Competitions

Competition Details

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 competitions click here: 'Results'

Internal Competitions

General rules and guidance covering these competition can be found here.

Quarterly Competitions

This competition is over four rounds and covers all categories, namely monochrome prints, colour prints, colour slides and projected digital images. Members may enter any or all categories, with a maximum of three entries in each category and a maximum of nine entries per round. Trophies are presented at the Annual Dinner for the winners in each category.

In accordance with the general rules, members are discouraged from entering subjectively similar images in the print and projected digital image sections in any one year of this competition.

Exhibition

The Annual Exhibition is held for a week (Monday to Saturday) towards the middle of October. Members may enter up to ten monochrome prints, up to ten colour prints and up to ten colour slides or projected digital images (or a mixture of both). Colour slides will be judged as slides but will be converted to digital format for projection at the Exhibition. Entries to the Exhibition must not have been previously submitted to a Sileby Photographic Society Exhibition. Six monochrome prints and six colour slides or projected digital images are selected to form the Sileby panels to compete against other Invited Societies. The Selection Committee reserves the right not to exhibit all of the work entered. Limits on capacity are determined by the available hanging space for prints and to a maximum number (currently set at 180) of projected images (slide and digital, including those from Invited Societies). Authors must submit a list of entries together with their work and should there be insufficient capacity to display all the submitted work, entries at the end of each list will be eliminated. Further, any item considered by the Committee to be unsuitable for public display will be excluded. Entries are eligible for the following trophies, as appropriate:

Best Monochrome Print

Best Colour Print

Best Landscape Print

Best Portrait Print

Best Colour Slide

Most Creative Print or Slide

Best Landscape Slide.

Entries to the Exhibition must not have been previously submitted to a Sileby Photographic Society Exhibition. Authors MUST submit a list of entries together with their work. If there is insufficient space to display all the submitted work entices at the end of each list will not be displayed.

Thematic Competition

The theme is made known to the members not less than two months before each competition together with any special rules for that competition. These are likely to specify the total number of projected images and/or prints that each member may enter.

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, colour slides and projected digital images. Trophies are awarded for:

Best Monochrome Print

Best Colour Print

Best Colour Slide

Best Nature Picture.

Entries must not have been entered in any Sileby Photographic Society competition prior to January 1st of the current year.

Knockout Competition

The medium for this competition is notified each year. Entrants declare in writing a list of eighteen entries at the start of the 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 "by". 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.

External Competitions

Print and Slide Battle with Melton

This takes place over two legs with one held at each venue. Eight prints (colour or monochrome) and eight slides are required for each round. The entries may be used in more than one round, but must not have been used in previous three-way battles. A trophy is awarded to the winning club at the end of the three rounds.

Panels for Local Exhibitions

As with our exhibition, many local clubs have competitions at their exhibitions for which other clubs are invited to submit a panel (usually six) of prints (usually monochrome) and/or slides. As a club, we try to support our fellow societies, so please hand in work for such panels when requested to do so. Prints should be larger than 10" by 8" and preferably mounted on black or grey mounts.

Federation Competitions

The club is an established member of the Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF) and has, more recently, joined the North and East Midlands Photographic Federation (NEMPF). Both federations are in turn part of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB). Further federations cover different areas of the country - the only other one we generally come across in other than National competitions is the East Anglian Federation (EAF). The federations produce lists of judges and speakers willing to visit clubs, regulate their charges and so on and mount a number of competitions. Those organised by the MCPF are the Annual MidPhot Exhibition each March, the Portfolio Exhibition and Travelling Portfolio in June and the Midland Salon in October. Amongst other competitions, NEMPF organises its Annual Exhibition each February.

The standard is generally high - it is an achievement to have an entry accepted - but remember, it's a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. Sileby members have enjoyed an encouraging level of success in these competitions in recent years, so let us endeavour to keep the entries coming in. They are usually request up to two months in advance of the exhibitions or even earlier for some. The rules are varied, but will be explained to anyone interested in entering when the call for entries is received. Many have rules regarding the age of work. The prints and slides are usually judged upon their initial impact, there being so many entries that the judges have no time for anything else. In addition to awards for individuals, there are club awards based on a minimum number of entries as a proportion of the club's membership. Thus it is important that a good number of members enter if we are to get anywhere as a club. The Travelling Portfolio, which is shown at Sileby usually in October, is a selection of the best entries in the Portfolio Exhibition. The MCPF-sponsored exhibitions are generally held in the West Midlands area and NEMPF events take place in places as far afield as Nottingham, Mansfield and Boston. In all cases they are well worth a visit.

Keeping in Touch

Submission dates for Federation and other external competitions will be announced by the External Competition Secretary as details are received. These dates must be rigorously adhered to. The External Competition Secretary will keep members informed of external exhibition dates as they become known and will often have tickets available at reduced rates compared with on-the-door entry prices. It is interesting, informative and usually inspiring to visit other clubs' exhibitions and particularly those mounted by the federations.