East Kilbride Camera Club Internal Competition Rules
There are seven competitions throughout the season, one per month from September to April excluding December, with all competitions contributing to the club league.
Hand-in dates and themes for all competitions can be found on the club website under the Competitions 2023-2024 tab.
General Rules
- Images can only be submitted for one competition in a year. Note – this is a change from previous years where images which had won competitions earlier in the year (e.g. wildlife) could be submitted for the Annual Open – this is no longer allowed.
- All images must have been taken within two years of the competition hand-in date. For example, if the hand-in date is 30 October 2023, any images submitted must have been taken between 30 October 2021 and 30th October 2023. The exception is the One Week Challenge where images must be taken during the week from when the theme is announced to the hand-in date.
- No images can be submitted which were taken on any club outings, either during the season or summer events. You are however free to return to these locations in your own time to take photographs and enter these.
- The use of TopazAI Sharpen or AI Denoise is allowed.
- The use of AI software such as SkylumLuminar AI is allowed providing it is only using material from your own photograph to create the effect.
- Images created in software that uses Adobe Firefly AI are allowed as long as the images have been taken by you and only your photographs are used in the processing. However, no modifications are allowed based on ‘text input’ or ‘AI generated’ using images or elements that have not been taken by you. If it adds ‘elements or ‘imagery’ that was not taken by you, then it is not allowed.
- Members can enter up to 3 images per competition. If there are too many entries, the Competition Secretary will remove your lowest ranked image to produce a more manageable amount.
- It is the responsibility of members to ensure images comply fully before submitting entries. If you have any difficulty with this, please speak to the competition secretary, who will be glad to help.
In all matters, the decision of the Competition Secretary is final. The competition secretary is Chris Fyfe.
Digital Competitions
Digital images are to be submitted by PhotoEntry uploader up to 2359hrs on the hand-in date for each competition. There is a link to PhotoEntry uploader in each competition diary entry on the Competitions 2023-2024 tab on the club website and also at the foot of this page.
Digital images should not exceed 1600 pixels horizontally and should not exceed 1200 pixels vertically.
Print Competitions
Print Size, including mount, should not exceed 400mm X 500mm (16 x 20ins). Prints out with this size will not be accepted.
All print images should be marked on the back:
– Title_members number_image rank (1-3) 1 being your first choice and 3 being your least. i.e. Rainy Day_24_1
Prints should be put in the appropriate portfolio case provided for them and must be removed from all plastic bags or packaging. Please ensure also that any Velcro tabs are removed from backs of prints so as not to scratch any other photographer’s prints. Any prints with loose mountings or masking tape may be removed from entering or returned to member for fixing.
Entries shall normally be returned at the end of the competition. Unclaimed entries will be kept for later collection from the Competition Secretary.
League Structure, Rules and Scoring
The league structure has two divisions with promotion and relegation between the divisions.
Divisions
The Beginners and Advanced Divisions have been replaced with Division One and Division Two.
- Division One will comprise of 10 members.
- Division Two will comprise of all other members.
- All new club members will join in Division Two.
Scoring
- All seven competitions contribute to league scores.
- A members score will comprise of their ten highest scores from all seven competitions
- A maximum of two scores from each competition. For example, if you scored 20, 20 and 20 in one competition, only two of the 20s would count towards your league score.
- All images will be scored out of 20. For example, in a competition we could have two images scoring 20, three scoring 19, two scoring 18 etc.
- For competitions where there is a club trophy to be awarded (e.g. wildlife, annual open) the judge will be asked to select their Top Image which will be awarded the trophy.
Promotion and Relegation
At the end of each season there will be promotion and relegation between Division One and Division Two based on league scores.
- 9th and 10th in Division One will be relegated to Division Two.
- 1st and 2nd in Division Two will be promoted to Division One.
- 8th in Division One and 3rd in Division Two will face each other in a play-off. The member with the highest league score will be in Division One the following season and the other will be in Division Two.
Tie Break
- If there are any ties (either for league placings or promotion/relegation), the higher placing would go to the member with the most 20s. If that is tied then the most 19s and so on.
Non-participation
- This is to cover the scenario where a large number of members in Division One choose not to participate in club competitions and it allows more members from Division Two, who have actively participated in competitions, to be promoted.
- Members in Division One must enter at least three rounds or they can be considered for relegation, regardless of their position, when there are Division Two members who have entered at least five rounds. For example, if 6th to 10th in Division One only enter 2 rounds, and 1st to 5th in Division Two enter at least five rounds, then 6th to 10th are automatically relegated and 1st to 5th promoted, regardless of scores.
Permissions
Images submitted for competitions may be used by the club for the competition entered, and for publication on any of the club’s social media platforms.
Images for external competitions, and printed publication shall be submitted separately, and will not be taken from previously submitted images.
Copyright of images must be that of the photographer who has entered the work. Anyone found infringing copyright shall be disqualified from all remaining competitions of the season and results from already entered shall be nullified.
Wildlife Round
East Kilbride Camera Club has adopted the Royal Photographic Society rules for the annual wildlife competition.
The Royal Photographic Society rules for wildlife photography state that “Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archaeology, in such a fashion that a well-informed person will be able to identify the subject material and certify its honest presentation. The story telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements are integral parts of the nature story such as nature subjects, like barn owls or storks, adapted to an environment modified by humans, or where those human elements are in situations depicting natural forces, like hurricanes or tidal waves. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement.
No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted. Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning. Techniques that remove elements added by the camera, such as dust spots, digital noise, and film scratches, are allowed. Stitched images are not permitted. All allowed adjustments must appear natural. Colour images can be converted to greyscale monochrome. Infrared images, either direct-captures or derivations, are not allowed.
Images entered in Wildlife sections meeting the Nature Photography Definition above are further defined as one or more extant zoological or botanical organisms free and unrestrained in a natural or adopted habitat. Landscapes, geologic formations, photographs of zoo or game farm animals, or of any extant zoological or botanical species taken under controlled conditions are not eligible in Wildlife sections. Wildlife is not limited to animals, birds and insects. Marine subjects and botanical subjects (including fungi and algae) taken in the wild are suitable wildlife subjects, as are carcasses of extant species.”
The above button will take you to the PhotoEntry website where you can enter your images to the club competitions.