mono Prints - Open. Max of 4 entries.
2. Mono Prints - Set Subject Max of 4 Entries.
Mark the subject for which the image was entered on the back.
3. Colour Prints – Open Max of 4 Entries.
4. Colour Prints – Set Subject Max of 4 Entries.
Mark the subject for which the image was entered on the back.
5. DP Images – Open Max of 4 Entries.
6. DP Images – Set Subject Max of 4 Entries.
Record the subject for which the image was entered in the title.
In addition there are two open “Creative” sections for Prints and Projected Images:
7. Creative – Open - Print Max of 4 Entries. One combined category.
These entries do not have to have been entered during the year and can be either Print or Digital Projected Image.
8. Creative – Open - DPI Max of 4 Entries. One combined category.
These entries do not have to have been entered during the year and can be either Print or Digital Projected Image.
EOY Judging will be “Impact” Judging by a panel of 3 Independent judges for all categories.
A, AB and B Grade entries will be considered equally.
There will be a Trophy and Certificate awarded for the Best Image and
Certificates for 2nd and 3rd places
in each category.
Ken Sparrow
Competition Secretary
Tel: 07 5529 5357
Mob; 0412 272 838