Regulations

1. This is an inter-club federation competition for images projected from digital files. It will not form part of any club’s home programme. The organisation, judging and the projection facilities will be managed by the federation.
2. Each club panel consists of twelve images, with no more than four images from any one person. Images may be monochrome or colour. No image may be used which has been seen as a slide or print in any previous Federation competition. (please also see the footnote to these regulations)
3. The match will be held at Shirley Methodist Church Hall on Thursday 16th March 2006 at 8pm . There will be no charge for club members and visitors wishing to attend.
4. Three judges will be appointed. They will independently (and anonymously) score each image on a scale from 2 minimum to 5 maximum, so that the combined score lies between 6 and 15. No commentary will be given. Titles will be announced, but not photographer’s name or club.
5. The trophy will be awarded to the highest scoring panel of twelve images. In the event that two or more panels receive the same highest score, the winner will be decided by a process of “count-back”. This compares the panel totals for their highest scoring eleven images. Should a tie still stand, then the totals of their highest ten images will be used, and so on back through the competition until one panel emerges as the highest scoring. If this does not resolve the tie then the trophy will be shared.
6. Each judge will be invited to select one image for the award of a “Highly Commended” certificate.
7. Images should be in JPEG format in the sRGB working space, with either:
   • a horizontal dimension of 768 pixels and a vertical dimension of no more than 768 pixels or
   • a vertical dimension of 768 pixels and a horizontal dimension of no more than 768 pixels
   • (This rule is designed to ensure that both landscape and portrait images are projected to the same dimensions on the screen.)
   • See below for help in preparing files.
8. For each image the file name should be the title of the image, led by a two-digit number to indicate the club’s requested order of projection. (For example : “01 Hebridean Sunset.jpg”)
9. The twelve images should be in one folder whose name is the club name, and be submitted on one CD.
10. It would be very helpful if a text file of the entries could be included on the CD. This should have one entry per line with each line starting with the two digit sequence number, a space, the title of the slide followed by a semicolon and then the name of the photographer and their distinctions (e.g. "01 Hebridean Sunset; John Smith ARPS"). The file name should be the name of your club (e.g. "Croydon Camera Club.txt" or "Croydon Camera Club.doc")
11. The projector used during the judging will be calibrated to sRGB colour space. Any projected background around each image will be black.

Submission of Club Entries

1. The closing date for the receipt of entries is Saturday 25th February 2006
2. The entry form is available here in Adobe Acrobat/Reader format. The Adobe Reader can be downloaded from the Adobe site.
3. Entries should be sent to Jack Bates, 33 Green Court Gardens, Croydon, CR0 7LH. Please address any queries to secretary@fslps.org.uk
4. This event is additional to those budgeted by the federation this year, and therefore clubs are required to contribute an entry fee of £5 per panel towards the operating costs.
5. The original CD will be returned to the club. The copyright of each image remains with the photographer. The Federation may use any images for publicity and promotion in association with this or other Federation competitions, and with acknowledgement to the photographer.

Image Recycling

Clubs are required to include no images which have been seen previously in another format in Federation competitions. This includes avoiding images substantially and recognisablFebruary 5, 2006 colour print, or a “painterly” version of a straight slide).

This year the Federation does not intend to challenge any entry on the grounds of recycling, but will instead rely entirely on the good sense of our clubs to respect the rule and to interpret it fairly when selecting their panel.

Image Preparation

To prepare your images to the correct size, etc. using Photoshop 6 or later:

• Open the image in Photoshop and flatten any layers
• Use File > Automate > Fit Image and type in the required maximum size of the image (768 x 768 in this case)
• Use Image > Mode > Convert to Profile and convert the image to sRGB working space (Edit > Convert to Profile in Photoshop CS2)
• Use File > Save As to save the image to a different file name or folder in JPEG format with high quality (10 or greater). Ensure that the check box next to "ICC Profile" is ticked. (It should be showing sRGB.)

To prepare your images to the correct size using Photoshop Elements:

• Open the image in Photoshop Elements and flatten any layers
• Use Image > Resize > Image Size and ensure that the "Resize (Bicubic)" and "Constrain Proportions" boxes are ticked, then ...
• Under "Pixel Dimensions" type 768 into the width or height box showing the larger number of pixels. The other number will adjust accordingly. Click OK to complete the process.
• (You cannot convert the image profile in Photoshop Elements so there is no equivalent in Elements to the third step in the Photoshop instructions.)
• Use File > Save As to save the image to a different file name or folder in JPEG format with high quality (10 or greater). Ensure that the check box next to "ICC Profile" is ticked.