Internal Competitions: Overview and Rules

  1. Overview

Three different internal competition series are held each season: 

  1. PDI (Projected Digital Image).

  2. Print.

  3. Three of a kind.

The PDI and Print competitions are each held across 4 ‘heats’ (or evenings) across the season, with winners decided based upon a combined score across the season while the Three of a kind panel competition will be held on a single evening during the season (as summarised in the following table). Detailed rules for all 3 series are detailed further below on this page.

2. Internal Competition Rules

Detailed rules for these internal competitions are covered in the below sections. Entrants are responsible for reading, understanding and following these rules. Any comments or questions should be addressed to the Internal Competition Secretary (James Sidgwick (jamsidg@hotmail.com)).

2.1. General Rules

  1. Images must be entirely the work of the photographer, including all components of composite images, and all post-processing:

    a) For further information and guidance please refer to the PAGB Discussion document in PAGB E-news Issue 338 EXTRA. This can be found here.

    b) If any further guidance/advice is required please, in the first instance consult the Internal Competition Secretary.

  2. All images entered in internal competitions must be eligible for use by the club in future external competitions (for example, they must not have already been used in previous external competitions).

  3. In all competitions no images are allowed that are ‘substantially similar’ to images entered into previous internal competitions. However, any image that has been entered before and has scored 14 points or less may be entered again in another season.

  4. All internal competitions (including Prints and PDIs) are managed through Photo Entry software; Photo Entry (use this link) is an online program which lets people upload their competition photos directly. 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).

  5. The deadlines for entries are given on PhotoEntry; they will generally be 11 days before the competition for a competition held on Zoom and 4 days if held in the club room.

  6. Digital images should be jpegs and sized 1600 x 1200 pixels with colour space sRGB.

  7. Prints can be any size up to 40 x 50cm and must be displayed in a 40 x 50cm mount; the prints must be brought along by 19:15 on the evening of the competition (to allow time for the judge to view them beforehand) and titles must be provided on the rear of the mounts.

  8. Entrants will be assigned to a class (Members, Intermediate Members or Advanced Members) at the start of each season (or when joining the club if they join after the start of the season).

  9. In the event of a tie in any of the competitions, a countback system will be used (the photographer with the most 20’s will the winner, and if there is still a tie, then the photographer with the most 19’s…, until a winner is decided).

  10. 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 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.

2.2. Three of a kind competition

  1. A panel will consist of three images that should ideally follow a theme (i.e. be three of a kind).

  2. For this competition entrants will not be assigned to a class and there will be just 2 sections, print and DPI.

  3. Members of the club can enter 2 panels, and the top three panels in each section (dip and print) will be chosen by members who will vote for their favourite on the night.

  4. Voting will take place in the club room (members joining on Zoom will not be allowed to take part in the vote).

  5. Panels must contain at least 2 images not used in any previous or future club competitions.

  6. All panel competitions (including Prints and PDIs) will be managed through Photo Entry software. When submitting your entry on Photo Entry, 4 images should be submitted for each panel:

  • Images 1-3 : The four individual photos that make up the panel (for which titles can optionally be provided), each sized at 1600 x 1200 pixels.

  • Image 4: The panel itself: a composite of your PDIs for which the image size should be 1600 x 1200 pixels. A title should be provided for the panel.

2.3. Advanced PDI and Advanced Print

  1. Mono entries must only be monochrome or black and white.

  2. No natural history images to be entered into the Colour PDI or Colour Print competitions.

  3. Natural history entries must comply with the PAGB 2018 Nature Definition rules (see below).

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.