Competitions
Fordingbridge Camera Club (FCC) encourages all its Members to enter the regular internal competitions for projected and printed images. These are marvellous opportunities to showcase photos; to learn more about photography; and, importantly, to receive feedback on images from experienced judges as a means of improving photographic skills. However, no member should feel under pressure to enter these competitions – they are purely voluntary, and some members just enjoy seeing everyone else’s images.
The Groups
Club competitions are run at two levels: General and Advanced. The main difference between the two groups is that the judge is asked to be more supportive with comments in the General group.
New members usually join the General group, unless they feel that their experience merits the Advanced group, and there is a system in place for moving into the Advanced group based upon competition results.
Types of Competition
FCC currently runs 3 types of internal competition:
• Open Competitions. Images may be of any subject. Members are usually allowed two entries per competition, unless there are too many entries, in which case one or other group will be asked to restrict their entries to one. Every effort will be taken to ensure both Advanced and General Members are allowed the same total number of entries across the year.
• Themed Competitions. These occasional competitions are normally judged by the Members themselves and might include themes such as Mobile Phone Photography. In addition, the annual Bob Taylor Memorial Competition, held just before Christmas, involves fun or amusing images which must not have been previously seen in a club competition.
• Best of Year Competitions. Each member may enter one print and one PDI image for the respective Best of Year Competitions from their entries in that club year. They should not be the same image.
Details of this year’s competitions and their dates are given in the Club Programme.
Competition Rules
1. No image, or near duplicate thereof, can be entered more than twice in the competitions or in more than one class on a given evening.
2. If an image (PDI or PRINT) is awarded either a WIN or a MERIT in a Club competition, neither it nor a near duplicate thereof can be entered in subsequent internal club competitions. The final decision of “near duplicate thereof” will be at the discretion of the Internal Competition Secretary.
3. The photographer must own the copyright to all elements in the photograph.
4. Images may be acquired and/or produced digitally or by film and may be enhanced and/or printed by darkroom or digital means.
Competition Guidance
General
FCC uses PhotoEntry to upload digital images for competitions – detailed guidance on how to do this is contained in the PhotoEntry Step-by-Step Guide. The deadline for loading images is midnight on the Sunday prior to the competition.
Where uploading two images, they should be put in preference order so that, if a decision is made to restrict one group to one image, the priority order will be taken into account.
Projected Digital Images
Digital images can be any shape but must be no more than 1920 pixels wide or 1200 pixels high. Detailed guidance is provided in the tutorial on Preparing Your Digital Images.
Prints
Prints must be mounted and have the Member’s name and the title of the image clearly marked on the top left of the reverse. While not mandatory, it is advisable to use 50 cm x 40 cm mounts, because this is the size required for external competitions. Detailed guidance is provided at Preparing Your Prints which includes tutorials on mounting images on card.
Digital copies of prints must also be entered into PhotoEntry.
Judging
Judging is conducted under current SCPF guidelines, which can be found at New Judging Guidance (Sept 2020). The judge will mark entries out of ten and will select an overall winner in each category. Scores for the Advanced Group will range from 6 – 10 and for the General Group the range will be 7 – 10. The scores will be relative. This means that the judge will be expected to award at least one score of 6 in the Advanced Group, irrespective of the overall standard of the competition. It follows that an image with a score of 6 is not necessarily bad.
The top entries in each category will receive a merit award and these images will be displayed on the Club’s Gallery. The cut off point for a merit in any competition will be decided by the Internal Competition Secretary at a level to suit the Judge's marking.
Cups and Awards
At the end of each club year, a number of cups and awards are given to Members for outstanding achievement. A full list of these and an explanation of how the awards are calculated are provided at Categories.
The history of some of the cups is provided at Club Cups.
External Competitions
FCC competes in external competitions run by the Southern Counties Photographic Federation (SCPF) and the Stour and Avon Photographic Association (SAPA), and will host external competitions from time to time.
A Club Selection Committee chooses which images to enter. In doing so, it endeavours to achieve a balance between finding images that are likely to do well in competition and choosing images from as wide a range of Club Members as possible.
Members of the Selection Committee and short biographies are shown on the Committee page.
Club competitions are run at two levels: General and Advanced. The main difference between the two groups is that the judge is asked to be more supportive with comments in the General group.
New members usually join the General group, unless they feel that their experience merits the Advanced group, and there is a system in place for moving into the Advanced group based upon competition results.
Types of Competition
FCC currently runs 3 types of internal competition:
• Open Competitions. Images may be of any subject. Members are usually allowed two entries per competition, unless there are too many entries, in which case one or other group will be asked to restrict their entries to one. Every effort will be taken to ensure both Advanced and General Members are allowed the same total number of entries across the year.
• Themed Competitions. These occasional competitions are normally judged by the Members themselves and might include themes such as Mobile Phone Photography. In addition, the annual Bob Taylor Memorial Competition, held just before Christmas, involves fun or amusing images which must not have been previously seen in a club competition.
• Best of Year Competitions. Each member may enter one print and one PDI image for the respective Best of Year Competitions from their entries in that club year. They should not be the same image.
Details of this year’s competitions and their dates are given in the Club Programme.
Competition Rules
1. No image, or near duplicate thereof, can be entered more than twice in the competitions or in more than one class on a given evening.
2. If an image (PDI or PRINT) is awarded either a WIN or a MERIT in a Club competition, neither it nor a near duplicate thereof can be entered in subsequent internal club competitions. The final decision of “near duplicate thereof” will be at the discretion of the Internal Competition Secretary.
3. The photographer must own the copyright to all elements in the photograph.
4. Images may be acquired and/or produced digitally or by film and may be enhanced and/or printed by darkroom or digital means.
Competition Guidance
General
FCC uses PhotoEntry to upload digital images for competitions – detailed guidance on how to do this is contained in the PhotoEntry Step-by-Step Guide. The deadline for loading images is midnight on the Sunday prior to the competition.
Where uploading two images, they should be put in preference order so that, if a decision is made to restrict one group to one image, the priority order will be taken into account.
Projected Digital Images
Digital images can be any shape but must be no more than 1920 pixels wide or 1200 pixels high. Detailed guidance is provided in the tutorial on Preparing Your Digital Images.
Prints
Prints must be mounted and have the Member’s name and the title of the image clearly marked on the top left of the reverse. While not mandatory, it is advisable to use 50 cm x 40 cm mounts, because this is the size required for external competitions. Detailed guidance is provided at Preparing Your Prints which includes tutorials on mounting images on card.
Digital copies of prints must also be entered into PhotoEntry.
Judging
Judging is conducted under current SCPF guidelines, which can be found at New Judging Guidance (Sept 2020). The judge will mark entries out of ten and will select an overall winner in each category. Scores for the Advanced Group will range from 6 – 10 and for the General Group the range will be 7 – 10. The scores will be relative. This means that the judge will be expected to award at least one score of 6 in the Advanced Group, irrespective of the overall standard of the competition. It follows that an image with a score of 6 is not necessarily bad.
The top entries in each category will receive a merit award and these images will be displayed on the Club’s Gallery. The cut off point for a merit in any competition will be decided by the Internal Competition Secretary at a level to suit the Judge's marking.
Cups and Awards
At the end of each club year, a number of cups and awards are given to Members for outstanding achievement. A full list of these and an explanation of how the awards are calculated are provided at Categories.
The history of some of the cups is provided at Club Cups.
External Competitions
FCC competes in external competitions run by the Southern Counties Photographic Federation (SCPF) and the Stour and Avon Photographic Association (SAPA), and will host external competitions from time to time.
A Club Selection Committee chooses which images to enter. In doing so, it endeavours to achieve a balance between finding images that are likely to do well in competition and choosing images from as wide a range of Club Members as possible.
Members of the Selection Committee and short biographies are shown on the Committee page.