There will be four Print and four Projected Digital Image (PDI) Competitions in each season plus any others as the Committee shall decide.
Members will be invited to suggest possible set subjects and after vetting set subjects will be decided by public draw at the Club's AGM. There will be a different subject for the Prints and Projected Digital Image. Since there is only one trophy each for Prints and PDI all entries will compete equally, regardless of the grade of the photographer. Members may submit up to 1 entry in both print and pdi or 2 Prints or 2 PDI's.
Members may enter one entry in both print and PDI, or two prints, or two PDIs.
This is a constantly evolving fun evening. For example, previous seasons have seen competitions between the female and the male members, pub quiz style etc. All good fun!
For the purpose of entering Prints and Projected Digital Images into Competitions each member's work is graded, according to ability (except Beginners Grade), into either Advanced or Intermediate. A member may be in a different grade for Prints and PDI.
Members must have paid subscriptions in order to enter Competitions. On joining the Club new members who wish to enter Competitions may either enter Beginners Grade (if they have no experience) or Intermediate Grade. If the Competition Secretaries believe a 'Beginner' would flourish more in Intermediate, they will be encouraged to go straight into that Grade. If new members feel that their work is of sufficient quality to be classed as Advanced then they may submit a panel or prints and/or projected digital images to the Competition Secretaries for consideration to be classed as Advanced. A member wishing to query a grading may appeal to the Committee.
Members may submit two Prints and two Projected Digital Images in each appropriate Competition. The committee has the right to change the number of submissions and will inform members in advance of the change and the reason for the change. The entries should be marked in order of preference to enable the Competition Secretaries to withdraw the "least favoured" entry from the Competition in the event of the overall entry being too great a quantity for meaningful appraisal by the judge for that Competition.
All Competition entries must be handed into the appropriate Competition Secretary not later than the meeting prior to the Competition, unless designated differently by the competition secretary. Failure to do this will result in rejection of entry.
Projected Digital Images should be in JPEG format and sized to 1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high. The file should be saved as a .jpg or .jpeg file, and the name should just be the image title exactly as you would want it to appear on screen (without edit numbers, etc.) - note that your name is not required as part of the filename. Then email the image(s) to the PDI Competition Secretary.
Full documentation of this process with examples for both PC and Mac can be found on our "PDI Entry Guide" page on this site.
Prints may be home or trade processed. Every Print shall bear its title, the Grade of the member and their name on the reverse, by using the stickers provided by the club. This should be placed in the top left hand side on the rear of the mount.
Beginner's images should be no more than A4 (210 x 297mm). Prints from all three Grades should be presented on mounts no larger than 50 x 40 cm. Where orientation may not be clear "TOP" should be marked on the reverse.
All prints should be presented to the Print secretary in the provided bag. Each member will receive one in their welcome pack which can be reusable, for each print competition. This bag will comfortably take 2 mounted prints and had a label for the member to print their name.
Whilst Hayling Island Camera Club will take all reasonable care with members' prints, the Club will not be held responsible for any damage caused whilst in their possession.
Each grade of Print or Projected Digital Image will be judged separately in each Trophy Competition.
Updated for Season 2025-2026 (will be reviewed at 2026 AGM)
Rather than our current system of giving scores out of 10, the judge will hold back some images for final selection of winners. The judge will be asked to award a First, Second, and Third place. Commendations can also be awarded to any image deserving recognition.
Scoring System
At each competition, points are awarded to each entry within each class as shown in the table.
| Placing | Points |
|---|---|
| 1st | 6 |
| 2nd | 5 |
| 3rd | 4 |
| Highly Commended | 3 |
| Held Back | 2 |
| Unplaced | 1 |
If you wish to record your own scores, a spreadheet designed by one of our members is available to downlod via the Resources and Links page
Progression from Beginners Grade to Intermediate Grade is mandatory after competing for two full seasons or after winning the Beginners Class the previous year. Members who go into higher Grades than Beginners will not be allowed to re-enter Beginners Grade in future seasons. The purpose of this is to encourage their progress in photography and to allow other entrants in Beginners Grade a chance of winning in future seasons.
Progression from Intermediate to Advanced is generally as a result of winning the Intermediate in the previous year. In some years there may be more than one promotion or, alternatively, it may be the case that no member has progressed sufficiently to be considered for promotion to Advanced. The Competition Secretaries will recommend which member(s) should be promoted from Intermediate Grade to Advanced Grade and the Committee will ratify their recommendation.
Advanced membership will be reviewed annually by the Competition Secretaries and may result in some members being regraded from Advanced to Intermediate. By undertaking this review annually, it will ensure that Advanced remains at a high standard and provides keen competition for its members.
By further undertaking this review every three years it will enable the Competition Secretaries to take into account the fact that a member may not have been able, because of sickness or pressure of other commitments, to enter a full quota of images in the previous season.
Additionally, at the end of every year, the lowest two-scoring members of Advanced will be relegated back to Intermediate level for the following year. Note that if an Advanced member does not submit any images for competition in any given year, they will be deemed to score 'zero' (0) and will thus be relegated.
Updated for Season 2025-2026
With the new scoring system voted in, it was decided that any Print or PDI image that receives a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in a league trophy competition will not be allowed to be submitted into any other league trophy competition, either Print or PDI. However, if an image was either highly commended or less, it could be entered once more in either a Print or PDI trophy round. This will allow the author to make any suggested changes a previous judge may have recommended but will stop repetition of images seen in competition. Images in the top three can be entered into Set Subject, Three Of A Theme or other non‐trophy round if relevant.
Any image which has been in the "Print or PDI Of The Year" cannot be used in league competitions the following year.
Trophies are awarded to the winners of both Prints and PDIs in grades Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced.
These will be awarded for the highest total mark obtained in the respective Trophy Competitions. In case of equal scores at the end of the season, the trophy winner is determined by the number of first places, then second places, third places, and finally Highly Commended awards received. If there is still a tie, the trophy is shared.
Members may enter two Prints and two Projected Digital Images of their choice, subject to those prints and PDI having been entered in a Trophy Competition during the current season (members will be advised if the number of entries fall below two to facilitate meaningful appraisal by the judge). There will be a Trophy for Beginners Print of the Year and a Trophy for Beginners Projected Digital Image of the Year. Intermediate and Advanced will be judged together and Trophies will be awarded for Print of the Year and Projected Digital Image of the Year.
A member may not enter Beginner of the Year Competition as well as Print of the Year Competition.
An Image Selection Panel will be formed to select members' work to represent the Club in inter-club competitions. One of the Competition Secretaries will act as Chairman of this Panel and the Committee will decide upon the number of persons to sit on the panel.
As a club we feel that we advance our level of photography by competing in certain external competitions to see how we stand alongside other clubs in the region. The Southern Counties Photographic Federation (SCPF) have organised a league based competition for both prints and PDI, however, we are currently not entering these competitions.
Each of the divisions in the league comprises seven clubs and during the season the prints or PDIs are judged at each of the clubs (by rotation) in the division. In both prints and PDIs each club submits 8 images for judging.
At the end of the season points scored are added up and a promotion/relegation system is applied, two clubs will be promoted and two relegated.
After all league matches have been completed there is the Finals Day, Every club which has participated in the league enters this competition. The highest print and PDI of each club is judged against all other clubs and a winner and runner up is chosen, we then have a best print and PDI for the season.
Each year the SCPF invites clubs to enter print and PDI images for submission to the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) Inter-Federation Competition. At present each club can decide on whether they enter the open section where they display fifteen images and or PDI's or whether they enter the small section where they enter ten images and or PDIs. The top two of each section then represent the SCPF at Warwick for the PDI's or Connah's Quay for prints in the PAGB Competition. In January the SCPF holds its annual exhibition.
Towards the end of the previous year clubs send in six prints and eight PDI images which are displayed in January normally at Salisbury Library. These images are not only viewed by SCPF members but also by other clubs throughout the country as well as the public. Awards are given for both club and individuals.Each year there are two other external competitions. Firstly, the "3H's" between Havant, Horndean and Hayling Island Camera Clubs and the hosting of the competition rotates between the clubs. Each club submits 10 prints and the same number of PDI's with judging by an SCPF accredited judge. Hayling have won a couple of times which is always good!
Secondly we have what is called the “Selsey Battle” which, in fact is a friendly competition between ourselves and Selsey Camera Club and the venue is rotated between the two clubs.
All the original component images of work submitted into competition must be the exclusive work of the author. The use of copyright free images (including AI generated content) is not allowed.
Any disagreement on these Rules on the night of a competition shall be resolved by the President or Acting President.
We are affiliated with the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.
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