Official Rules for PAC Photographers Group Contests
Contest
Meetings that include critiquing of the contests will take place each month on the second Wednesday at 7:30 at the Congregational Church of Patchogue – 95 East Main Street, Patchogue. Park in Lot 1 off Oak street and enter the back east door. Meeting room is 1 one on the right. The monthly contest theme will be announced by the winner of the previous contest or by the Chairman if the winner is unable to attend the monthly meeting.
All photos must be taken between the end of the monthly meeting when the contest theme is announced and midnight the Saturday before the next Wednesday meeting. At the committee’s discretion, the capture date will be posted with the photo in the web gallery. The committee has the right to reject a photo based on subject matter, date that is not within the time frame or illegal use of the rules of the assignment.
Please adhere to the specific terms of the assignment for example – allowed or not allowed to use Photoshop, HDR etc. Submit your JPEG images sized to 1200 pixels on the long side at a resolution of 72 ppi (pixels per inch) in srgb color space (for color accuracy when viewing on computer). You can select the highest quality jpeg (least compressed) available. Be creative when naming your photo and put the title of it in the file name but exclude your name. Example: shooting_the_moon.jpg. Your emails should have your name in the copy for identification by the committee in the event that your name is not in your email address. The deadline is midnight on the Saturday before the next Wednesday meeting. The images will be posted on the Sunday after the deadline. If you are late in sending your image, you may check with the committee to see if you can be included by email to [email protected]. Once the images are posted on line, it is too late to join the contest. The web address will usually be https://patchoguearts.org/photographers-group/contest_title.
Voting
Once the web gallery is on line, voting commences according to this criteria:
Scores are 1-10 for each category:
Composition (framing, cropping, rule of thirds)
Technical (exposure, focus, sharpness, contrast, lighting, quality of image)
Creative (overall wow factor, fulfillment of assignment)
Vote on every image except your own.
Any member can vote, even those who are not in the contest. If you are not in the contest, then vote on all images.
Please adhere to this format when submitting your votes and place in the copy of your email:
Each photo should have 5 numbers
1 – photo number on web gallery
2 – composition score 1-10
3 – technical score 1-10
4 – creative score 1-10
5- total score 3-30
Example:
1-10-7-9-26
2-8-6-7-21
3-10-10-10-30
4————— (my own)
5-9-6-8-23
etc – all images
Maximum score for each image is 30, minimum is 3. Send votes in the copy of your email to [email protected]. Do not use tables or put names of images next to the numbers for the sake of easy formatting by the committee when tabulating.
The winner will be notified by the committee after all scores are tabulated on the afternoon of the day of the meeting.
Scoring
Total scores will be added up for each image. If you participate in the contest by submitting an image, you are encouraged to vote. If you do not vote, then the highest score will be deducted from your total to retain an even number of scores for all participants. All votes by members who did not participate in the contest will count.
During critiquing at the meeting all photographers will remain anonymous unless they choose to identify their image for the sake of discussion. Photos will be critiqued in a friendly, educational manner at all times. This format is set up as a learning experience and not as a judgement of the capabilities of the photographer. We encourage you to give your opinion on how an image can be improved and what techniques can be used to accomplish that. The high and low scores for each image and the top 5 images will be announced during the critique. At the end of the critique, the winner will be announced by the chairman or committee. The winner will announce the next assignment and give specific requirements if needed. Example: B&W, no photoshop, HDR, etc. If the winner can not attend the meeting, then the chairman will announce the next contest as given by the absent winner. If the winner does not have the contest theme ready by the meeting, then the announcement will be made via the newsletter, email and/or social media.
Publishing of Scores
The tabulation of votes without the voter’s names and the final scores including top five and high/low scores will be made available on the PAC Photographers Group web page (https://patchoguearts.org/photographers-group), the group’s Facebook page and the next available newsletter after the contest is completed.