PPC Contest Guidelines

  • Piedmont Photography Club contests are meant to encourage creativity, help members grow their skills, and give everyone a chance to share their work in a supportive setting.These guidelines are intended to keep contests fair, clear, and enjoyable for everyone.

     

    General Guidelines

    • Images entered in PPC contests must be your own work.
    • The image must have been conceived, composed, and exposed by the member entering it.
    • Any editing or modification must also be done by the member, or under that member’s direct supervision.
    • The original image must have been created within the allowed time period for contest eligibility.
    • Currently, images must have been captured within the last 3 years.
    • Descriptive titles or captions are encouraged.
    • Images should not contain Watermarks

    An image may be entered again only under limited circumstances:

    • If an image is judged meritorious, it may not be entered again in regular club competition.
    • It will then be eligible for the club’s annual Image of the Year or Best-of-the-Year competition.
    • If an image is not judged meritorious, it may be entered one more time in a later contest.
    • An image may be entered no more than two times total in regular competition.

    The Board of Directors may adjust contest rules or schedules when needed, provided those changes are announced in advance.

    The Contest Chair is responsible for handling routine questions about contest eligibility and rule interpretation. Members are also asked to respect not only the wording of the rules, but the spirit behind them.

    Piedmont Photography Club contests are meant to encourage creativity, help members grow their skills, and give everyone a chance to share their work in a supportive setting.

    These guidelines are intended to keep contests fair, clear, and enjoyable for everyone.

     

Final Note

These contests are here to encourage participation, learning, and enjoyment. Members are encouraged to enter often, try new ideas, and support one another through the process.

Contest Types

PPC contests may include:

  • Open contests, where any subject matter is allowed
  • Theme contests, where entries must fit the announced theme
  • Special-topic contests, such as Nature
  • Print competition
  • Digital image competition

The annual schedule and any themes will be announced during the club year.

Number of Entries

Each member may submit up to four total entries across the Art, Theme, Black and White, and Color categories, either Advanced or Intermediate. Entries may be all digital, all prints, or divided between the two, depending on the contest structure.

In addition, a Theme category is offered in which one additional image may be submitted.

This results in a maximum of 5 total entries per member for each contest.

Entering a Contest

Members should submit entries by the announced deadline.

In general:

  • All digital images are submitted by email.
  • Print entries should also submit a digital image file for identification, archive, and presentation purposes.
  • Late entries, incomplete entries, or incorrectly labeled files may be disqualified if needed to keep the contest running smoothly and on time.

Please send entries to contest@piedmontphotoclub.com.

When submitting by email:

  • Use PPC contest and the contest month in the subject line.
  • Attach the properly named and sized image files to the email. Attach all images to one email.
  • Submit them by the stated deadline.

Judging

Entries are usually judged by:

  • club members

Certain contests may be judged by:

  • a guest judge
  • a panel of judges

Judges may use their own methods and criteria unless the contest format specifies otherwise.

For regular club contests:

  • Digital entries are voted on via the club website.
  • Print entries are voted on in-person by club members attending the contest meeting.
  • Regular contests have "Honorable Mention" designations for winners in each category.

The number of meritorious images selected may vary depending on the number of entries, though a common guideline for Digital images is about 25% of entries in a category, and Print images 50% of entries, rounded up.

Annual Awards

Meritorious images from regular contests automatically become eligible for the annual Image of the Year or Best-of-the-Year competition.

The year-end contest voting procedure is handled in the same way as a regular contest, but the scoring technique is different. In each contest category, winners are selected as First Place, Second Place, and Third Place.

At the annual awards event:

  • Winning images are announced and viewed.
  • Awards for first, second, and third place in each category will be given out.
  • Ties are resolved by awarding additional trophies.

File Naming Convention

All contest and Show & Tell images should use the PPC naming convention.

Use four filename parts separated by dashes:

Do not use dashes in any of the filename parts other than as separators.

YYYYMMDD-CATEGORY-First Last-Caption.jpg

Format

  • YYYYMMDD = contest date
  • CATEGORY = contest category code
  • First Last = member name
  • Caption = image title or caption

Category Codes:

  • DAB = Digital Advanced Black and White
  • DAC = Digital Advanced Color
  • DIB = Digital Intermediate Black and White
  • DIC = Digital Intermediate Color
  • PAB = Print Advanced Black and White
  • PAC = Print Advanced Color
  • PIB = Print Intermediate Black and White
  • PIC = Print Intermediate Color
  • SAT = Share & Tell
  • THM = Theme
  • ART = Artistically Produced

Examples:

20241008-DAC-John Doe-Osprey in Flight.jpg

20241008-PAB-Sam Smith-Morning Light.jpg

20241008-THM-Lucy Doe-Swan Reflection.jpg

Use the contest date in the filename, not the capture date or export date.

Use of spaces in names and captions is fine.

Special characters should be avoided when possible.

Digital Image Guidelines

Digital entries should be submitted as JPEG files.

Recommended specs:

  • JPEG format
  • about 80 to 85 percent quality
  • 1920 pixels on the longest side
  • sRGB color space

Theme and Artistic entries are digital only.

Print Guidelines

General print guidelines:

  • prints may be monochrome or color
  • prints should be matted
  • prints should not be framed
  • prints should fall within the club’s accepted size limits
  • prints must be brought to the contest meeting by the announced check-in time

A digital image file should also be submitted for each print entry.

Recommended digital file specs for prints:

  • JPEG format
  • about 80 to 85 percent quality
  • sized appropriately for club presentation
  • sRGB color space