Following feedback from a number of our members, our competition rules will change slightly from next season, starting September 2020. These changes hope to address a number of concerns raised about combining nature and open competitions in the league as well as the impact of members receiving a 'rogue score' that has a detriment on their league scores and external competitions.
The general format of a competition will remain unchanged, with three sections run over PDI and Print as follows:
C Section (Beginners): 1 Competition, which will be an Open Category
B Section (Intermediate): 2 Competitions, Open and Nature
A Section (Advanced): 2 Competitions, Open and Nature
Members will be able to enter 3 images into each competition, so an A section member may enter 3 open and 3 nature images into each competition night. However, due to the potential to have too many images on a competition night, we reserve the right to reduce the entry to 2 images. In this situation, we will remove the third image uploaded to the system. This image will not be judged and may be used again in another competition.
The scores from each competition will then contribute to separate Open and Nature leagues, rather than be combined into a single league. To remove the impact of a 'rogue score', the lowest 2 scores for each photographer, in each league, will not be counted toward the overall league calculation.
Due to the increased number of potential entries, there will be 4 competition nights for print and PDI next season, reducing from the current 5 PDI league competitions.
Finally, the rules governing external competitions and the increased checking of entries from organisations such as the PAGB and L&CPU continue to tighten, which has led to a number of high profile disqualifications over recent years. Many of these disqualification are due to photographers being members of different clubs and the same image being used by different clubs in competitions. We have been very fortunate not to fall foul of these rules in external competitions and the task of image selection for external competitions continues to grow in complexity. All the images we use in external competitions are selected from entries to our internal competitions, so having certainty in our image bank is critical to our adherence with external competition rules. With this in mind, we would like to remind members that they are only able to enter Chorley PS competitions where:
Chorley PS are the only club using a members images in a season and
the images entered into our competitions have not been used previously in any other club.
These changes are a result of our members feedback and the committee have considered several options to satisfy the wishes of all our members. We will review the impact of these changes over the next season and listen to our members for their continued guidance.
My only concern as predominantly a print worker is that if too many prints are entered in the comp the entry will be limited to two images, which to a print worker is a cost both financially and in time. Would it not be better to change both sections to two prints or two pdi's in each/either section and put in the extra 5th comp or 8 images in each section over the year in 4 comps. that would also ensure that the standard of members work would not be compromised...just a thought.
Joan, that is my concern. Nature as a category appears to be slipping away into the grasp of photoshop experts as far as PAGB (and by association L&CPU and Chorley PS) are concerned.
So if I have a photo of a puffin on a cliff it's okay to import another puffin into the picture as long as it's not got a hotdog in its mouth?!
When will Chorley PS adopt the revised PAGB ‘Nature‘ rules including the approval of creating montages?
‘Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening, is permitted, as is cloning of image defects and minor distractions including overlapping elements.
Montage is permitted, provided that the finished image looks natural and has not been manipulated “artistically”.’
That's right Joan. However, if members just want to focus on one completion they will not be disadvantaged, which was the overwhelming feedback that led to the change. Sadly, no solution will meet the needs of every member, but the feedback from members was that splitting the leagues would be a fairer system overall as members that entered open felt they were competing against nature images in the same league and as the nature volumes were generally lower this created an unfair advantage.