Image evaluation and Competition Rules

Only financial members are eligible to enter club image evaluations and competitions, with the exception of the End of Year Competition. Members who have opted not to renew their membership are eligible to enter the End of Year Competition if they have been financial members during the year to which the End of Year competition applies. All other End of Year rules apply to such lapsed member entries.

Images submitted will be evaluated by a guest judge or judges, or a club panel, and will be eligible to receive awards and accrue points toward the Photographer of the Year award.

Image evaluations are conducted monthly during the year with an End of Year competition in December.

Monthly Image Evaluations

Monthly sections and entry numbers will be determined by the Committee and advised to members from time to time. Current competition entry conditions can be found in Appendix A.

All images submitted must be fully the work of the submitting member. They may be colour or monochrome unless prescribed by a set subject. There are no restrictions on post-processing unless prescribed by a set subject.

Entries must be submitted to the Competition Secretary in the manner prescribed by the Club by the competition closing date. Closing dates for each competition will be published in the syllabus. Late entries may be accepted at the discretion of the Competition Steward(s).

Images in monthly competition sections will generally be assessed by a guest judge who may recognize images with Highly Commended, Commended or Image of the Month awards. The club reserves the right to conduct in-house judging of monthly competitions with rules and methods determined by the Committee.

All images must have a title of 30 characters or less, including spaces. “untitled”, “no title” or similar are not acceptable as image titles.

Prints:

  • Must be delivered to the Competition Steward at a club meeting by the closing date

  • May be printed commercially or by the competing member

  • Must have a correctly completed competition label affixed to the back. Labels are available from the competition secretary

  • Should be marked with an arrow on the back indicating the orientation of the image, so it is clear which way up the image is to be viewed.

  • Should be mounted (matted). Unmounted prints may not be accepted, at the discretion of the Competition Steward. The maximum size for the image is 16 x 20 inches (or 40 x 50cm), including the mount. Maximum thickness of print + mount is 5mm

  • All print entries must also be submitted in digital format using the Photo Contest Pro service which can be accessed through the CPS website, or as advised by the club. The format and size requirements are the same as for the projected images (see below). Print entries which do not have a corresponding digital file will not be accepted.

 Projected (Digital) Images:

  • Must be in JPEG format and sRGB colour space. Recommended DPI is 300

  • Must have a title. Titles such as "untitled" are not acceptable

  • Must be entered using the Photo Contest Pro service which can be accessed through the CPS website, or as advised by the club

  • Must not contain any watermarks which identify the artist

  • Sized to a maximum of 1920 pixels (width) and 1080 pixels (height) and a maximum file size of 3 MB (this is NOT 1920 pixels on the long edge)

Paul Robinson Trophy

One regular monthly image evaluation will be replaced by the Paul Robinson Trophy. The club's founder, Paul Robinson, selects a set subject for the competition each year and acts as sole judge. The set subject is published in the syllabus.

Entry sections will be set by the Committee from time to time. Currently applicable sections can be found in Appendix A.

A perpetual trophy is awarded to the top entry regardless of section.

Projected entries must be uploaded as for regular monthly competitions by the closing date published in the syllabus. All size and format restrictions which apply to regular monthly comps also apply to the Paul Robinson Trophy. 

Image Eligibility

There is no restriction on the time at which an image entered was produced, however members are encouraged to continuously seek opportunities to create new work. Images which receive an award in any intra-club competition (monthly, Paul Robinson Trophy and End of Year) are no longer eligible to be entered into intra-club competitions in any form (with the exception of the End of Year competition). No image (or a substantially similar version of it, including monochrome or colour conversion) which does not receive an award may be submitted to monthly competitions more than two times.

Inter-club competitions

Inter-club competitions between CPS and other clubs may be held from time to time.

End of Year competition

The End of Year competition takes place in December. Awards are presented to a winner and a runner-up in the following sections:

  • Open Print

  • Monochrome Print

  • Portrait Print

  • Open Projected Image

  • Nature Projected Image

  • Field Trip Projected Image

  • John Commin Memorial Landscape Trophy (print competition, winner only). The John Commin Memorial Landscape Trophy is a perpetual trophy awarded annually for the best landscape or seascape print.

 One outstanding Image of the Year is selected from all entries entered in the End of Year competition.

  • EOY Conditions of entry
    Members may enter up to two images in any section. Entry method is the same as for monthly competitions

  • All entries except those in the Field Trip section must have been entered in monthly competition (including the Paul Robinson Trophy) during the year of the EOY competition.

  • With the exception of entries to the Paul Robinson Trophy, an image must be entered in the same medium (print or digital) as it was entered in monthly competition. As there is no print section for the Paul Robinson Trophy, entries for that competition only may be entered into either print or digital End of Year sections.

  • If desired, images may be edited to make corrections or adjustments before being submitted to the EOY, so long as the image submitted is still recognizable as the original image that was presented in monthly comp. Damaged prints may be re-printed

  • To be eligible for the End of Year Nature section, photographs must comply with the following definition:
    Nature photographs can depict any branch of natural history except anthropology and archaeology. The primary subject matter can be living organisms (animals, insects and growing plants), landscapes, geologic formations, or weather phenomena. This includes images taken with subjects in controlled conditions such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens and aquariums. Photographs of cultivated or human created hybrid plants (either food or decorative), or domesticated animals are ineligible. Human elements should not be visible, except where they are integral parts of the nature story, such as wild creatures adapting to the built environment. Scientific tags and bands on wild animals are allowed.
    Stitched panoramas, focus stacking and HDR are allowed. Minor edits to remove distractions and improve the artistic impact of the photograph are permitted so long as they do not alter the truth of the primary subject.

 Contact the Competition Steward at compsteward@caulfieldphoto.org if you need a competition number or have a query related to the above rules.

Appendix A: Monthly Image Evaluations

This appendix outlines the sections and entry numbers applicable to monthly image evaluations and the Paul Robinson Trophy. The committee may vary these conditions from time to time provided at least 4 weeks’ notice is given to members before the closing date of the competition(s) to which the variation applies.

Monthly Competitions
Entry sections for monthly competitions are:

  • Open Prints

  • Open Projected Images

  • Set Subject Prints

  • Set Subject Projected Images

Set Subjects for each competition are published in the Club syllabus.

Members may enter a maximum of 4 entries in any month across the four sections. The entry number restrictions are:

  • No more than 2 images in any one section

  • No more than 2 prints overall

  • No more than 2 digitals overall

Paul Robinson Trophy
The Paul Robinson Trophy is a digital only competition. Members may enter a maximum of four entries.