Competition Rules
1. INTRODUCTION
This document constitutes the By-Laws of Cape Town Photographic Society drawn up and approved by the Council of Cape Town Photographic Society in terms of Clause 4.3.13 of the Constitution. These By-Laws establish the Rules for the various prints, projected images (digital and slides) and audio-visual divisions of the Cape Town Photographic Society under which the Society's competitions shall be held, the various awards shall be made and trophies and medals shall be awarded. The Council shall be responsible for the making of awards and awarding trophies.
2. PRINTS AND PROJECTED IMAGES (DIGITAL AND SLIDES) DIVISIONS
2.1 Classification of Photographers
For competition purposes photographers shall be classified as Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced or Salon. Promotion from one class to the next shall be by accumulation of points gained in competition as prescribed in paragraph 2.3 below. A new member of the Society shall be classified as Beginner unless he/she substantiates to the satisfaction of the Council that he/she has gained a higher status at a photographic society/club recognised by the Council in which case the Council shall determine into which class such member shall fall.
2.2 Society Competitions
Society competitions for prints (monochrome and colour), projected images (digital or film) shall normally be held once in each month. Photographs entered for Projected Images and Print Competitions must have been taken by the entrant. The photographs entered into competitions must be original and must not have been entered into any other competition whatsoever before the night of the competition.
The number of entries permitted in the different subject categories in the monthly projected images and print competitions shall be determined by the Council. Prints or projected images may be entered once only unless material alterations have been effected in which case re-submission shall be permitted and points gained for both entries shall be credited to the entrant.
Competition entries shall be judged by three or more judges appointed by the Committee. (A judge may not score their own image and the average of the other judges will be added instead). The judges shall award points up to a total of 30 for each entry, no account will be taken of the classification of the entrant thereof whose name and classification shall not be known to the judge(s) at the time of judging.
The original image must be made by the entrant with a camera. All images must be original and must not incorporate elements produced by anyone else. By virtue of submitting an entry, the entrant certifies the work as his/her own. The club assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright by the entrant. Any modification of the original image must be made by the entrant.
The points so awarded shall gain for the entrant a Gold, Silver or Red award on the basis of the following minimum number of points.
| Gold | Silver | Red | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salon | 24 | 20 | 16 |
| Advanced | 22 | 18 | 14 |
| Intermediate | 20 | 18 | 12 |
| Beginner | 18 | 14 | 10 |
2.2.1 The number of entries allowed
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A maximum of three images are allowed
A maximum of two images in either medium, PDI or print.
A maximum of two images in the Open category.
Note that it is not compulsory to enter the Set subject.
The photographs entered into competitions must be original and must not have been entered into any other competition whatsoever before the night of the competition. Images may be older than 1 year.
2.2.2 Submission Deadlines:
Projected Digital Images must be uploaded to the website by 23h00 on the Wednesday preceding the competition. See the Competitions page for instructions.
Print titles (as detailed in 4.1) must be emailed to competitions@ctps.co.za by 23h00 on the Wednesday preceding the competition. The Print needs to be presented to the convenor by 18h40 on the night of the competition.
2.3 Promotion
Promotion from one class of photographer to the next shall be achieved by accumulation of the number of points awarded in Society competitions and/or for Salon acceptances as prescribed below. For this purpose points shall be awarded on the basis of 3 for each Salon (National or International) acceptance and 3, 2 & 1 respectively for a Gold, Silver and Red award referred to in paragraph 2.2 above.
It is the onus of the Salon entrant to advise the Projected Digital Image or Print Convenor (as the case may be) by means of the prescribed form of salon acceptance; the name and date of the Salon and titles of accepted work shall be stated on the form and this information shall be given to the appropriate Convenor within three months of the date of the Salon. Projected Images and prints may earn points in not more than three Salons.
Requirements for promotion are:
From Beginner to Intermediate:
30 points including any gained from Salon acceptances and including a minimum of 3 Gold Awards in Society competitions
From Intermediate to Advanced:
40 points including any gained from Salon acceptances and including a minimum of 5 Gold Awards in Society competitions.
From Advanced to Salon:
30 points from Salon acceptances and 30 points including 5 Gold Awards in Society competitions. 50 Gold Awards in the Advanced Class in Society Competitions will also qualify for promotion to the Salon class.
Excess points, either from Society Competitions or Salons, gained for any one class (of photographer) shall not be carried over for purposes of promotion to the next class.
Should the work entered in Society competitions by a Beginner or Intermediate Class photographer in the opinion of the Council show him/her to deserve classification in a higher class, the Council may invite him/her to present a panel of 12 prints or projected images (as the case may be) for the purpose of promotion to an appropriate class. The panel may include work previously entered in Society competitions.
3. REQUIREMENTS FOR PROJECTED IMAGES
3.1 All entries must comply with the following file naming convention:
The file name must be in 3 groups, each separated by an underscore.
First Group: Set (for Set Subject) or Open (for Open category). If you have two entries in the Set Subject it will be Set_1, Set_2.
Second Group: The presentation order of your images. 1 or 2. They must be numbered, starting at 1 for the Set subject and 1 for the Open Category.
Third Group: The_Title_of_the_image_by_Author. (The word by separates Title and Author and is very important and a requirement).
Note that you are allowed uppercase. Please do not use spaces.
Examples of correctly named files:
Example 1: Set_1_This_is_my_landscape_5_by_Tracy-Lee_Botha.jpg
Example 2: Open_1_The_cat's_whisker_by_Benny_Brick.jpg
3.2 Images must be in the following format:
JPG/JPEG file format. (using the .jpg extension)
File size may not exceed 500 kb.
No image may exceed 1024 pixels on the horizontal axis and 768 pixels on the vertical axis.
No text or wording may be added to images. Frames or borders are acceptable, subject to the size limits set out above.
It is recommended that the submitted images be saved in the Adobe RGB colour space, since it cannot be guaranteed that the colours of an image saved in any other colour space will be displayed correctly during judging.
It is recommended that you calibrate your monitor so that your images are displayed correctly during judging.
3.3 Projection software
The software to project the images will be DiCentra, or similar. The collection, organisation, management and projection software organizes the images in specific folders and presentation orders for viewing and if you do not follow the rules as set out above the programme will either discard your image or put it in the incorrect category or in the wrong sequence.
4. Requirements for Prints
4.1 All entries must comply with the following file naming convention:
Class_Print_Print Title by Author
Examples:
Set_Print_My Favourite Picture by Henry Peters
Open_Print_I took this photograph by George Walnut
This information as well as a ditial copy of your image must be emailed to competitions@ctps.co.za by 23h00 on the Wednesday preceding the date of the competition.
4.2 Presentation of Prints
Prints shall have the Print Entry Form completed and attached using masking tape. This will identify the Title, Entrant's Name and Ranking. There must also be an arrow on the back of the print to indicate the top of the photograph.
Prints should be mounted. The maximum size of the mount board may not exceed 400 mm x 550mm (16" x 22").
Prints shall be a minimum size of 150 mm x 200 mm (6" x 8"), excluding the mount.
Prints shall be a maximum size of 300 mm x 450 mm (12" x 18"), excluding the mount.
It is recommended that a protective covering, which can be flipped back during judging, is used to help to protect your images.
5 Digital Manipulation
No manipulation is allowed in the following sections:
Nature, Sport, Photojournalism and Photo-Travel (see definitions below). Work that has been digitally manipulated (see definitions below) will only be accepted in the Pictorial category. The committee reserves the right to request the author to submit the original RAW file or negative to verify the image's authenticity. Where no RAW file or negative is available, the committee will evaluate the entry and the author may be asked to submit evidence to the committee. The committee's decision is final. By entering the competition the author implicitly accepts the ruling of the committee in this regard.
The following will NOT be considered as digital manipulation:
5.1 Removal of dust and scratch marks on scanned images or spots from dust particles on the CCD/CMOS sensors of digital cameras. Specific lens/sensor aberrations such as chromatic aberrations and purple fringing may also be corrected/ removed.
5.2 Adjustments to exposure and contrast, including dodging and burning.
5.3 Adjustment/correction of colour balance. This can either be done by selecting an appropriate white balance during the conversion in the RAW images, or by adding/subtracting colours in the photo editing software. The post capture application of digital colour correction filters like warming or cooling filters, similar to the 81 and 82 series of filters, is also allowed.
5.4 Application of colour saturation. Non-selective saturation that is applied to the whole image is permissible.
5.5 Reduction of digital noise, especially in high ISO images from digital cameras, or film grain in scanned images.
5.6 Sharpening of the image. All modern sharpening algorithms and techniques such as edge sharpening. luminance sharpening and mode sharpening is permissible. Cropping and resizing is permissible.
6 DEFINITIONS
6.1 Nature
Images must be of animals, birds, insects, reptiles, marine or plant life, such that a well-informed person could testify to its true representation. Images depicting cultivated plants, domestic animals, still life studies, mounted specimens, museum exhibits are not allowed. In terms of PSSA definition (see above under 5), digital manipulations are not allowed. Only images that do not alter the truth of the photographic statement will be eligible in this section. Monochrome nature images will be eligible for this section.
6.2 Pictorial
Any general type of image which does not fit into the Nature section may be entered into this category. Manipulated Nature, Sport, Photojournalism and Photo-Travel images may be entered in this category. Landscape images should be entered under this section.
6.3 Photojournalism and Photo-Travel
Entries shall consist of images or sequences with informative content and emotional impact, including human interest and documentary news. In the interest of credibility, images which misrepresent the truth, such as manipulation to alter the subject matter, or situations which are set up for the purpose of photography, are unacceptable in the Photojournalism and Photo-Travel sections. Typical images in this section should be what we see published as newsworthy in magazines and newspapers.
7. MONTHLY COMPETITIONS
Awards will be given at the discretion of the Council.
8. ANNUAL COMPETITIONS
The annual competitions will run from 1 October to 30 September of the next year. The following awards may be made:
8.1 Best colour print of the year (Vertue Trophy).
8.2 Best monochrome print of the year (Lawley Trophy).
8.3 Best Pictorial projected image of the year (Polchet Trophy).
8.4 Best Nature projected image of the year (Johanneson Trophy).
8.5 Best portrait of the year (Millington Trophy).
8.6 Aggregate points for the year.