Competition Rules

These are the competition rules as revised 31st August 2024.  All prints and digital images entered to competitions can be used for publicity in local newspapers and display on the Barry Camera Club web site unless previously informed in writing to the Competition Secretary.

Internal Competition Rules

Rules for competitions are likely to vary in order to accommodate club membership numbers and time available for  judging.

Club Competitions:   The number of competitions and their frequency may change from one year to the next to accommodate other events within the events calendar. Competitions types may vary depending on the topic – generally these will be OPEN  – any Genre.

The general format for images in any Club Competition unless stated will be a choice or variety as given:

  • Colour Print
  • Monochrome Print
  • Projected Colour Image
  • Projected Mono chrome image

Members may enter up to a given number of images in a club competition e.g. 2 print and 2 monochrome .  This number will be prescribed prior to the competition. Should more than the prescribed number of images be submitted, the competition secretary will randomly remove images until the maximum number is reached and return the excess to the member.

Themes may be introduced at the Competition Secretary’s or Chairpersons  discretion.

An image may only be entered into one Club Competition.  

Only paid-up members are eligible to enter competitions.

Presentation of Prints

Prints may be home or trade produced but the images MUST belong to the photographer.

All prints must be mounted in a mount of overall maximum size 40cm x 50cm.  If double-mounting, the rear mount board may be smaller if required.

It is recommended that prints be large enough to be viewed comfortably by the judge and audience.

The rear of the mount must show:

  1. The member’s number
  2. The title of the image
  3. The category in brackets – colour or monochrome

Members must write these details in the same orientation as the print is intended to be displayed; preferably in the top left corner.

So, for example, member 34 submitting an image called “My Photo” for the mono category would write:

34_ My Photo (Scapes)

34_ My photo (Open)

Care should be taken with mounting to ensure that tapes and adhesives used cannot damage others’ images.

Presentation of Projected Images

Digital images may be submitted on a memory stick or sent directly to the competition secretary by email or we-transfer.  Memory sticks will be returned at the next club meeting following submission.  All entries must be virus scanned.

Digital images are to be submitted in the following file format –

  • Image size – maximum of 1600 pixels horizontal, 1200 pixels vertical
  • File Format – JPEG.  We recommend that you use the minimum compression/smoothing your software permits.  In Photoshop, this is quality 12 (best), for others you may need to set smoothing to 0% and quality to 100%
  • Colour space – sRGB IEC61966-2.1.  If you do not have colour space control in your software, do not be concerned as this is the standard default for the majority of systems.
  • Mode – RGB Colour 8 bit or Greyscale 8 bit.  These may be described in your package as 16.7m colours, RGB colour or simply Greyscale.
  • Resolution – this setting is not used for projected images, as the ppi (or dpi) depends on how large the image is projected.  However 72ppi (or dpi) is a commonly used setting for projected images if you wish to set this.

These settings should result in a file of about 1.4Mb although this size will vary depending on the complexity of the image.

For clarity, if you submit portrait format images the longest side (the vertical) can be up to 1600 pixels maximum – so portrait images will often contain fewer pixels than landscape ones (e.g. a 4:3 landscape image would be 1600×1200 maximum), a portrait image in the same ratio would be 1200 x 900).

The filename of your image must be of the form:

AA_NNNNNNN.JPEG

Where:

  • AA is your member number (on your membership card or receipt) as two digits.
  • _ is an UNDERSCORE character (shift and hyphen on most modern keyboards)
  • NNNNN is the title without spaces, with the start of words indicated by capitals.
  • JPEG is the identifying file extension; your system may not display this part.

For example, if I were member 34, submitting 2 images, one called “A Night at the Opera”, and the other “A Day at the Races”, the filenames would be:

34_Sunrise at Barry.JPEG

34_A Day At The Races.JPEG

Marking and Other Provisions

The judge will be asked to award marks out of 20 to each image.  They will also comment on each entry.

Where a league table is used , the highest mark awarded to a member in each category each month is taken and totaled.  At the end of the season, the member having the highest aggregate points total will receive the annual trophy for that category, which is retained.  In the event of a tie, the member with the greater number of monthly winning entries will be selected.

The competition secretary may, at their discretion, mark images with a B (indicating that a member is new to competition) to enable the judge to give “fair and constructive criticism”.

Members who are unused to entering competitions and are unsure about the standards and concerned about the level of mark they might receive, can submit entries for assessment only.  The judge will be asked to provide constructive criticism of the entry but will not award a mark.

To submit entries for assessment only, members should follow the naming procedure as above and put a capital A after their membership number.  It is recommended to discuss this with the competition secretary prior to making such entries.

Member’s images may be selected by the selection committee to go forward to inter-club battles.  Members may refuse to allow their images to be entered, but must let the competition secretary know this before submission.  Images will be returned to members as soon as possible.

Competitions with not-for-credit judging may be arranged if sufficient interest exists.

David Hunt Trophy

The David Hunt Trophy is a competition for Natural History photography, and is held annually in memory of the late, long-standing club member, David Hunt.

Up to 4 printed images and 4 digital projected images will be accepted from each member.  Images shall be sized as for monthly competitions.  However, unmounted printed images will be accepted.  Both colour and monochrome prints will be judged within the same category.

The David Hunt Trophy will be awarded to the image judged to be the best image in the competition.

John and Jean Harvey Trophy

The CREATIVE IMAGE competition is now divided into TWO separate sections. The John and Jean Harvey competition is a Creative Monochrome Competition, held in memory of the late John and Jean Harvey who were both longstanding and active members of the club. The Creative Monochrome Trophy will be awarded to the creator of the best Creative Monochrome printed Image. The winning image in each section MUST Contain A significant CREATIVE element(s).

Up to 2 printed monochrome images, will be entered in the Monochrome section for the John and Jean Harvey Trophy from each member.  Images shall be sized as for club competitions. However, unmounted printed images will be accepted.  Both colour and monochrome prints will be judged separately within the same genre (see below).

The Malcolm Downes Trophy

This is a new aspect of the above Creative Image Competition and will be run alongside it.     This competition is a colour version and is sponsored by Malcolm Downes a long serving member of the club.  One of his many photographic genres is creative photography.

Here members will be asked to enter up to 2 colour prints in the same creative format as that for the above mono version.  These will be judged and the winner awarded the Malcolm Downes Award for the best COLOUR Printed Image.

Annual Competition & Exhibition

The general submission rules above apply to images submitted for the Annual Competition and Exhibition. The New format allows members to enter their favorite images for the current year and that includes new work but not images that were used for any club competition in previous years.

New Format and Classes. Owing to logistics and the new format the club has had to adopt over the past few years, the number of classes has been drastically reduced to allow a reasonable time for judging and presentation.

  1. The Class (see below) must additionally be marked on the image
  2. There is a limit of 4 images per class (2P and 2D)
  3. An image may only be entered once for an annual competition.

For prints, members must write (Class X) (where X is the class below) on the mount.

For digital images, members must put (Class X)  at the end of the filename before the file extension. For example:

34_Sunset at Barry (Scape).JPEG

34_A Day At The Races (Open).JPEG

Annual Awards and Classes

Class and Class Trophies 
The Trophies and hence sponsors are currently under review. In the mean time NOT all trophies will be used in any one year but those relevant to the Genre assigned in that year May be used. 

Genres should vary from year to year to cover all members areas of expertise/preference

For 2024/25

Genre                                                                  Type             Award

Best Scape – Landscape, seascape,  etc              Print           Jill Nicola Rose Bowl                                                                                                       PDI              Paul Trophy

Open                                                                   Print           Randal Cox  Trophy                        Open                                                                   PDI             Dan Evans trophy

 

The Barrian Cup

1. The Competition shall be open to all invited clubs.

2. The Competition will take place in early June at Barry Camera Club.

3. Each club to submit five (5) PRINTS in monochrome or colour – or a mixture of both. The 5 images must include a minimum of one (1) and maximum of three (3) Landscapes or Seascapes.

4. No author is to be represented by more than one (1) image within the competition.

5. There will be an entry fee and clubs will be expected to arrange for the delivery of their images to the BCC Competition Secretary. Clubs will NOT be allowed to participate unless the entry fees have been paid.

6. The Barrian Cup will be awarded to the club with the highest aggregate score for its 5 images.

The Dave Cowdrey Trophy will be awarded to the author of the Best Landscape or Seascape image in the competition.

In memory of the late Mike Lewis, the Mike Lewis Trophy will be awarded for the best image in the show. Trophies to be held for one year and then returned to Barry Camera Club.

Whilst every reasonable care will be taken by the organisers to avoid damage to, or loss of any entry, no liability will be accepted.

Images presented for the Barrian Cup must include the following details:

Club Name, Print titles and Print Authors Name