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Competition Guidelines

Competitions are voluntary. Members may choose to enter all contests, some, or none. However, we believe that when members participate in competitions by entering an image, attending the meeting and listening to the judge’s critiques, it provides an excellent opportunity to learn and to grow as a photographer.

Qualifying Club Competitions

Charlotte Camera Club holds six Qualifying Club Competitions and Critique nights and a final End of the Year Competition. Competition images must be digital. Qualifying Club Competitions are open to all members. Only entries submitted by the deadlines will be accepted. Subject matter is open to anything except nudes. Members must submit their own entries and no entries will be pulled during the competition. Unless otherwise specified, each photographer is allowed to submit one image for each Qualifying Competition & Critique. Each image will be evaluated and critiqued by a guest judge. An image may be entered once in Club competitions. Images entered in club competitions may also be entered into PSA competitions. Judges' award images selected in the Qualifying Competitions move on to the End of the Year Competition.

Image Entry Requirements

 

  • Entries must be uploaded by the due date to: https://charlottecameraclub.smugmug.com/upload/qGm45m/QCCUpload
  • The image filename must include the image title and the photographer's name.
  • All image files must be in JPG (JPEG) format.
  • The image must be no wider than 1920 pixels and no taller than 1080 pixels.
  • Images must be oriented properly and images will be judged exactly as they have been submitted.
  • File names must include the image title followed by a dash then followed by the photographer's name (Example: My Best Image-FirstName LastName.jpg)
  • File names may ONLY contain letters, numbers, spaces and dash. 
  • File names MAY NOT include ANY punctuation or special characters.
  • Download instructions for submitting images

 

Awards

 

During the Qualifying Club Competitions, each image will be evaluated and critiqued by a guest judge. The guest judge will select his/her top images for that Competition. Those images will be recognized during the meeting and will receive a ribbon award. Images that receive a Judges' Award will move on to the End of the Year competition. Following the Qualifying Club Competitions, images will be displayed on the club website in the Competition Gallery.

 

Evaluating Images

 

Images will be evaluated based on their own merits, (e.g., a portrait evaluated by portrait standards, landscape by landscape standards, etc.) All Images compete together in the same category. Images may be monochrome or color. Judge's top picks will be announced at the conclusion of the critiques.


During the meeting, the guest judge will evaluate and critique the images based on the following elements:


Impact
Impact is the feeling one gets upon viewing an image for the first time. Compelling images evoke laughter,sadness, anger, pride, wonder or another intense emotion.


Subject Matter / Creativity
Subject Matter is the focal point of an image and should always be appropriate to the story being told.Creativity is when a photographer uses an original, freshperspective to view a subject or uses a new and unusual way of conveying an idea, message or thought.


Composition
Composition is important to the design of an image. It brings all of the visual elements together in harmony to help tell the story or support the purpose of the image. Good composition guides the viewer to look where the photographer intends. Good composition also eliminates elements which distract from the image story. The composition can be pleasing or disturbing, depending on the intent of the photographer.


Technical Merit
The technical aspects of an image (e.g. focus, exposure, depth of field, color balance, level horizons, effective cropping and post-processing) when used properly and skillfully, enable the photographer to tell the story and create a high quality image.


Year End Competition


Images that receive a Judge's Award in the Quarterly Competitions will move on to the End of the Year Competition. A panel of outside judges will score the images. The following Awards will be recognized at the Members' Dinner:

 

  • Image of the Year – The image receiving the highest combined score of the judging panel. Awards will also be given recognizing the 2nd and 3rd place images.

 

  • Judges’ Special Awards – Each judge will select their favorite image for specific categories. Total awards based on the number of outside judges. Selections are based on the judges' preference, not overall score.

 

Photo Credits: From top: Anastasia Tompkins, Tina Krzesicky, Anastasia Tompkins
Bottom (L-R): Anastasia Tompkins, Anastasia Tompkins, Linda Harris, Jim Howard