Scottish Photographic Federation (SPF)

Competition Rules

Donside Camera Club at the SPF

Print Portfolio:

Projected Image Portfolio:

Club Print Championship:

Club Projected Image Championship:

Club Slide Championship:

Club Print Championship Rules 2009

1. The Scottish Photographic Federation Club Print Championship is open to all members of clubs whose SPF affiliation fees have been paid for the current year, January to December.
2. Clubs may submit THREE prints per member in each of the following categories: monochrome prints, colour prints.
3. No club may enter more than 80 prints for the competition.
4. Where the total number of prints exceeds 1200, the SPF reserves the right to remove prints to a manageable level for judging equally across clubs e.g. to 75 prints per club.  The author’s 3rd print in one or both of monochrome/colour sections will be the one(s) removed, if necessary.
a) No author may represent more than one club.
b) Prints entered in previous SPF club print championships (or those so similar as to be indistinguishable) are ineligible.
c) The copyright of the image must be owned by the author.
d) Trade processed prints are eligible for the competition.
5. The winning club will be decided by the aggregate score of its top ten monochrome and top ten colour prints. There may be no more than five nature prints in the club’s top twenty.
6. In the event of a tie, the result will be decided by either re-marking the top twenty prints from the tied clubs OR by consensus decision by the judges.
7. The club with the best score from their ten counting mono prints will be awarded an SPF Gold Medal.
8. The club with the best score from their ten counting colour prints will be awarded an SPF Gold Medal.
9. The club with the best overall total score from mono and colour sections will receive the John Logan Trophy to be retained for a period of one year.
10. All prints gaining the qualifying points total will be submitted for selection for individual awards. The qualifying points total will be decided by the judges during the competition.  SPF Gold Medals will be awarded for each of Best Monochrome Print and Best Colour Print. The Best Overall Print will receive the Esme Smythe Trophy, which will be retained for a period of one year. The Best Landscape Print will receive the Campbell McNair Trophy, which will be retained for a period of one year.  Each judge will award an SPF Bronze Medal to their personal choice. Commendations will be awarded at the discretion of the judges.
11. A monochrome work fitting from the very dark grey (black) to the very clear grey (white) is a monochrome work with the various shades of grey. A monochrome work toned entirely in a single colour will remain a monochrome work able to stand in the monochrome category. A monochrome image modified by a partial toning or by the addition of one colour becomes a colour work (polychrome) to stand in the colour category.
12. All prints must be mounted on suitable card not exceeding 50 cm x 40 cm. Prints must bear the authors name, club represented, category entered, title, and if nature. All velcro tabs must be removed from prints before submission to the competition.
13. Entrants must own the copyright of all images used in any submitted print. By virtue of submitting an entry, the entrant certifies the work as their own and permits the Scottish Photographic Federation to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the competition. The Scottish Photographic Federation assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright by the entrant.
14. The organisers will take all possible care but cannot accept liability for damage to or loss of entries.
15. All entries must be submitted through a club and no later than the date printed on the entry form.
16. Clubs are responsible for the collection of all entries on the day of competition or after any exhibition which may immediately follow the competition. If clubs wish their entry returned by post, suitable packaging and postage must be sent with the entry.
17. The Scottish Photographic Federation Club Print Championship will normally be held in December each year, therefore the trophies (the John Logan Trophy, the Esme Smythe Trophy and the Campbell McNair Trophy) must be returned to an SPF executive committee member or the SPF Custodian by mid October of each year.
18. Any interpretation of the rules will be the prerogative of the Scottish Photographic Federation President or his nominees, and any decision will be final.
19. Submission of entries implies acceptance of all rules and conditions of entry.

NEW RULES - Print Portfolio

A. The Print Portfolio is open to all member Clubs. The Portfolio will consist of the top entries.
B. The entries will normally be returned by the end of September except those retained by the PAGB. The SPF entry for the PAGB print competition & Celtic Challenge may be selected from the portfolio entries.
C. This year’s Portfolio will consist of a CD of the copied prints. Every Club that notifies the Portfolio Secretary, using the booking form, of their wish to view the  Portfolio by 30th Sept 2010, will be sent a copy of the CD after 1st Nov 2010. The participating clubs will be able to receive the Portfolio for free.  All other clubs will be charged £10:00.

Rules for the SPF Print Portfolio

1.             Each Club may submit up to 4 monochrome and 4 colour prints, with a maximum of two entries from any one worker, in each section. Each club may submit entries from club members in the Individual section. Maximum 4 per author. No worker may enter work on behalf of more than one club.
2.           To ensure that the same images do not appear in both the Print & Projected Image Portfolios. Works by the same author which have been entered into any previous portfolio will not be accepted, this includes images which are so similar to previously entered images as to be virtually identical. (i.e. you can only enter an image once in one medium – either as a colour print, or a mono print or as a slide or digital file) Works must be no more than three seasons old. All eligible works will be submitted to the judges.
3.             Entry Forms to be returned with the entries, fees and full return postage to the Portfolio Secretary by 1st May 2010 or alternative drop off points.
4.             All entries must be packed so that the packaging can be used for their return.
5.             Judges will be appointed by the Executive. Judges may enter on behalf of their own club, these entries will be judged by a reserve judge. In all cases the judge’s decision will be final.
6.             Prints must be mounted on card, not larger than 20” x 16” overall and not thicker than 1/8”. Prints must bear on the back, the Title, Author and Club.
7.             Any prints submitted may be selected to represent the SPF
8.             All entrants must own copyright of all images used in any submitted print. By virtue of submitting an entry the entrant certifies the work as his own and permits the SPF to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and /or display in media related to the Portfolio. The SPF assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright.
9.             The SPF reserves the right to reject any entry not conforming to the rules and their decision will be final.
Awards will be presented as follows - Best Club Entry  in each section; Best Monochrome Print; Best Colour Print; & Judge’s Choices in each section.

‘NEW’ RULES - Projected Image Portfolio

A.             The Projected Image Portfolio is open to all member Clubs. The Portfolio will consist of the top entries.
B.            The Portfolio this year will only consist of a CD of the accepted images.
Slide entries will normally be returned by the end of October except those retained by the PAGB. CD’s will not be returned and will be destroyed.
C.             This year’s Portfolio will consist of a CD. Every Club that notifies the Portfolio Secretary, using the booking form, of their wish to view the  Portfolio by 30th Sept 2010, will be sent a copy of the CD after 1st Nov 2010.
               The participating clubs will be able to receive the Portfolio for free.  All other clubs will be charged £10:00.

Rules for the SPF Projected Image Portfolio

1.             Each club may submit up to 6 slides OR 6 Digital Files (NOT a mixture of both), with a maximum of two entries from any one worker, in each section. Each club may submit entries from club members in the Individual section, these can be either slide or digital. Maximum 4 per author. No worker may enter work on behalf of more than one club.
2.            Digital Files must be submitted as per the SPF’s Digital Rules (see separate sheet for full details) e.g. max 1400 x 1050,tiff, sRGB, on CD, NO images by email
3.            To ensure that the same images do not appear in both the Print &     Projected Image Portfolios. Works by the same author which have been entered into any previous portfolio will not be accepted, this includes images which are so similar to previously entered images as to be virtually identical. (i.e. you can only enter an image once in one medium – either as a colour print, or a mono print or as a slide or digital file)
4.             Entry Form to be returned with the entries, fees and full return postage to the Portfolio Secretary by 1st May or alternative drop off points,
5.           All slide entries must be packed so that the packaging can be used for return.
6.             Judges will be appointed by the Executive. Judges may enter on behalf of their own club, these entries will be judged by a reserve judge. In all cases the judge’s decision will be final.
7.             Slides must bear on the back, the Title, Author and Club.
8.             Any images submitted may be selected to represent the SPF
9.             All entrants must own copyright of all images used in any submitted image. By virtue of submitting an entry the entrant certifies the work as his own and permits the SPF to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and /or display in media related to the Portfolio. The SPF assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright.
10.          The SPF reserves the right to reject any entry not conforming to the rules and their decision will be final.
Awards will be presented as follows -  Best Club Entry
Best Slide  &  Best Digital File   and   Judge’s Choices

Digital File Rules for SPF Competitions

This information applies to all Digital Files submitted to the next Portfolio Competition which will contain a Digital File section (C.D. May 09), and is the same as for the Scottish Salon.

Please Note – the NEW Digital Competition in February Rules are different – please do not use these rules for it.

For all SPF competitions Digital Files will be projected on a Canon XEED SX50 Projector with PC/Laptop running Windows XP which has been calibrated using a ‘Spyder 2 Pro’ kit. Images will be projected using Adobe Bridge software.

All Digital files are to be submitted in the following format:
 
a) Mode – RGB Colour, 8 bits only or Greyscale, 8 bits (Please Note - The projector works in the colour space – sRGB, your images will be converted to this by the projector automatically, but it is recommended that you submit your files in sRGB (additional notes available))
b) File Format – jpeg or tiff (no compression)
c) Image Size – 1400 pixels horizontal, maximum, 1050 pixels vertical, maximum (Please Note – 1400 x 1050 is the native resolution of the projector so these dimensions will give optimum viewing (additional notes available on how to resize your image).)
d) Images must not contain layers, they must be ‘flattened’ prior to  submission.
e) The Image itself must not display the title or author name.
f) Image ‘Filename’ – Your images should be numbered 01, 02 and 03 etc. (as they appear on the entry form) followed by _ and the title (maximum of 15 characters with no spaces);
For example - the file name for the  first image, ‘Misty Loch Ard’ would be 01_mistylochard.tif
g) You must write your files onto a ‘CD-R’, not a re-writeable disk or a DVD, and make sure that the ‘session is closed’; Images MUST NOT be submitted by email. Write your name and Club on the CD, and complete the Competition Entry Form as normal. Please do not stick labels onto your CD.
h) You must ensure that no ‘virus’ is present within your CD; all CD’s will be checked when submitted, any found with a virus will not be submitted.

Additional Info - For ‘Projected Image Championship’ and ‘Scottish Salon’

a) Clubs must ensure that all CD’s submitted on behalf of their authors can be read and opened on a computer other than the one it was written on.
b) If Clubs submit all their author’s images together on one CD, then each author’s digital files must be contained in individual folders; the folder name to be the author’s name as on the entry form.

It is advised that Clubs and Individuals use Calibration equipment and calibrate their ‘laptop & projector’ or ‘computer & monitor’ that they will be using to select their images before submission to get an idea of what their images will look like at the competition.

How to set 'sRGB' as your colour space in Adobe Photoshop

This is the same as Digital Guidance Notes 2

These notes are supplied only as basic guidance to anyone who wishes to enter our competitions and may require some assistance. There are several different ways to do everything in photoshop, and several different image-editing programs to use too.

Some people work in sRGB by default, particularly when in jpeg format, but many who print are using Adobe RGB(1998). What you are doing in the following is using photoshop to convert to sRGB any files that are not in sRGB (eg Adobe 1998).

With most current full versions of Photoshop –
With a full version of Adobe Photoshop open, and your image open go to –

a) Edit -->  Convert to Profile
b) In ‘Destination Space’ for Profile select ‘sRGB IEC…’ which will be near the top and for ‘Conversion Options’ choose engine ‘Adobe (ACE)’ and Intent ‘Relative Colorimetric’ leave ‘Black Point..’ ticked and if the other two boxes are not greyed out ‘Use Dither’ and ‘Flatten Image’ also tick them
c) Then click ‘OK’.

Your image will now be in sRGB, and you can go on to size, and save as per Guidance Notes 1.    

You can only do a basic conversion in Elements, you will not be able to do all of the above – you will find your settings in Edit --> Colour Settings, and if the file you are opening does not have a profile you will get a message coming up, you can select sRGB here)

Alternative  Longer Method if the above is not available to you
What you are doing in the following is setting photoshop to sRGB and forcing it to convert any files that are not sRGB (eg Adobe 1998) to sRGB. (It is very easy to reset it to your normal settings for printing etc.)

With a full version of Adobe Photoshop open go to –
a) Edit --> Colour Settings
Take a note of the name of the setting you have been using (top box) so that you can return it to those settings later
b) In the top box select – ‘North America General Purpose Default’
c) In ‘Color Management Policies’ select RGB --> ‘Convert to Working RGB’ and ‘tick’ in profile mismatches ‘Ask when opening’
d) Click ‘SAVE’ and enter the filename eg ‘Digital File Comp’ and click ‘SAVE’ (Do not save this in another folder, go with the default), you can enter a comment in this box as a reminder if you wish or just, click ‘OK’
e) Then click ‘OK’ again.

When you try loading an image: If you get no message coming up then it is in sRGB; if however you get the message ‘Profile Mismatch’ then that image was not in sRGB; and you require to select the middle option - ‘Convert Colours to the working space’ --> ‘OK’

Your images will now be in sRGB, and you can go on to size them as per the above sheet.

If you wish to return to your previous color space, follow step a) and at step b) select your previous color space (as you have written down) and click ‘OK’.

The next time you wish to convert to sRGB, simply select the ‘Digital File Comp’ option in the top box.

How to “size” your file for SPF competitions

These notes are supplied only as basic guidance to anyone who wishes to enter our competitions and may require some assistance. There are several different ways to do everything in photoshop, and several different image-editing programs to use too.

This is the same as Digital Guidance Note 1.

Using Photoshop & Elements

Remember if you have done work in layers in photoshop you should ‘flatten’ the image before resizing: LAYER  FLATTEN

If you wish to submit in sRGB see the separate instructions ‘Digital Guidance Notes 2’. This should be done before you resize your image.

a) File  Open and ‘left mouse-click’ on ‘your chosen file’ and click ‘Open’
b) Image --> Mode --> RGB Color & 8 Bits (In Elements - if you are not prompted on opening, convert to 8 bits)
c) Image --> Image Size (In Elements – Image --> Resize --> Image size)
and tick all three boxes - ‘Scale Styles’, ‘Constrain Proportions’ and ‘Resample Image’ and choose one of the ‘Bicubic’ options (if you are not sure then just select ‘bicubic’) (Note: Older versions of Photoshop only have two boxes, tick both of these and carry on as above)
d) Still in the image size palette, you require to set the Pixel Dimensions:
    If a ‘landscape’ (horizontal) image in ‘Pixel Dimesions’  Width  type ‘1400’ (the height will be automatically filled in)
    OR
    If a ‘portrait’ (vertical) image in ‘Pixel Dimesions’  Height  type ‘1050’ (the width will be automatically filled in) and left mouse click ‘OK’
e) You are now ready to save: File --> Save as…
f) Create a ‘New Folder’ by left mouse clicking on the folder icon (if you are not sure which icon, hold your cursor over the icon to find the right one) and type in your ‘Name’, (just type where you see ‘New Folder’ appear) as the ‘New Folder’ name, and then press the ‘Return/Enter’ key
g) Type in your ‘filename’ (as in (f) page 1), select ‘tiff’ from the ‘format’ drop down list click ‘Save’. when the next box comes up select ‘Image Compression’ option ‘None’ and ‘OK’.
h) You can now continue to do your remaining images following steps a) to e) & g) and place them in the folder you created at step f).

After you have done all the images you wish to submit, you are ready to close Photoshop and write your files to CD (create your CD-R).