Photo Competition Rules

General Rules

PURPOSE: Image Education is to provide objective feedback for participating members as they strive for excellence, the honing of their photographic skills and talents, through fair and honest judging, and meaningful critique of their work.

ELIGIBILITY: Only individual members current on dues of the PPGMF may compete in competition.

ENTRIES ALLOWED: We use printcompetition.com to manage our entries and salons. Create an account and select PPGMF as your association. You may enter up to four (4) images in Photographic Open and up to four (4) in Digital Artist. The cost is $20 to enter the competition.

MODERATOR: A moderator selected by the Salon Chairperson and or president will oversee the judging procedure and to act as mediator between the judges and the salon chairperson.

JUDGING PROCEDURE: Whenever possible, a panel of qualified judges from outside our membership will be selected by the Salon Chairperson and displayed on the website for each competition. The panel will consist of at least three judges with Master designation. Images will be scored from 100 to 0.

SCORING: The scoring ranges are as shown below.
100 – 95 Exceptional
94 – 90 Superior
89 – 85 Excellent
84 – 80 Very Good
79 – 75 Above Average
74 – 70 Average
69 – 0 Unacceptable

PLACEMENT: Judges determine First through Third placements in each category.

BEST OF SHOW: The judges shall select one overall Best of Show for each salon from all the First Place winners of all categories of both divisions.

AWARDS: Recognition of Excellence will be in the form of ribbons for all images placing First, Second or Third in each category. These ribbons are intended to help the individual member promote professional photography and his/her artistic abilities to the public.

At the Annual Banquet, the Salon Committee will name the Photographer of the Year and the Digital Artist of the Year. The scores from both Print Education/Salon events will be totaled as follows:

Images scoring 100 will be awarded 6 points
Images scoring 91 – 99 will be awarded 5 points
Images scoring 85 – 90 will be awarded 4 points
Images scoring 83 – 84 will be awarded 3 points
Images scoring 80 – 82 will be awarded 2 points
Images scoring 78 – 79 will be awarded 1 points

A bonus point will be awarded any image placing First – Third and the image awarded Best of Show will receive an additional bonus point for a possible total of 2 extra points. The Photographer of the Year and The Digital Artist of the Year awards will be based on the total number of points earned in both Image Education / Salon competition. Attendance points and service points will be applied to Photographer of the Year Award. In case of a tie, the total number of scores will be used, after which the average score of all entries will be used. If this still fails to break a tie, the maker with the highest number of First Places and Best in Show entries will be named the winner.

The Salon Committee, whose decision is final, will resolve any disputes arising from circumstances not specifically covered by these rules. These rules and procedures are designed to follow as closely as possible those of our affiliate organizations at the state, regional and national levels.

The rules are subject to amendments at any time, if such amendment is approved by a majority of the Board or Directors. Whenever possible, changes will be made between the last and the first Print Education so that the rules will be consistent through any given year.

Our competitions culminate in two overall winners of the year – the Photographer of the Year and the Digital Artist of the Year. Images previously merited by PPGMF may not be re-entered in another PPGMF competition. An image merited in Photographer of the Year may NOT be entered in Digital Artist of the Year. An image merited in Digital Artist of the Year may NOT be entered in Photographer of the Year.

IDENTIFICATION OF ALL ENTRIES: Files must be sized, so the longest dimension is 4000 pixels. Each file must contain an embedded color profile of either sRGB or Adobe RGB1998 and be saved at a JPEG quality setting of 10. In most cases, the total file size should not exceed 3.5 MB. Larger files will be accepted when necessary, so long as they are JPG/10. Images must be uploaded through the printcompetition.com website within the time limits set by the chairman.

These rules pertain to images entered and created by any photographic processes.

• Entrants must be PPGMF members to compete in the Salon Competition.
• All entries must be registered at printcompetition.com.
• Entrants may submit a case of 4 entries per division.
• Entrants are required to upload a digital file for each image entered.
• No changes to your entry are permitted once the entry deadline has passed.
• No refunds will be issued after the entry fee is paid.

Photographic Category

ELIGIBILITY

1. Entrants need to be PPGMF members to compete in the Digital Artist Competition.
2. Entrant must have captured and created the original photographic exposure or exposures.
3. All processing, manipulation, and printing or rendering were done by the entrant or under their direct supervision.
4. The entrant has obtained and has access to all necessary releases (model or property) and agrees to hold PPGMF harmless against all claims and liabilities arising out of PPGMF’s display, publication, and promotion or other use of each image submitted to PPGMF.
5. The entrant’s name shall not appear anywhere in or on the face of the entry.
6. Entries of the same subject in multiple images will be allowed as long as the images are entirely different concepts.
7. 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 and/or under direct supervision from an instructor are ineligible.
8. Any entry that has been created from an existing photograph, portrait, graphic or any other artwork produced by another person is a violation of the competition rules. If an entry, in the good-faith opinion of the Salon Committee, violates copyright, trademark, or any other applicable law, that entry shall not be displayed or published.
9. Once an image has been awarded a merit in any category, it may not be entered again in any other category of PPGMF competition, at any time, by any entrant. No image that receives a merit at a PPGMF competition may be entered more than once under any condition, including any image from a merited album.
10. Images that don’t receive a merit may be reworked and re-entered in a future PPGMF competition.

Photographic Portrait Categories

General
This sub-category includes families, groups, couples, and adults (18 and older), relationships, models, and fashion portraits, in addition to tastefully artistic figure studies.

Children
This sub-category must contain a child or children from birth to age 18.

Animal
This sub-category captures an animal(s) portrait using structured lighting in a studio or outdoor environment, where the owner or photographer control the animal.

Photojournalism
Images created for potential publication in news-oriented magazines and newspapers.

Wedding/Social Event
This sub-category may be formal portrait or candid in studio, or on location.

Open
This sub-category is for everything else.

Photographic Illustrative Categories

Landscape/Wildlife
This sub-category shares joy and adventures while expressing a sense of place. Wild animals in an uncontrolled lighting environment, zoo animals, flowers, seascapes, cityscapes, urban landscapes, and sunsets with or without people can be placed here.

Illustrative/Commercial
This sub-category is used when images are created for a commercial client to advertise a product and promote a brand or company. This can be an interior or exterior of a structure or within an industrial environment. Illustrative can also be conceptual images that tell a story.

Creative Open
This category consists of images that have additional photographic elements not created by the maker. All the other PO rules still apply with the exception that an entrant may choose to use photographic elements in the image not created by the maker. These photographic elements must be shown in a guide image. The purpose of this category is to allow makers to enter everyday images that may contain digital backgrounds or other photographic elements not created by the entrant. All necessary releases are required. The jurors will evaluate the entire image, but the photographic elements that were created by the maker must still be merit worthy as well as the overall image.

Digital Artist Category

ELIGIBILITY

1. Entrants need to be PPGMF members to compete in the Digital Artist Competition.
2. Photographs may be used in this category in creating an entry, but it is not a requirement. Entries may include freehand drawing or painting in traditional or digital applications. Entries can include stock photography, photographs, or artwork from other artist(s) with written consent to use those sources. Documentation may be requested by PPGMF before, during or after the competition. If an entry, in the good-faith opinion of the Salon Committee, violates copyright, trademark, or any other applicable law and cannot be proven otherwise, that entry shall be disqualified, and merits revoked if issued.
3. All processing, manipulation, artwork, or rendering must be done by the entrant.
4. The entrant’s name shall not appear anywhere in or on the face of the entry.
5. No entry will be eligible if it has been made under the supervision of an instructor and/or as a class assignment. All images submitted must be entirely the work of the entrant.
6.  Entries of the same subject in multiple images will be allowed as long as the images are entirely different concepts.
7. Once an image has been awarded a merit in any category, it may not be entered again in any other category of PPGMF competition, at any time, by any entrant. No image that receives a merit at a PPGMF competition may be entered more than once under any condition, including any image from a merited album.
8.  Images not receiving a merit may be reworked and re-entered in a future PPGMF competition.
9. Guide images (all parts and pieces) used to create your artwork, must be included in the border of the presentation on the entry. Images not displaying guide images will be disqualified.

DIGITAL ARTIST CATEGORIES

Digital Restoration
Original photographs are damaged and need extensive repairs. Restoration must be completed by the entrant. Judges will be advised to score the art work, not the image.

Digital Open
Images submitted in this category should be artistic creations that do not fit into any other category. Judges will be advised to score the artwork.