*** Important Competition Rules Update March 2010 ***

Competition Changes - Effective March 2010

The Orlando Camera Club (“OCC”) holds all-digital competitions only. Please review these competition rules prior to entry.

Monthly Competitions

Themed Competitions –Themes will be announced in advance of the coming competition year and are posted on the OCC website. The Competition Chair may disqualify images if they are NOT consistent with the monthly theme. Even if accepted for entry to the Competition, images may be scored lower if their relevance to the monthly theme is marginal. Frontal nudity is not allowed.

Open Competitions –Entries to the Open Competitions are not limited to a specific theme, therefore; appropriate subject matter is allowable within the parameters set in the categories of competition. Frontal nudity is not allowed.

Annual Competition

The Annual Competition is only open to entries from monthly competitions submitted during the current Competition year. New images are not accepted. The criteria for selecting images for the Annual Competition are currently under review.

Eligibility

You must be a member in good standing with OCC to be eligible to enter monthly competitions. A current membership list will be used for verification.

Class

On joining the OCC, a member chooses to compete in one of two classes, “A” or “B”:

• Professional photographers will compete in Class A

• Any member may choose to compete in Class A

• Members ranked in “Class A” in FCCC competition must compete in Class A in OCC competitions

• Once Class A - always Class A

• Progression to Class A will take place at the end of competition year based on competition scores and/or performance in the Annual Competition

• Criteria for progression to Class A will be three or more scores of >9 or Best in Category awards

• Any Class B member winning First Place or Image of the Year in the Annual Competition will automatically be moved to Class A

Categories

There are three categories, each judged independently.

Color – All color images (except those defined as “Creative” below) are acceptable for inclusion, whether or not they have undergone digital manipulation. Partially desaturated images that result in a mixed color/monochrome image should be entered in the Color or the “Creative” category.

Monochromatic – All images which are either completely desaturated, or contain only a single color tone (e.g. sepia) are eligible for this category.

Creative – An image, which is a composite of more than one unique image, must be entered in this category. This does NOT include bracketed images taken for High Dynamic range (HDR) purposes as these images differ only by exposure and are not unique. However, any other image that the photographer deems “creative” may also be entered into this category. Please note, however, that Class A and B photographers will be judged together in this category. Those entering this category may also enter either color or monochrome categories.

Number of Entries

Members may enter two images per competition and may enter one image in any two categories. The same image may not be entered in more than one category or in more than one monthly competition.

All entries must be the original work of the entrant.

Judging

Either 2 or 3 judges will judge each competition. At least one of these will be a non-member from the local photographic community. One or two judges will be experienced members of OCC. Judges who are club members are not precluded from entering a competition but will NOT be allowed to score their own entries.

Scoring System

The rating system has changed to accommodate a new electronic scoring system in use by our judges. The new system is based on a 1-10 scale where:

1-3: = Weak image needing major improvement

4-6: = Average image needing significant improvement

7-8: = Good image needing only minor improvement

9-10: = Superior image needing little or no improvement

Awards

In each Category, the image with the highest score will receive a rosette for the Best of Category.

The winners of each Category may receive a gift from club sponsors. First time winners will also receive a 1-Year Pro Subscription for a SmugMug web site. Previous winners of a SmugMug subscription will receive a $25 Gift Certificate for photograph purchases from SmugMug.

Submission of Competition Entries

Entries may be rejected if these guidelines are not accurately followed.

1. ___ Images must be submitted as e-mail attachments only to Competition@orlandocameraclub.com.

Mac users may need to submit email attachments in "View As Icon" mode.

To do this, right click (or Control click) on the file itself to access the drop down menu and select "View as Icon".

2. ___Images MUST have a filename (not a title) that adheres strictly to the following convention:

CLASS-CAT-TITLE-MEM#.jpg

CLASS = A or B (see general competition rules for definitions of Class)

CAT = Color or Mono or Creative; (see general competition rules for definitions of Category)

TITLE = Title of image (less than 60 characters; spaces are allowed)?

MEM# =OCC member # (with no leading zeros)

Example Filename: A-Color-Paris in the Spring-33.jpg

Important: The separator is a hyphen (-) not an underscore (_). Do NOT put spaces on either side of the separator.

3. ___ Entrants may submit TWO images per e-mail (note that submission is limited to either one Color or one Mono entry per competition but you are at liberty to submit one additional image in the Creative category.

Only one email confirmation will be sent.

4. ___ Enter the Competition Month and Year (not necessarily the month you are submitting in) as the Subject Line of the e-mail (NOT the image name) for example as follows – Nov09. NO text is permitted in the body of the e-mail. Your e-mail should look something like this:



5. ___ Only JPG images are acceptable. Do NOT send as a Zip file. Images must be attached, not embedded. Remove embellishments, signatures or logo gifs from the body of the email.

6. ___ JPG images should be sized to a dimension of 1400 pixels on the longest edge at 72 dpi. We recommend a JPG compression ratio not less than 70% (7 on a scale of 0-10, or 0-12). The final file size should be less than 1 MB. If possible, use the sRGB color space. If your image size is too small or you over-compress the file, your image may not project well and could score poorly as a result.

Please click on the following link to the resizing examples pdf file for helpful instructions on resizing your images using a variety of different software applications.

7. ___There are two ways to confirm that your image has been received. First, you should receive an automated message confirming receipt of your image(s). If you do NOT receive such a message within an hour or two (check your spam filter) contact the Competition Chair. Second, all images will be posted on the OCC Smugmug web site prior to Competition Night. If you do NOT see your image posted, please contact the Competition Chair.

8. ___ The deadline for submission is midnight on the MONDAY one week prior to Competition Night.

9. ___ Failure to adhere to these submission guidelines may result in your image(s) being disqualified for that month’s competition. Disqualified images may be re-submitted for future competitions if appropriate.

10. ___ Once an image is submitted, it cannot be revised or substituted for another. The image may be withdrawn by contacting the Competition Chair.

Click here for a copy of the OCC Competition Rules PDF document.

If you have any questions please feel free to email Competition Chair, Winnie Gustafson. She will be glad to help you.