Competitions
The Society holds a wide range of competitions throughout the year. Below are details and rules for each of them, including both 'Internal' and 'External' Competitions.
To have a look at the results from recent major competitions click here: 'Results'.
Rules for Competitions are updated periodically. For the 2019-2020 season, revisions have been made to the 12-Shot Challenge rules. Note that changes have also been made to the General Rules for Competitions, which will affect the competitions detailed below.
A printable version of the rules can be found here.
Internal Competitions
All of our internal competitions are covered by a set of General Rules, which can be found here.
Quarterly Competitions
This competition is over four rounds throughout the calendar year, from January to November, and covers all categories, namely monochrome prints, colour prints, projected digital images. Members may enter any or all of the categories, with a maximum of three entries in each per round. Awards are presented at the Annual Dinner for the winners in each category and can only be won if three entries have been made in each of the four rounds.
In accordance with the Rules Applicable to ALL Sileby Competitions an image may be entered both as a projected digital image and as a print but never in the same round.
The Graham Johnson 12-Shot Challenge
This competition is run as digital only and all pictures must have been taken on a smartphone. Further, all images must have been taken after the announcement of the competition.
Images should be taken to form a panel. Participants are encouraged to consider pictures that relate to one another and around a single theme as decided by the entrant.
Detailed instructions for the preparation and submission of work, which may change from season to season, shall be issued alongside the list of subjects. This competition is run as digital only.
Annual (Christmas) Competition
Members may submit up to seven entries in total with not more than five entries being in any one category, namely monochrome prints, colour prints or projected digital images. Awards are made for:
| Best Monochrome Print | Best Projected Image. |
| Best Colour Print |
This competition is intended to promote current images and to showcase a year’s work. Entries must not have been submitted to any Sileby Photographic Society competition prior to January 1st of the calendar year of submission.
Digital Image Knockout Competition
The logistics for this competition are complex, so entrants must read and follow the instructions for entry and adhere strictly to deadlines.
Entrants declare a list of eighteen entries, which must not have been previously used in the knockout competition. In each round of the knockout, three entries are used and then subsequently discarded. Each round consists of pairs of entrants, as determined by a draw, competing against each other. In the event of there being insufficient entrants to allow the first round to be completely filled, an appropriate number of entrants will be awarded a bye. The entrant from each pair winning the round enters the draw for the next round. In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by a sudden death play-off using one extra entry.
Entries must not have been previously used in the Knockout Competition. The definition of “used” here refers to images that have been judged or selected for a bye in the first round. Thus, any images declared in a given year but not judged or selected for a bye may be entered in a subsequent year.
Thematic Competition
This competition is currently suspended.
The form of this annual competition is chosen by combining a subject with a medium, for example “monochrome digital”. Both of these elements are drawn randomly, so that a wide variety of topics and presentation forms are covered.
Entrants may submit a maximum of four images. Entries must not have been submitted to any Sileby competition prior to the start of the previous calendar year.
Panel Competition
This competition is open to prints and digital images in panels or sets of three or four images. Individual prints must be not larger than A4 and may be mounted separately or together on one mount board; the latter to be not larger than 500mm x 400mm. Digital images must be in accordance with the "Rules specific to Projected Digital Images", which can be found here. Each panel of three or four digital images must be combined to form one image for projection with a size not exceeding 1280 x 1024 pixels. Each member may submit up to two panels of prints and two panels of projected images. The subject matter is open but from time to time it may be that Themed panels will be requested.
Nature Photography
None of our competitions includes a section exclusively aimed at nature photography. Entries featuring a nature subject do not, therefore, need to conform to the strict FIAP/PAGB rules concerning Nature Images. However, if the author wishes to submit images in a Nature Class in an external competition (such as NEMPF) it is up to the author to ensure that the image conforms with the FIAP/PAGB rules which can be found on their respective web sites. Further information can be sought from the External Competition Secretary.
External Competitions
Note that the specifications for digital projected images are likely to vary from one external competition to another, but see below. For prints, most will specify a size of exactly 500mm by 400mm, sometimes with a maximum thickness, typically 4mm. You are advised to read the rules for each external competition carefully. Because this is Sileby’s maximum size, members aspiring to have their prints represent Sileby or to enter External Competitions should ensure that their prints match this 500mm by 400mm requirement.
Note that the specifications for digital projected images are likely to vary from one external competition to another. Most external competitions will specify a print mount size of exactly 500mm by 400mm. This will often be combined with a maximum thickness, often 4mm. You are advised to read the rules for each external competition. In addition, you may be interested to read the advice here.
Submission dates and rules for Federation and other external competitions will be announced by the appropriate Competition Secretary as details are received. These dates must be rigorously adhered to. The Competition Secretary will keep members informed of external exhibition dates as they become known. It is interesting, informative and usually inspiring to visit other clubs' exhibitions and particularly those mounted by the federations.
Changes to rules are coming in for some external competitions