PPSCV Image Competition Rules - April 2022
Eligibility
1. The image maker must have captured and created the original exposure or exposures.
2. All processing, manipulation, and printing or rendering, must be done by the maker or under their direct supervision.
3. The maker has obtained and has access to all necessary releases (model or property) and agrees to hold PPSCV harmless against all claims and liabilities arising out of PPSCV's display, publication and promotion or other use of each image submitted to PPSCV.
4. The maker's name, logo, watermark, URL, title, or other identifier shall not appear anywhere in the image entry.
5. A maximum of five entries may be submitted per maker for each competition, unless specified by the current competition details. Note that images may be dropped from the competition according to the entrant’s priority for each image if the competition has too many entries for the time available.
6. No entry will be eligible if it has been made under the supervision of an instructor or as a class assignment. All images submitted must be self‐directed. Images created in an educational environment under direct supervision from an instructor are ineligible.
7. Any entry that has been created from or uses an existing photograph, portrait, graphic or any other
artwork produced by another person may be entered in the Master Artist Category only.
8. Entries of the same subject in multiple images will be allowed, as long as the images are entirely different concepts.
9. Maker must be a current, paid PPSCV member to receive merits or any awards. Entries from makers who are not members of PPSCV will not be scored. Non-member images judged as merit-worthy will be noted.
10. No image can be entered into the PPSCV Image Competition more than twice. Any image receiving a score of 80 or greater may not be re-entered, images scored below 80 can be re-processed and re-entered a second time. Images not judged due to competition time limits may be re-entered in a later competition.
Photographic Categories
Image competition entries are judged according to the category and sub-category identified when the image is submitted.
Submission
1. By entering the PPSCV Image Competition, the owner of the image expressly grants rights to PPSCV to display that image either electronically or in print format in conjunction with image competition activities or to display as an example of submitted work.
2. Only digital images are accepted, not prints.
3. Digital image submissions and any applicable image entry fees must be paid and received by the posted deadline preceding the image competition.
The Digital Image Competition Chairperson may extend this deadline as they see fit, for instance if sufficient images are not received by the deadline, or technical difficulties. Image fees may be paid online via the PPSCV.com website.
4. If the Digital Image Competition Chairperson receives an image that they deem to be inappropriate to display in our general meeting, they will forward that image to three non‐judging members of a review committee which shall be composed of PPSCV board members or past presidents.
The decision of this committee to accept or reject the image is final.
5. The Digital Image Competition Chairperson has the authority to reject any submitted image if, in their judgment, the image does not meet competition standards.
6. Electronic images must be submitted as file attachments as per the image competition platform requirements.
7. Technical Requirements.
PPSCV Image Competition requires a specific digital image format for submitted files, as detailed below:
Images that do not meet the image format and file naming requirements may be rejected by the Image Competition Chairperson.
Save the image file with the following image format:
- File Type: JPEG highest quality (88 or more is adequate for quality high viewing, use 100 for highest quality).
File types of .jpg or .jpeg are acceptable, capitalization not important.
- Color space: Each file should contain an embedded color profile of either sRGB or Adobe RGB1998.
- Images should be 4000 pixels on the longest dimension, including any presentation border.
Name the image files in the required naming format for the competition.
Judging
1. Any member serving as Digital Image Competition judge may not enter an image into the same competition. However, that judge will be allowed to enter up to double the allowed maximum number of images in the next quarter's competition.
2. No more than five (5) nor less than three (3) judges will be chosen by the Image Chairperson.
3. Judges must be PPSCV professional members or special visitors (PPA/PPC Approved Judges, PPA/PPC Masters, PPA CPPs, Guest Speakers, etc.)
4. Judging will be based on PPA competition standards as per the 12 Points of a Merit Image.
5. Tabulation of points will be the responsibility of the Competition Chairperson(s) with one or more aides as necessary.
6. All points will be recorded and retained for future reference.
7. On images scoring 70 (average) or better, an automatic challenge will be issued if a point spread of ten (10) points exists between one (or more) or the judge's score and the resulting score.
8. Any image that scores an average of 79 will generate an automatic re‐judging where each judge shall indicate whether the image deserves a Merit score of 80 or not. If a majority of judges specify 80, the score will be changed to 80, otherwise it will remain at 79.
9. Any judge may challenge an image score if they believe that the average score is either too high or too low.
The challenging judge will state their reason(s) for issuing the challenge.
Following his/her statement, the image will be rescored.
10. No discussion between judges is allowed except according to the challenge rules as stated above.
Quarterly/Monthly Image Competition awards
One image per competition will be awarded Best of Show.
This will be the image that has the highest average score of the competition, or as determined by majority from the panel of judges.
In the case of a tie, the image with the highest individual score will be selected.
The Best of Show image will, by definition, be the first place image for its category.
Category awards of first, second and third places will be made based on the top three average scores per category, or by the judges panel.
For a category to be awarded first, second, and third place, there must be a minimum of five images entered with three different makers in that category.
Or, with a minimum of three images and two makers entered in the category, only first place will be awarded.
Awards and the names of the makers will be recognized on the PPSCV.com website under Image Competition Awards.
Prizes from sponsors are subject to availability.
Any member winning two or more category awards will only be eligible for one sponsor prize, this does not apply to Best of Show.
Only PPSCV members in good standing are eligible for awards or prizes.
Year-End Image Competition and Awards (added 08/11/2020, revised 01/04/21)
(1) Up to six images that have received a score of 70 or above in PPSCV Image Competition during the current year may be entered. Images can be re-submitted with adjustments, but must remain substantially the same image, as determined by the Image Competition committee. Re-submitted images must be received by the advertised deadline to be substituted in the year-end competition.
(2) For images to be eligible in year-end competition, the maker must have attended at least five meetings during the year. [Waived during Covid-19 shelter-in-place restrictions.]
(3) Three to five outside judges will be announced prior to the competition that will judge all categories.
(4) Year-End awards will be given for each of the categories used throughout the calendar year.
(a) For a category to be awarded first, second, and third place, there must be a minimum of five images entered with three different makers in that category.
(b) Or, with a minimum of three images and two makers entered in the category, only first place will be awarded.
(5) Each award will state clearly what the award is for and to whom the award is to be given (e.g., PPSCV, First Place, category, year, maker’s name).
(6) One award will be given to the Image of the Year.
The Image of the Year is determined as per the Best of Show for the Year-End competition.
The award will state: PPSCV, the year, maker’s name and Image of the Year.
(7) When using the award for any publicity or advertising, it must be stated clearly what the award was given for.
It will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors to determine if the publicity or advertisement is stated properly.
(8) If the Image Competition allows for prints, only prints mounted on 16x20 mount boards will be accepted for year-end competition. The maker will supply the information from the back of the original print if the print entered is not the original.
(9) One award will be given for Photographer of the Year.
It will be awarded to the photographer who has the highest total of points for the calendar year, calculated as follows:
(a) Quarterly/Monthly Image Competition:
Points will be awarded for each photographer's ten highest scoring images from competitions during the year:
1.5 points for each image scoring 85—100
1.0 point for each image scoring 80—84
0.5 points for each image scoring 76-79
0.5 additional points for a Best of Show image.
(b) Year-End Image Competition:
Additional points will be awarded from the Year-End competition:
3.0 points for a 1st place category award
2.5 points for a 2nd place category award
2.0 points for a 3rd place category award
4.0 points for Image of the Year.
In the case of a tie, the winner will be the photographer with the highest individual image score of their ten highest scoring images from the year; then the highest number of Best in Show, First, Second and Third place awards, will be compared until the tie is broken.
Additional Awards:
PPSCV includes additional industry and sponsor awards when available, including:
PPA CPP Certified Professional photographer Award - for the maker of the top scoring merit image of the year by a CPP. In the case of a tie, the image with the highest individual score will be selected.
Animal Image Maker Award - for the maker of the top scoring merit image of the year of an animal in any category. In the case of a tie, the image with the highest individual score will be selected.