Preparing Prints

General

• Limit 3 per member, with no more than 2 in any one category
• Make sure subject meets criteria for the category. See definitions and guidelines.
• Is there a central focus or point of interest?
• Is it technically satisfactory – composition, exposure, focus?
• Members must be present at meetings where they have submitted images (for digital competitions, if a member after submitting an image finds it impossible to attend the meeting, the image will be shown for comment but not ranked)
• The same image may be entered on more than one occasion (provided it has not previously received a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place award), in the same or different (& suitable) category

Mounting

• Prints must be mounted on a mat board, and preferably covered with an overlying window mat.
• No plastic envelopes/sleeves or glass frames.
• The maximum allowable height for mounted prints is 24 inches (due to constraints of viewing light enclosure); panorama prints wider than 24 inches are acceptable, but the maker should know that illumination may be compromised at the far sides.
• In order to protect the surface of others’ prints that may be in contact with your prints the bottom (back) board on which your print is mounted must be no smaller than the outer edge of the front window mat, and there should be no protrusions on this board that might cause damage to the surface of another print. If you have any questions please consult the Print Chair.
• Here’s a great PDF document from RMSP on how best to present your prints - matting, mounting & framing (2008)
• Also check the Re-usable Mat Board with Protective Polyethylene Cover technique.

Naming

• Do NOT enter your NAME anywhere on the front of the mount or window mat. Entering the title beneath the left lower corner is optional.
• Use PACC labels to enter Title, Category, your name, and date of entry. Place the label on the back of the mount, in the nearest empty space to the top left corner. (“Level” not applicable at present.). A pre-printed sheet of these labels can now be generated after entering your print data online, using the new procedure below.
• Members must enter the data pertaining to their print entries (Title, Name, Category, etc) online, using the guidelines link (entitled ‘Online Submission of Data for PRINT Competitions”) in the blue box on our home page.
• If you decide to ‘recycle’ your mats for other prints, remember to save the ID labels in the event you decide to enter the original print in another competition (e.g., PACC Annual, or MPPA)

Submitting Prints for Competition

Before prints can be entered in a print competition, the data pertaining to the print must be entered online. The registration deadline is 3 PM on the Monday just before the Wednesday competition.

To register your prints:

1. Go to the photo upload site. This will take you to the “Competition Entry” login page.
2. Click the link entitled “Login” in the left column, which will take you to a page entitled “Member main page”, with your name in red.
3. Click the link entitled “Submit your entries”. This will take you to a page entitled “Entry Submit Form”, where the entry fields should be self-explanatory
4. ALSO, by returning to the Main Page and clicking “See what you submitted”, below the table of submitted entries you’ll see a radio button entitled “Print Your Labels”, which allows you to create a pre-printed sheet of your entries for attachment to the back of each mounted print.

To allow time for helpful critique and discussion the total number of entries per evening is limited to 50 prints. Generally, we’ll try to set a limit of 3 prints per member with a maximum of 2 in any one category. Because prints may need to be dropped if the limit is exceeded, each print must be assigned a priority level, with priority-level 1 assigned to the print you would most like to see in the competition. If the entry limit is exceeded, entries will be dropped starting with priority-level 3 entries. To see if any of your prints have been dropped from the competition, log in to your member page on the evening before the competition and click the link entitled “See what you submitted”. If a print has been dropped there’s no need to bring it.

Resources

New members who are not yet able to make digital prints and mounts should consider:

• having prints made by an online company such as www.whcc.com , Shutterfly.com or Costco
• ordering archival precut window mats/mounts from a company such as Light Impressions, Redimat or at a local store
• A discussion of the PROS and cons of making prints may be found here

About the judges

Judges are volunteers who are usually experienced amateur (or occasionally professional) photographers and are generally members of other camera clubs in the Bay Area. They are familiar with the rules for entries, (most) undergo training as judges thru N4C, and they do their best to provide an informative and constructive assessment of the pros and cons of each entry. Like all of us, their assessments are to a certain extent subjective, and this may explain why good entries that meet all the rules may receive different assessments and awards. Some judges are more adept at discussing the artistic merits and weaknesses of an image than others, while others are fussy about seemingly minor technical ‘flaws’. This is a fact of life we must accept. We are very fortunate that these individuals take the time to travel here, often from a great distance, to spend an evening at the club to help us all improve our photographic skills and images.