Rules

PHOTOGRAPHIC ENTRIES 

Entries may be done under the following sections:  

Three entries per month per section will be allowed. A fourth entry will be allowed if it is entered in the Set Subject category. All four entries may, of course, be in the Set Subject category. 

Entering and Judging Procedure 

Print entries are to be titled and submitted, with the entry form provided, to the appropriate committee members between 19h15 and 19h30. See below for digital entries.

All work are judged by a panel according to the member’s grading.

Beginners automatically enter into the 1-Star section and may then progress to the higher grades: 2-Star, 3-Star, Graduated, Honours and Masters.

Advanced workers from other clubs may submit a panel for a grading allocation.

Each of the three judges allocate a mark out of 5. A five represents a Certificate of Merit (C.O.M.), a four a Gold award, a three a Silver award, a two a Bronze award and a one a no award. All three marks are added giving a total out of 15. The final award is then given as follows:    

Grading 

New members from other PSSA affiliated clubs may submit a panel of entries to the committee for grading purposes. Current members entering a new medium will be rated two levels less than their highest grading, e.g. a master slide worker will start as a graduate print worker. Members may, however, appeal to the committee if they feel uncomfortable with this ruling. The committee may also approach a member to submit a panel for reclassification purposes.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTRIES

PRINTS

We distinguish between Colour Prints and Monochrome Prints.

Monochrome Print - A print comprising any monochrome tone plus (optionally) one colour, i.e. sepia, blue etc. Black and White and one colour.

Colour Print - Any print not falling into the Monochrome category.

Print Origin
The original image must have been made using any recognized photographic process/camera. Photogram techniques are also accepted.

Print Production
Any recognized means of reproduction may be used.

Size of Prints
The minimum acceptable image size is 6" x 8" (152 x 203mm) and the maximum image size, including the mounting, is 16" x 20" (406 x 508mm).

Mounting
Mounting of prints is optional, however, block mounted and framed prints will not be accepted for competition and exhibition. Titles may be placed on the face if the author so wishes, but this is not recommended. 

Identification
The prints must bear the name and address of the author, the title of the print and an orientation mark on the reverse side of the print. Any additional information such as the author’s club, date, previous awards and telephone number will assist in administrative matters when the print is at a salon or other competition.

Manipulation
Manipulation is an accepted part of photography. The original image must have been made by the exhibitor on a recognized camera and all modification of that original must be made by the exhibitor or under his personal direction. For the purpose of telling a true story (not manipulated), images in Nature, Wildlife, Photojournalism, Sport and Photo-Travel may not be manipulated.

DIGITAL IMAGES

These rules must be read in conjunction with the PSSA guidelines.

IMAGE PREPARATION

The file name must be in 4 groups. The first group represents the photographer's grading (1, 2, 3 or s), followed by the title truncated to a maximum of 24 characters (e.g. blue heron at dawn). The third group must show the category ( p, pj, s, m, ss, nr etc.) and the fourth group must show the author’s name truncated to a maximum of 18 characters (e.g. johannes vd merwe).

The letters must be in lower case and the title or your name must not include any dashes. Only figures and letters, and the dash (-) that separates the various groups may be used.

Graduate, Honours and Master workers must enter a "s" (senior) in the first group.

Correctly named files would, for example, look like this when viewed in Windows Explorer:

-s-blue heron at dawn-w-johannes vd merwe-.jpg
-2-landscape-nr-joe bloggs-.jpg

Also check the file size in Explorer. It must not be greater than 500 Kb.

IMAGE SUBMISSION

 GENERAL RULES

Often judges say "fix this" or "do that" to improve an image and then it is left at that. There was never an incentive to do what the judges suggested, until now.

You may now re-enter an image after you have done some work on it. With slides it was virtually impossible to change the image other than re-shooting it, masking it or cleaning it to get rid of dust spots. Prints can be redone and possibly reframed if necessary. Digital images can easily be improved.

You may also resubmit an image if you are unhappy with the award it received.

Before you start digging into your archives, there are some conditions that should be complied to:

Appeal rule 

The appeal rule applies when two judges allocate the same marks and a third judge allocates two marks less or more, or when the difference between one judge and both the other judges are at least two marks, e.g. 4,4,2. The points master will inform the member when such a situation occurs. 

Successful appeal: The same image may be entered as an additional entry at the next club meeting. The points allocated during this meeting will be regarded as final.

CATEGORIES

 There are 9 categories in which pictures may be entered:

categories explained

REQUIREMENTS FOR PROMOTION

Example: Promotion from Graduate to Honours would require a minimum of 15 gold awards and 6 salon acceptances. Promotion from Honours to Masters would require at least 20 gold awards and a total of 15 salon acceptances (6+9, if 6 acceptances were used for the previous promotion).