COMPETITIONS | formbyphoto

Competitions 2018/2019

Competition Guidelines

There are 4 League Competitions plus the Annual ‘Open’ Competition

2 of the League Competitions and the Annual Competition will be judged by an external judge. The other League Competitions will be judged by the FPG members present on the night

Each Competition has 3 sections: Colour Print; Mono Print; Digitally Projected Images (DPI)

You can enter 2 images into each of the PRINT sections

Images in the Print sections can be any size, however the mount they must be attached to should be the standard size of 50 x 40

You may submit 2 images in the DPI section, however should the total number of DPI entries exceed 50 then only your number 01 entry will be entered. Please ensure you title your favourite/best DPI submission as 01. Instructions for titling DPI image files are in the DPI guidelines.

The Competition email address is NOT monitored and only checked after the competition deadline. Incorrectly titled DPI will therefore not meet the set deadline – please ensure your DPIs are titled correctly

Mono prints must be essentially shades of grey or one toned colour, e.g. sepia

For ALL competitions the deadline for PRINTS and DPIs is the club night prior to the competition – DPIs by midnight that same date. Deadlines for Competition Prints and DPIs will be displayed on the FPG website

The same image or fundamentally the same image cannot be entered in more than one section of a competition, i.e. an image submitted as a DPI cannot be printed and entered into the print section of the same competition

All images must have been taken within the last 3 years

Images cannot be re-entered into a League Competition if they have been placed in any previous FPG league club competition

Images for the Annual Competition may include images which have been placed in any of the League Competitions

A Competition Label (FPG Labels template (PDF document) showing the Competition Title, Mono or Colour Section Entry, the Print Title and the Author must be attached to the back of the mount on the top right-hand side

Sticky tape of any sort is not allowed on mounts due to the real risk of damage to other works. Any prints with tape showing will not be accepted into the competition

FPG Labels template (PDF document)

DPI Guidelines

DPI entries are to be emailed to fpgcomps@outlook.com by the set deadline

The competition DPI email address is NOT monitored. Submitted image files that are not correctly titled will be rejected by the competition software and will not be entered. You should get an acknowledgement of the acceptance (or otherwise) of your DPI entry within 72 hours following the DPI deadline

The required image file naming format for a DPI entry is as follows:

01;Joe Bloggs;Formby Sunset.jpg. That is 01 for your favourite or only DPI entry (use 02 for your least favoured/2nd entry) followed by your NAME followed by the IMAGE TITLE. The semi-colons separating the various elements are vital for the software to recognise the DPI image file

Another example would be

Your first and second image file name should look something like this:

01;Joe Bloggs;Sunset over Formby.jpg

02;Joe Bloggs;Misty Mountain.jpg

The image file that must be correctly titled for it to be recognised and accepted by the competition software. Any other way/format will be rejected by the competition software and not submitted.

For the best quality projected image the DPI image file should be sent as a .jpg with a colour gamut of sRGB. We can automatically re-format other types of image file but the quality of the image maybe compromised.
When done E-mail them to fpgcomps@outlook.com
You will receive an email receipt if the images are received correctly, if there is no receipt, please recheck your entry and resubmit.

How to change the name of a file - Windows

To change the name of your photographs to conform to the FPG Digital Photo Entries follow these simple steps.

Your photos will probably be named something like this

IMG_2014.jpg

You need to change them to this:

01;James Donald;Sunset over Formby.jpg

To do this using Microsoft File manger, launch file manager and select the file with the RIGHT (not left) Mouse button. This will highlight the file to be altered. It will also bring up a Popup box with a range of option.

Using the LEFT Mouse button select ‘Rename’. The name but not the .jpg extension will be highlighted. You can now type in the new name. It will automatically remove the old name and let you type in the new one. You won’t need to type in the .jpg because that is already there. Once finished just hit the ‘Return’ key.

Job done. File ready to be sent in to the competition to :-

E-mail them to fpgcomps@outlook.com

How to change the name of a file - Mac

Locate the image in finder (thats the file explorer for Mac)

Left click the photo once. It should now be highlighted in blue

Hit return/enter and type in the new name (01;Joe Bloggs;Sunset over Formby.jpg)

Hit return/enter to finish

Once you have renamed your images, they are ready to be submitted by the deadline to :-

E-mail them to fpgcomps@outlook.com

Competition Secretaries need to set up the presentation of DPI's in advance of a competition night, for this reason they should receive your DPI's by midnight on the specified club night( see programme for dates). The mailbox will be checked prior to the deadline however it is not monitored constantly.

Club Comp Scoring

If you enter any of the categories then you score 1 point in that category. You do not get 2 for entering 2 prints in one category.

Scoring in club competitions* is by members voting for their top 3 images by number which will be allocated by Comp Secretaries
(We do not know who did which print/image at the time of voting and we certainly don't vote for ourselves)

Votes are added up and the top 5 places in each category are worked out. There may be some joint placings due to equal scores.

Scores are allocated as follows 1st = 5 pts, 2nd = 4 pts, 3rd = 3 pts, 4th = 2pts, 5th = 1pt

Final Checks - Image Quality and Rules

Pre-Printing

Do my images reflect the Competition theme?

Are the images sharp?

Do the edges of my images cut off bits of people/objects? – not good

Are the horizontals and verticals correct?

Are there distracting elements in my images – especially light/white elements in the corners of the image? – not good

Do I need that much sky and/or foreground? Does it help or detract from the overall image?

Would a different crop produce a better/more pleasing image?

Post-Printing

Are my prints correctly mounted and labelled?

Are my DPIs correctly titled?

Will all my images be received before the competition deadline?

Have all my images been taken in the last 3 years?

Have any of my images previously been placed in a club competition (for League Competition only)?

Entering competitions during Covid 19

Please email to enter fpgcomps@outlook.com

Please not that this e-mail address is not regularly monitored and will only be accessed around the time we are expecting competition entries.

You can enter up to 2 colour (01C;??; ?? 02C;??;??) and
up to 2 Mono (01M;??;?? 02M;??;??) images.

Your image files should be named using the following convention with the number/letter followed by ; then your name then ; then your own image title

e.g. 01C;Fred Bloggs;Smile please.jpg

02C;Fred Bloggs;Happiness is.jpg

01M;Fred Bloggs;A laugh a minute.jpg

02M;Fred Bloggs;You have to be joking.jpg

If you don’t get confirmation of receipt of entries, please be patient with me and if you are one of the people who sometimes name their photos incorrectly or send them to the wrong e-mail address, I will be patient with you ;-)