Guidance

Competitions

All entries; Prints & Digital Projected Images must be identified to the Competition Secretary, with members name and a short title.

The members name will only be used by the Comp. Sec., to identify images for outside competitions.   Images may only be entered as a Print or Projected Image during the season, not in both categories.

This does not apply to outside competitions.

Presentation

Prints to be presented on Mount board, with a short title written on reverse side.  The board must be 40 x 50 cm, which is the required size for outside competitions.   No other sizes accepted.

Digital Projected Images should be projected in Landscape format of 1400 x 1050 pixels.

Images must therefore, have a landscape dimension no more than 1400 pixels wide x 1050 pixels high.

Files should be saved as jpeg at maximum quality and at 72 pixels/inch

Print and Digitally Projected Image (DPI) Evenings

A maximum of 2 entries per author, who must be present on the evening.

All entries must be entirely the members own work, and must have been taken within the last five years.

Members are encouraged to comment on an entry, which is displayed anonymously.

To obtain a Gold or Silver Award, an entry needs to attract the votes of half the members present.

Authors of work awarded, identify themselves, others may do so if they wish.

Entries for Projected Images must be submitted by email no later than the Monday evening prior to projection.

Points awarded; Gold 2 pts Silver 1 pt.

Special Subjects

Each of these competitions is devoted to a single subject, usually judged from outside the club.  All images must have been taken within the last two years, and should be entirely the members own work.   The author need not be present on the evening.

The topics agreed for the 2010-2011 season are;

Human Portrait;

Natural History (Open)  

Subject No. 1;    "Home"  

Subject No. 2;     "Decay"

Each member may enter up to 2  prints and/or DPIs to make a maximum of 4. Hand in dates as shown in Programme.

Points awarded:

1^st – 4 pts  

2^nd – 3 pts  

3^rd – 2 pts  

Highly Commended - 1 pt

Natural History

Nature photography depicts untamed (ie "wild and free") animals and uncultivated plants in a natural habitat, geology and the wide diversity of natural phenomena.

Photos of animals which are domesticated, caged or under any form of restraint, as well as photos of cultivated plants are ineligible.

The original image must have been taken by the photographer, whatever photographic medium is used.

Any manipulation or modification to the original image is limited to minor retouching of blemishes and must not alter the content of the original scene.

Monochrome Competition

A competition for Monochrome Prints and/or DPIs

Rules are as Special subjects.

A black & white work fitting from very dark grey (black) to a very clear grey (white) is a monochrome work with various shades of grey.

A black & white work toned entirely in a single colour will remain a monochrome work able to stand in the black & white category.

A black & white work modified by partial toning or the addition of one colour, becomes a colour work.

Images of the Year

Each member is allowed a maximum of 3 entries for Prints and 3 entries for DPIs.

All entries must have received an award, or represented the club in outside competition during the season, with one exception; members have the option to include within their 3 entries an image that does not meet the above criteria - a wild card!.

An award for the best Creative Image will be made from the total entry in each category.

Submission of Entries

To submit DPIs for competitions, please send to:

entries@wadebridgecameraclub.org.uk  

by the Monday evening prior to competition, or at dates announced in programme.  Prints should be submitted at dates announced in programme

Club Youth Policy

Our club is keen to encourage young people to be involved in all aspects of photography, and it has agreed to waive membership fees for all under 18’s.  The policy statement below shows our commitment to young members.

"Wadebridge & District Camera Club is mindful of social concerns regarding the protection of children and vulnerable adults.   The club has a fully trained Child Protection Officer, with CRB and an enhanced Policy Clearance Certificate.  All matters relating to child protection or vulnerable adults are referred to this Officer who acts in accordance with the Child Protection Legislation."

Our Club and the WCPF

Our club is affiliated to the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF), 15 such federations make up the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.   The WCPF has about 100 member clubs in an area covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset & Wiltshire.

The WCPF organises many events including;

DPI Competition in February/March.

Interclub Print Panel Competition in November (Kingswood Salver)

Annual Open Members Exhibition in mid May

A circulating Print Folio.

The WCPF also organises seminars, workshops and ‘Improve your photography days’.

Club members may gain distinctions of the PAGB (CAPGB, DPAGB & MPAGB) by submitting examples of their work for assessment.

Our Club and the CPA

Our club is one of about 14 clubs of the Cornwall Photographic Alliance (CPA)

The annual competition of the CPA is held in Truro during May.

The Charles Hosken Digital Projected Image competition is held during March, and is open to all club members.

For more information about any of these activities, contact the Club Representatives:

Brian Galbraith CPAGB (WCPF)

Linda Fenner (CPA)

My method of saving images for use by digital projectors.
By Adrian Langdon. ARPS DPAGB.

Most digital competitions and most digital projectors ask for a jpeg file which is sized at 1400 X 1050 pixels at 72 dpi saved at max. (There are some projectors which work better at different sizes, but the process of saving is the same).

I also intend to show how to save the picture at these sizes if a smaller image is selected i.e. as a portrait format or a
letterbox format using a black background.

I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS2, but most of the Photo imaging software will give similar results and follow
similar lines.

Method.

Firstly reset your workspace and your tools to their default settings so as not to “muddy the waters ”…..
Window…workspace…Default workspace
And … Window….Tool presets …. click on circled arrow in corner of Tool preset box……click Reset all tools .

Open your image, then save it as a duplicate layer on which to work freely.' … Layer….Duplicate layer

Do any work you need to on the image, i.e. Brightness, saturation, sharpening etc.

Click on the Crop tool and at the top of the workspace enter in the parameters.
In Width put 1400 px, in Height put 1050 px, and in Resolution put 72 pixels/inch.

If satisfied then hit Enter . This crops the image to size.

Click Image…image size… and we can see that the image is sized to 1400 by 1050 at 72 dpi.

Save the image as a jpeg at Max quality by moving the slider to change the jpeg file size.

Portrait format.

Saving a picture in Portrait format using a background canvas that is 1400 x 1050.

Take your portrait image and with the Crop tool selected delete the figure in the Width box, leaving the Height box
set to 1050 pixels..

Drag the Crop tool across the image and take it from the top to the bottom of your image so that it encompasses the
entire photo. Then press Enter and it will resize the image.

In order to see it better click ….View…Fit on screen .

Select ….Image….Canvas size .

Change the Width in the Canvas size pop up box to 1400 and the Height to 1050, making sure that the drop down
menu shows pixels .

Also ensure that the Canvas extension colour is set to Background which should be Black if it's set correctly on the
Tool menu.

Click OK and the image should now have a black canvas at either side with a 1400 x 1050 size.

This background can take any colour but the preferred in competitions is Black or occasionally Grey.

Save this image and it should be acceptable for most projected image needs.

Letterbox format.

For the letterbox format we need to input the Width box of the Crop tool with 1400 and leave the Height box empty.

We can now drag the Crop tool across our image from end to end and at whatever height we wish.

When happy with the crop hit Enter to complete the crop. Go View….Fit on screen to see the image better.

Select ….Image….Canvas size .
Change the Width in the Canvas size pop up box to 1400 and the Height to 1050, making sure that the drop down
menu shows pixels. Also ensure that the Canvas extension colour is set to Background which should be Black if it's
set correctly on the Tool menu
Click OK and the Canvas should become Black at the top and bottom of the image.

If satisfied the Save the image.

We can experiment with the settings on the Up and Down arrows in the Canvas size pop up box to change the
position of the letterbox within the canvas in order to raise or lower the image on the screen.…..

We may need to save the canvas size twice to get the desired position on the background. Try saving the canvas
height at say….500 pixels, then change canvas size again to 1050 but hit the top middle upward pointing arrow.
This should then position the “letterbox” higher up in the frame, or….

Don't forget to Save your images as copies so that the original image is not reduced in size for eternity!!!

Links to Tutorials

Photoshop Tutorials - Mark Johnson

Photoshop Tutorials - Project Woman

Photoshop Tutorials - Digital / Practical Photography Magazines

 Home   Programme   Contacts   Gallery   Links