Entering Club competitions (a guide)

An important aspect of membership, for many of us, is the competitions held throughout the season. This is a guide for new members (and some older members who should know better). Some of this information is repeated in the Club Competition Rules
The deadline hand-in date for each competition is given on the Thursday Programme page. Usually, it is two weeks before the competition night. Most competition nights (except the Panel of Prints and the Humour Competition) have separate print and PDI competitions (before and after the tea-break respectively)

PRINTS

Prints should be placed in the black Nomad box (make sure it is the right one - it will be labelled) on the side table. Remember to fill out an entry form and put it in the box on top of your prints. Download an entry form

Your prints should be mounted in card window mounts, external dimensions 50x40cm. Minimum print size is 175mm on the longest side. Make sure there is nothing on the mount that might mark or damage other prints.

On the back of the print (top left corner, so that we can tell which way up it should be displayed) write your membership number and the image title. Do not write your name anywhere on the mount.

We strongly request that you also provide an audience-copy PDI of your print. This is not a condition of entry, but it does give audience members in the third row or further back the opportunity to see what the judge is commenting on. PDIs to be formatted, named and submitted in the same way as for competition PDIs (below). If you don't provide a PDI, please make the Competition Secretary's life a bit easier and provide a placeholder slide, black but with the right filename.

Projected Digital Images (PDIs)

PDIs can be entered on CD or USB flash-drive, accompanied by an entry form, as for prints. However, most members now prefer to enter PDIs by email.

PDIs can be entered by email to comp.entries@yahoo.com with a deadline of midnight on the hand-in date. The Competition Secretary will acknowledge all entries. If you do not get an acknowledgement within 3 days, re-send your entry; it is better to deal with duplicates than have something lost in cyberspace.

A PDI entry should be a JPEG file in the sRGB colour space, maximum size 1400 pixels wide and/or 1050 pixels tall. If your file is smaller, it will be projected with a black background. If it is larger, you will be at the mercy of the DiCentra software resizing it, and it might be degraded as a result (don't risk it)

There is a particular format for the filename. This is not the Competition Secretary being fussy; it is because that is what the DiCentra software is expecting:

IMAGE TITLE (In capitals. If the letters 'by' appear in lower case, DiCentra might split up your title)
[space]by[space] (the 'by' must be in lower case - it is how DiCentra knows the difference between the title and your name)
Photographer's Name (in upper and lower case because it looks tidier)
[dot]jpg

Example: THIS ONE MUST GET A 20 by Chas Bedford.jpg

We look forward to seeing your entries.