To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life.”
~Henri Cartier-Bresson
Image Competition Guidelines
Below Are The Guidelines For Our Monthly Image Competitions
Overview
Participation in our image competitions is open to any paid member.
During the competition, three of our members and one alternate member for tie breaking purposes, judge the images according to set criteria.
Each entry in a category receives a numeric value; the top three scoring images are recognized.
The competition is divided into three categories: Color, Black & White, and Enhanced. Within each category, there are two sub-categories: Assigned and Open.
The Assigned sub-category has a pre-determined theme, such as “Bluebonnets,” and all entries must follow that theme.
The Open sub-category is just that, it is open to any subject matter that you wish to enter.
Competition Categories
Color Assigned
Color Open
Black & White Assigned
Black & White Open
Enhanced Assigned
Enhanced Open
Competition Rules
You man enter up to two entries per sub-category, with a limit of six entries total.
Photographs entered must have been taken within the last two years, in order to encourage us to go out, shoot, and stay fresh with our craft.
All images and any parts of images must have been taken by you
Submitting Entries
Effective March 2015, all entries for competitions will be submitted digitally. The screen size of our television is 1080 pixels high x 1920 pixels wide. You can size your images precisely if you desire, but the easiest way, and the way we recommend is simply to submit each photograph as a .JPG, not exceeding 4 MB in size, and using print resolution (240 or 300 ppi) and NOT web resolution (72ppi).
Digital files must be named according to the following standard, all in lower-case letters, using underscores between words as indicated below:
<category>_<image_title>_<photographername>.jpg
a. Categories will be abbreviated in the following ways:
Color Assigned = ca
Color Open = co
Black & White Assigned = bwa
Black & White Open = bwo
Enhanced Assigned = ea
Enhanced Open = eo
b. The image title should be as concise as possible, using underscores between words.
c. In an effort to keep the file name as short as is practical, please do not use your full name in the file name. Instead, just use your first initial and last name (like rlongwell or djones).
As an example, an image with the title “Bluebonnet Carpet” taken by David Jones and entered in the Enhanced Assigned category would be named like this:
ea_bluebonnet_carpet_djones.jpg
Entries must be submitted by midnight on the Saturday night prior to the competition. Entries submitted after this deadline will not be entered. Members should send each image in a separate email to wtpscompetition@gmail.com and include in the body of the email the name of each image and category it’s being entered in.
Category Specific Notes:
Color:
Color images can be taken with either color film or as a digital image. MINOR alterations in contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpening and levels are allowed.
Black & White:
The image can been taken with black and white film, digitally or with color film and then changed to black and white in a processing lab or with software. Sepia tones are also acceptable. MINOR alterations in contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpening and levels are allowed.
Enhanced:
In the enhanced category, the photographer is permitted to manipulate the image with software or some other process. An image must be entered in the Enhanced category if:
a. An element originally present in the image at the time of capture was removed afterward.
b. An element not originally present in the image at the time of capture was added afterward.
c. The image is the digitally-rendered combination of two or more images (either in-camera or afterward), including composite images, panoramas, and HDR images.
d. An enhancing filter (other than B&W conversion filters) was applied to the image (either in-camera or afterward), such as those from Nik, Topaz, Photoshop, Instagram, etc.
Black & White conversion, noise reduction, the removal of dust spots, and MINOR amounts of sharpening, contrast, and saturation DO NOT make an image an Enhanced image for the purposes of our image competitions.
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