Internal competition rules

Internal competition rules

General

Images must be entirely the work of the photographer, including all components of composite images.
Novice competitions are 'open' i.e. any subject allowed.
Natural history entries must comply with the PAGB 2018 Nature Definition rules (see below).
Mono entries must only be monochrome or black and white.
No natural history images to be entered into the Colour Projected or Colour Print of the Year competition.
In all competitions no images are allowed that are ‘substantially similar’ to images entered into previous monthly competitions. However, any image that has been entered before and has scored 14 points or less may be entered again in another season.
All internal competitions are managed through Photo Entry software; Photo Entry (https://compent.photoentry.uk/compent/) is an online program which lets people upload their competition photos directly (rather than emailing them to the competition secretary). To sign up to Photo Entry, please send your first name, surname and email address to the Internal competition secretary, James Sidgwick (jamsidg@hotmail.com).
In order to ensure that the number of images to be judged for a given competition remains manageable, it may be necessary for the Competition Secretary to reduce the maximum number of images per entrant for some sections of the competition after entries have been submitted, which will result in some entries being ‘culled’. Photo Entry will cull images according to the priority order of the entries (the lowest in the entry order being culled first); with this in mind, entrants should ensure that their images are ordered correctly when submitting their images on Photo Entry, with the highest priority image being ordered first and the lowest priority image being ordered last. Culled images may be submitted into subsequent competitions.

Lesser Redpole Pair in Winter by Gianpiero Ferrari

Prints can be any size up to 40 x 50cm and preferably displayed in a mount. Maximum mount size is 40 x 50cm.
Titles should be provided on the rear of the mounts.
PDI copies of the print entries should be submitted through PhotoEntry 4 days before the competition.

PDI

Digital images should be jpegs and sized 1600 x 1200 pixels with colour space sRGB.
PDIs should be entered through the PhotoEntry software no later than 11 days before the competition.

Scoring Print and PDI Competitions

Awards are given to the winners of each section within each competition; therefore, awards are given to the winners of the PDI Advanced Colour, PDI Advanced Mono, PDI Advanced Natural History and PDI Novice, and likewise for Prints.
All images are scored out of 20 and the scores for each section will be summed as follows: the top 2 scores from each competition ‘heat’ (of which there will normally be three across the season) will be carried forwards, with the winner of each section being the photographer with the highest total of carried forward scores.
Three additional awards will be given for those entering the Advanced categories: a ‘Print Photographer of the Year’ award to the entrant with the highest cumulative score for the Advanced Print competition and a ‘PDI Photographer of the Year’ award to the entrant with the highest cumulative score for Advanced PDI competition. Finally, a ‘Photographer of the Year’ award will be given to the entrant with the highest cumulative score across both the Advanced Print and Advanced PDI competitions.

The Call at Dusk by Tony Ng

Panel - Print and PDI

A panel consists of 4 images, ideally based on a common theme.
Members can enter 3 panels as PDIs or prints .
The entry requirements for prints and PDIs are as above.
When submitting your entry on PhotoEntry, 5 images should be submitted for each panel

Images 1-4: The four individual photos that make up the panel (for which titles can optionally be provided) each sized at 1600 x 1200 pixels.

Image 5: The panel itself: a composite of your PDIs in a 2 x 2 matrix, the image size of the composite should be 1600 x 1200 pixels. A title should be provided for the panel.
Panels must contain at least 2 images not used in any previous club competitions.

Scoring Panel Competitions
The Panel competitions are divided into two sections: Advanced and Novice.
The winners of each section will be the entrants with the best overall panels, as selected by the judge.

PAGB Nature Definition (revised 2018)

Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict all branches of natural history except anthropology and archaeology, in such a fashion that a well-informed person will be able to identify the subject material and certify its honest presentation.

The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement.

Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening, is allowed.

Cloning of image defects and minor distractions, including overlapping elements, are permitted when these do not distort the truth of the photographic statement.

Images entered as Nature can have landscape, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with the subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where the subjects are totally dependent on man for food.

Sparrowhawk by Jamie MacArthur

Mayfly by Jon Mee