Eastbourne Photographic Society
Competitions Rules 2022 – 2023

General

The Committee reserves the right under the EPS Constitution to amend these Rules at any time during the season should that become necessary.  Members shall be notified in writing as soon as reasonably possible of any such amendment.

Full, Student and Honorary Members only shall be permitted to enter any competition for and on behalf of EPS.

The appropriate Competition Secretary shall be responsible for deciding whether entries comply with the rules and are therefore eligible for entry.

Any image shall be solely constituted of the original work by the member.

The member shall be deemed to hold the full copyright of their Image.


In any single Competition Season within EPS:

Images submitted for the Print of the Year, or the PDI of the Year Competition, may also be used in ONE of the other competitions and vice versa.

The same, or substantially the same, image may NOT be used in BOTH Print and PDI competitions.

The relevant Competition Secretary reserves the right to reject any image that may cause offence either by its content or by its title.

EPS may display members’ images on the EPS website and assumes that permission is granted by individual members. Should a member wish to withhold such permission then written notification shall be submitted to the Secretary.  Email is acceptable to:- secretary@eastbournephotographicsociety.club

EPS no longer offers any competitions for film slides and Audio Visual (AV) competitions will be held only when there is sufficient demand.


Competitions 2022/23

The two major competitions each season are the Print of the Year and the PDI of the Year.

Each competition consists of four Preliminary Rounds and a Final.

The competition is run in five classes. Entry, Intermediate, and Advanced, and two open classes, People and Nature.

Members may enter up to three images per round.

Members may elect to enter either the Entry, Intermediate or Advanced class, based on the assessment of their ability. Members should seek advice from the Competition Secretaries, who will evaluate and advise on the appropriate class. The evaluators may seek advice from other senior members in coming to their decision. Evaluators will usually accept the member’s preference, if reasonable.

Entry: This class is for those who are new to photography or new to club photography.

Intermediate: This class is for those members who have developed their skills beyond the Entry class, but they (or the evaluators) are not yet confident that they have achieved the standard required for the Advanced class.

Advanced: This class is for members who are experienced in club photography and consistently produce work of a standard considered to be good club level photography.

All members may enter the open classes, up to the overall total of three images per round.

For the PEOPLE class, the main subject of the image must be a person or people.

To be eligible for the NATURE class, an image must have living organisms as the primary subject matter. The story telling value of an image will normally be weighed more than the pictorial quality.

Nature INCLUDES: images taken with subjects in controlled conditions. This may be a zoo, game park, botanic garden, aquarium or enclosure where the subjects are dependent on man for food. Scientific bands, tags or collars are permissible.

Nature EXCLUDES: images where the subjects are obviously domestic animals or plants (including farm animals). Also, images where an obviously artistic treatment has been applied are not permissible.

Processing of the captured image by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening is permitted, as is cloning of image defects and minor distractions (including overlapping elements).

Access to some biological subjects may be restricted. Where that is relevant, then photographers warrant that they have followed relevant codes of practice and hold any necessary licences.

Images are awarded marks out of 20. All images achieving a mark of 20 are eligible for entry into the Final. In addition, members may also submit two entries of their own choice, from those submitted in the preliminary rounds.

In addition to the Print and PDI of the Year competitions, the following competitions take place over the season:

Print Panel Competition

PDI Themes Competition

Triple Print Competition

The John Stanley Memorial Challenge

(Prints and/or PDI’s)

Images submitted for the Print or PDI of the Year Competitions may also be used in ONE of the other competitions and vice versa.

The same, or substantially the same, image may not be used in BOTH Print and PDI competitions.


Print Panel Competition.

A Panel shall consist of six images. Each print will be mounted in accordance with the rules for the submission of prints.

A panel should be a set of images that are coherent and flow well as an overall design when hung.

The Panel is displayed in a 6′ x 4′ display stand in two rows.

The author is permitted to give a short verbal introduction (no longer than 2 minutes) if they so wish.


PDI Themes Competition

A PDI theme shall consist of six images. Each image will be formatted in accordance with the rules for submission of PDI’s.

The theme competition should not be judged as a panel.

A theme should be a set of images that are coherent and flow well when projected. They should either tell a story or be an in-depth study of a subject of your choice.

The author is permitted to give a short verbal introduction (no longer than 2 minutes) if they so wish.

The projection of the theme shall NOT be accompanied by music or a commentary. 


Triple Print Panel Competition.

A Triple Print Panel shall consist of three images, each print mounted in accordance with the rules for the submission of prints.

The prints should be coherent and flow well as an overall design when hung.

They should either tell a story or be an in-depth study, or form a triptych of a subject of your choice.

The panel is displayed on a 6′ x 4′ display stand in one or two rows.

The author is permitted to give a short verbal introduction (no longer than 2 minutes) if they so wish.


The John Stanley Memorial Challenge.

This is an annual competition held in the memory of John Stanley FRPS. John was an innovative photographer who continuously sought different ways of both making and producing a picture.  The competition format and subjects are varied each year in order to encourage members of EPS to “think out of the box” as John used to do.

The Subject and Format of the competition will be notified in the Programme Section of the Annual Member’s Handbook.

Each member may enter Prints and/or PDIs (maximum of 3 in total) in the Challenge.

Each image will be formatted in accordance with the rules for submission of Prints or PDI’s.

A single Image selected by the Judge from all entered media will be declared the winner and there will be a maximum of two images with a Highly Commended Award and two further Images with a Commended Award.


Audio Visual (AV) Competition.

An AV Sequence shall be between six and eight minutes long. Each image in the sequence will be formatted in accordance with the rules for submission of PDI’s.

The AV should be a sequence of images that are coherent and flow well when projected. They should either tell a story or be an in-depth study of a subject of your choice.

The AV shall be the original work of the author and co-authors who shall be all be members of the EPS

The Author is permitted to give a short verbal introduction (no longer than 2 minutes) if they so wish.

The projection of the AV may be accompanied by music or a commentary.


The Submission of Prints

Prints shall be mounted such that the mount does not exceed 40 x 50 cm.

Print mounts shall be backed to avoid damage to the back of the print.

In order that no damage may be caused to other prints the member shall ensure that neither exposed adhesive tape, insecure labels or “velcro” type pads remain on the print mount.

Handwritten or printed labels shall not be permitted on the front of any print mount.

A PDI of each image, prepared in accordance with the rules for submission of PDI’s, shall be sent by email to: –printsecretary@eastbournephotographicsociety.club no later than seven days prior to the relevant Competition.

If unable to provide a PDI of the image, please contact the Print Secretary for instructions.

EPS print title labels are obtainable from the Print Secretary and shall be stuck at the top of the back of the print.

The label must be fully completed with the Print Title, the Author’s Name, the Ability Class and Competition number/date and order of preference.

Prints shall be submitted to the Print Secretary by the closing date which will be 1 week prior to the

competition unless otherwise notified.

Prints will be awarded points up to a maximum of 20 by the appointed Judge.


The submission of Projected Digital Images (PDIs)

Projected Digital Images (PDIs) for all Competitions shall be supplied in the following format: –

The file should be saved in sRGB colour space.

The file format should be JPEG (ie with file extension of .jpg).

The maximum image width shall be 1600 pixels: the maximum image height shall be 1200 pixels.

Images in “portrait” or “vertical” format – the image shall not exceed 1200 pixels in height

Please name all projected images as follows:-

Title_Author_Class_Sequence.jpg

For Example: Beachy Head_John Smith_E_1

Please note the use of an underscore between

            Title_Author_Class_Sequence.jpeg

and the use and positioning of capital letters                           

The PDI Sequence Numbers shall be 1 to 3 in the author’s order of preference.

Failure to comply with this title format and provision of correct information may result in the image being either rejected by the software or being entered in the wrong class or sequence.

The Digital Competition Secretary will not be liable nor able to correct entries.

The Class Codes are as follows: –

E          Entry

I           Intermediate

A          Advanced

P          People

N         Nature

Files shall be submitted by email to digitalsecretary@eastbournephotographicsociety.club no later than seven days prior to the relevant Competition unless otherwise notified.

PDIs will be awarded points up to a maximum of 20 by the appointed Judge.

NB. Should the total number of individual PDI or Print entries exceed the EPS Committee agreed ceiling, then each sequence number 3 will not be included in the Competition.

Club Nights – Tuesdays 7.30pm – 10.00pm

Victoria Baptist Church, Eldon Road, Eastbourne, BN21 1UE

Workshops and Special Interest Groups – Thursdays 7.30pm – 10.00pm

Victoria Baptist Church, Eldon Road, Eastbourne, BN21 1UE