Entry requirements, competition categories and scoring at Leek Photographic Club.
Subscriptions for the current year must be paid before entering any competition. Receipts should be available for perusal by the Competition Secretary, if requested, to ascertain membership.
Prints and digital images entered into competitions must be titled and must be handed to the Competition Secretary by the date stated in the programme.
Entrants must own the copyright in all images and other elements used in their entries. Entries must contain only material created by the entrant. The use of material from any other source is prohibited, including, but not limited to, AI-generated content, stock or image-bank material, textures and clipart.
If you are unsure about preparing a digital image, ask the Projected Images Competition Secretary for help or guidance.
The season runs from September to April. During one season, the same image may be entered twice: once in a competition before Christmas and once in a competition after Christmas.
The same image may be used in two different seasons. However, if it is entered as a PDI in one season, it may be entered only as a print in a subsequent season, or vice versa. Once an image has been used in two different seasons, it cannot be entered in any future Club competition, even if it has been given a different treatment.
If a member notices an image that may contravene this rule, they should inform the Competition Secretary. Once a breach is established, the Competition Secretary will rule the entry ineligible retrospectively. Any points awarded will be deducted from the league table.
A maximum of four entries per person is permitted in each print or projected-image competition. If there are too many entries, the Competition Secretary will contact members to confirm which image must be dropped.
Competition rules and definitions must be followed strictly. The Competition Secretary, in conjunction with members of the Committee, will remove ineligible entries. Ineligible images cannot be replaced after the submission deadline. If you are unsure whether an image is eligible, seek guidance from the Competition Secretary before the deadline by showing or emailing the image for a decision.
The Competition Secretary will explain the rules for each competition to the judge and ask the judge to apply them at their discretion. The judge’s decision is final.
This category can include land, sea, sky and urban landscapes.
At the Leek Photographic Club AGM on 19 April 2018, it was agreed that the Club’s Natural History competitions would follow the PAGB Competition Rules for Nature Photography, as amended in February 2018. The rules are:
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, is permitted when this does not distort the truth of the photographic statement.
Images entered as Nature can have landscapes, geological formations, weather phenomena and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where subjects are totally dependent on humans for food.
Access to biological subjects may be restricted. By entering a PAGB event, photographers warrant that they have followed relevant codes of practice and hold any necessary licences.
Natural History titles: Titles should be accurate rather than amusing. Latin names are not normally required. For example, an image of a Long-tailed Tit should be titled “Long-tailed Tit” rather than “Fluffy Garden Visitor”.
Any image may be entered, subject to Rule 3 on repeat use of images.
Images may be of any subject matter. Within a 15 × 10 cm frame, the main subject must be at least life-size (as if the frame were physically placed around it), but it may be magnified to larger than life-size. The frame may be horizontal or vertical. If the image is cropped to a different aspect ratio, the crop must still fit within the 15 × 10 cm frame—for example, 12 × 10 cm or 10 × 10 cm.
One colour only, whether black, sepia or another single colour.
The judge’s decision is final. A minimum of 20 entries is required for a competition to be submitted to an outside judge.
Images may be used on the Club website unless the author indicates an objection.
By entering images in internal competitions, members agree that prints and digital images entered may be made available for selection for external competitions, if requested, and for exhibitions. Having members’ best work available for external competitions enables the Club to compete with other clubs.
If a member repeatedly fails to make images available for an external competition when requested, the Committee will review the repeated refusal and decide what action, if any, should be taken.
An award will be made to the member with the highest aggregate points total in the print league table. A separate award will be made to the member with the highest aggregate points total in the projected-image league table.
One point is awarded for entering each competition. Additional points are awarded as follows:
| Result | Additional points |
|---|---|
| Image held back | 1 |
| Commended | 1 |
| Highly Commended | 2 |
| Very Highly Commended | 3 |
| 3rd place | 4 |
| 2nd place | 5 |
| 1st place | 6 |
The winner of every PDI and print competition receives a trophy, presented on the evening of that competition.
The following trophies are also awarded at the end of the season: