Southampton Camera Club
General Rules of Conduct
a) Competitions are an important means of assessing the progress of a
photographer’s work.
Competitions must offer a fair assessment of each individual member’s work by a
competent judge who is allowed to carry out the task without bias or interruption.
b) It is an important principle that images should be judged on merit and that the
author of an image should not be identified to the judge during the judging
process.
There may of course be an occasion when an image has been seen by a judge in
another competition. This situation will not disqualify an image per se.
c) This applies if an author conducts them-self, during the judging process, in any
manner, which potentially breaches clause (b) above or which may bring the club
into disrepute. In such a case, the club’s officers present may withdraw the image
from that competition and may suspend, reduce or remove any points or seal
awarded.
The image, if withdrawn, will be disqualified from further entry in SCC
competitions. The immediate decision of the club’s officers present is subject to
confirmation at the next club committee meeting.
d) The Committee reserve the right to issue a written warning to any person in
breach of clause (c). They also reserve the right to ask a member to resign from
the club in the event of a second infringement.
e) Competitors should bear in mind that judges will have a subjective as well as an
objective view of an image. Their comments are meant to be helpful but they
have a difficult task to both critique and award points/seals. They are not infallible
but do their best.
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Southampton Camera Club
SCC Competition Rules
General Rules
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The Committee in consultation with members will decide the number and type of
competitions annually.
Club competitions are open to all paid up members of Southampton Camera Club.
Associate members of SCC are not permitted to enter competitions.
Where the rules for a competition specify classes, new members will normally enter the
Primary class. But if members would like to enter a different class, they should consult one
of the Competition Secretaries or an experienced Committee Member. This should also
be the case if members:
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already hold photographic qualifications or
are a current or past member of another camera club or
derive some or all of their income from photography
There will be a maximum of 2 entries per person, per category, unless stated otherwise in
the programme.
All work must be of original images, which do not infringe copyright. Print entries can be
home or trade processed/printed. All elements of the final image must be the entrant’s own
work.
Entries must originate as photographs (image-captures of objects via light sensitivity),
made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or acquired digitally.
All aspects of every image MUST be the members’ total and exclusive work as the
submitting author. Members may not include any element that was originated by, or is the
copyright of other photographers. The inclusion of clip-art or elements of stock
photographs are not permitted.
9) Entries must be clearly identified by title, number (1 to 2), author’s name and class. A
completed entry form must accompany all Print Competition entries.
10) The competition secretary reserves the right to adjust the number of entries, as
appropriate if it is found that there are too many entries to be judged in an evening. This
will be done by removing some of the entries numbered “2” where appropriate and
communicating this to the membership prior to the evening or before commencement of
the competition.
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11) If an image is entered on a second occasion it must retain the same title and the author
must declare it a re-entry to the competition secretary on the entry form.
12) All digital images scoring 9 or above in Open Competitions or included in the Winners or
Highly Commended of a themed competition will automatically be passed to the
webmaster for inclusion on the SCC website unless the author specifically states that entry
is not for publication. A separate opt-out statement is required in respect of each
competition.
13) All Print images scoring 9 or above in Open Competitions or included in the Winners or
Highly Commended of a themed competition will be eligible for inclusion on the SCC
website. Authors are responsible for supplying an appropriate digital file to the webmaster
immediately after the competition.
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14) Whilst every effort is made to ensure safe handling of all images submitted for
competitions, SCC accepts no responsibility for any loss or damage that may occur. It is a
condition of entering that members acknowledge that the value of their entry is no higher
than the replacement cost of its materials.
Prints:
15) For all print competitions, entries must be handed to the print competition secretary by the
last club evening at the Hall prior to the evening of the competition.
16) All entrants must complete their print entry form which must be included with their prints
when handed to the print secretary. This form can be downloaded from the club’s website.
17) Prints can be mounted or un-mounted and must be no larger than 40cm x 50cm (including
the mount).
18) On the reverse of the print, members must show the following information in this format:
Print Title
Print Class
Authors Name
Print Number
Re-Entered & Amended
e.g. BIRD ON A STICK
e.g. ADVANCED
e.g. JOHN SMITH
e.g. 1
e.g. Yes
This information should be clearly visible, readable (with phonetic pronunciation where
appropriate) and situated in the top left hand corner of the print – this will show which way
up the print should also be presented.
Digital:
19) For all digital competitions entries must be with the digital competition secretary at least 1
week before the competition. Digital entries can be submitted by e-mail to
sccdigital@southamptoncameraclub.co.uk
If you wish to submit via CD or memory stick please contact the Digital Secretary.
20) To facilitate automatic processing, digital files must be named in exactly the following
format:
XN Title_Name.ext
Where X is the Class Letter (A for advanced, I for Intermediate, P for Primary), N is the
entry number (1 or 2). Title is self-explanatory, name is the author’s name and ext is the 3
or 4 letter file type extension added automatically by the computer (e.g. .jpg).
For example:
A1 Rannoch Moor_Freda Brown.jpg
P2 Namibian Tree_George Gray.tif
I1 Beach Huts_Annie Green.jpeg
Members must not use leading zeros in front of the number, periods (.) or other characters
between the number and the title, only one underscore (_) should be used between the
title and the author’s name.
For competitions that do not specify classes (such as Kimber/Coates), members must use
C as the Class letter.
21) Digital images must be no more than 1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high and should be
.jpeg/.jpg (See Note III below for additional guidance).
22) For further guidance members should consult the competition secretaries or a committee
member.
23) Failure to use the correct file naming may lead to your images not being entered.
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Open Competitions:
1) Open competitions are for images of any subject. The details of the competitions will be
published in the programme. There will be 3 classes in each competition:
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Primary
Intermediate
Advanced
2) Judges will award a mark to each image up to a maximum of 10. Half point scores are
allowed.
3) In addition, judges will be asked to award Seals of Merit for outstanding work. A maximum
of 17 Seals of Merit can be awarded for each competition. These will be divided
proportionately between the 3 classes according to the number of entries. Rounding the
proportion to a whole number may occasionally result in 16 or 18 Seals of Merit being
available. Images awarded a Seal of Merit in Open Competitions are eligible for the Annual
Final. The Judge may award Seals of Merit to images scoring 9 and above, but with 10s
considered first before assessing 9.5s or 9s.
4) Images are allowed to be entered on a second occasion when they have scored 8.5 or
fewer the first time around but must be altered in some way to try to improve the
image.
5) Members will qualify for promotion from:
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Primary to Intermediate class; after accumulating a total of 80 points or more from their
competition entries. Only individual scores of 9 or more will count towards this process.
Intermediate to Advanced class; after accumulating a total of 120 points or more from
their competition entries. Only individual scores of 9 or more will count towards this
process.
6) Annual Finals for the Open competitions will be held at the end of the year on two
separate evenings. All work receiving a Seal of Merit during the year will be eligible to
compete for trophies in the annual club finals. In the event of insufficient entries in a
particular category, competition secretaries may decide to include entries that received a
10 score but not a Seal of Merit. There will be one Final for Digital images and another for
Print images. Digital images awarded a Seal of Merit will automatically be entered for the
Digital Finals. Print images awarded a Seal of Merit are also eligible to be entered for the
Print Finals but must obviously be brought along no later than the last club evening at the
Hall prior to the evening of the competition.
7) The President’s Cup will be awarded to the member who accumulates the highest number
of points in the Open Competitions during the year. In the event of a tie, the winner will be
decided on a count back with the highest number of 10s counting. If still tied, the process
will continue down through 9.5s, 9s etc. until a winner is declared.
8) Highest Number of Seals obtained in the year - the President will also present an award
to the member who achieves this accolade.
Themed Competitions:
1) A number of themed competitions may be held during the year. The details will be published
in the programme.
2) The Kimber/Coates competitions are set-subject themed competitions that alternate
between print and digital for the various themes:
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1st set
Architecture
Portrait
Landscape
2nd set
Nature
Photo travel
Open Monochrome
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3) Each competition evening will use one theme from the first set and one from the second set.
The format of the evening will usually start with the print theme and be followed by the
digital theme.
4) Images that have previously been entered into any internal SCC competition are ineligible
for any Kimber/Coates competition. Only new work can be submitted.
5) Following entry into a Kimber/Coates competition an image may be entered in one open
competition in order to allow it to be scored. If an image is so entered it will not be allowed
to be re-entered in an open competition.
Notes:
I
If a competition specifies a Nature/Natural History category, then the entries must conform
to the FIAP definition of Natural History. Similarly, if the theme is Travel, then the rules
requires that the entry conform to the PSA definition of a Travel image.
II To be used in external competitions, prints must be no larger than 40cm x 50cm (including
the mount).
III The dimensions for digital images are not reversible. They must be no larger than the
proportion of the resolution of the projector we choose to use -1600 pixels wide x 1200
pixels high. Computer screens, and projectors, are all landscape format, so the width
of a landscape format image should be no more than 1600 pixels while the height of a
square or portrait format image should be no more than 1200 pixels. We choose not to
use the full 1920 pixels width of the projector’s resolution as portrait format images
would be proportionally much smaller.
Landscape format image
1600 pixels wide
Portrait format image
1200 pixels high
Please remember to send a digital file of your prints scoring 9 or more to the webmaster for
inclusion on the web
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