Arkansas Professional Photographers Association, Inc.
PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION RULES 2022
The APPA photographic competition is a competition where photographic entries are evaluated against a standard of excellence using the 12 Elements of a Merit Image. By participating in photographic competition APPA members are eligible to earn Image Exhibition Credits, which can place the entrant closer to an APPA degree such as the Associate Fellow, Fellow, and Senior Fellow of Photography. These rules pertain to images created by traditional photographic processes as well as those captured and/or manipulated electronically with a digital camera or scanner.
GENERAL RULES:
Entry Deadline Is Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 12:00pm CST (Noon)
These rules pertain to images entered as digital files created by traditional photographic processes as well as those captured electronically with a digital camera or scanner.
The competition committee shall have the authority to decide any questions not specifically covered herein.
No word, gesture, or action which might tend to distract or influence the judges shall be permitted. Entrants may submit digital files for judging.
If not stated herein these rules, APPA shall conform to the current PPA standards for image judging. Illumination at viewing position shall conform to the current PPA standards for image judging:
Viewing for Digital files: Monitor Settings, D65, 120 cd/m2, 2.20 gamma.
The point system is used with scores from 0 to 100 as follows:
Exceptional 100-95
Superior 94-90
Excellent 89-85
Deserving of a merit 84-80
Above average 79-75
Average 74-70
Below Exhibition Standards 69-65
Deserving of review 78-79
Judges will be instructed to evaluate each image, without comparison, on its own merit using the 12 elements of a merit image.
RESPONSIBILITY:
Submission of photographic images to this competition/exhibit automatically indicates the entrant's consent to the following rules. APPA and their agents assume no responsibility for any damage or loss to images during uploading, handling, or failure to exhibit images for any reason. All reasonable care in handling of images will be taken. Decisions of the competition committee shall be final.
ELIGIBILITY:
· Entrant must have captured and created the original exposure.
· Entrants do NOT have to be members of the APPA, however to compete for awards all entrants must be APPA members (Active, Associate, Student, or Life) who are in good standing. Current studio/individual membership dues must be paid in order to be eligible for awards.
· Non-member entries will be judged for score only and on site judges critiques if available.
· Non-member entries are NOT eligible for awards unless special awards are offered for Non-members such as “Best out of state entry“.
· Any entry that has been reproduced from an existing photograph, portrait, graphic or any other artwork produced by another person is a violation of the competition rules for Photographic Open, and will not be judged, accepted or displayed.
· If an entry, in the good-faith opinion of the Competition Committee, violates copyright, trademark or any other applicable law, that entry shall be disqualified.
· The entrant’s name, studio, or logo must NOT be visible on the entry.
A maximum of six entries may be submitted per entrant. Competition entry must be completed using the www.printcompetition.com online entry system prior to the online entry deadline (Please allow adequate time for you to upload your information and images prior to the deadline). On-site entry is not possible. Be advised there is an additional charge to www.printcompetition.com upon online registration.
· No entry will be eligible if it has been made under the supervision of an instructor or as a class assignment.
· No two entries may be of the same subject.
· Images entered at PP of Ozarks or other guilds/state affiliates are eligible regardless of their score.
· Photographic images previously entered in PPA “district judging” such as “Southwest“, that have scored in the merit category and just received a "seal of approval" but have not yet been entered into PPA’s International Photographic Competition (IPC), are eligible.
· Entries previously merited (a score of 80 or above) at any APPA photographic competition or PPA International Photographic Competition (IPC) are NOT eligible, including any image from a merited album.
Entry media includes digital images and digital albums.
Entry fee is $10 per image for each entrant. This fee can be paid by check, money order, or credit card.
Credit card transactions should be paid through the registration process at www.printcompetition.com (PayPal) If paying by check or money order make check payable to APPA, Inc., Note: Full payment MUST be received prior to the Image Competition entry deadline. When entering digital images, checks can be mailed to: APPA, PO Box 1134, Beebe AR 72012.
NUMBER OF ENTRIES PER “CASE”:
Each entrant may submit no more than six entries per case. No more than four images or albums may be entered in any one category. Additional cases may be entered "for score only". The "for score only" case must be marked as such at the time of entry and the entries in this case will not be considered for trophies or awards. If an entrant enters multiple cases without indicating which case is “for score only” the decision will be made by the competition committee prior to the judging of all entries.
Digital Submission:
Files must be sized so the longest dimension is 4000 pixels. Each file must contain an embedded color
profile of either sRGB or Adobe RGB1998 and be saved at a JPEG quality setting of 10. In most cases,
total file size should not exceed 3.5 MB. Larger files will be accepted when necessary so long are they
are JPG/10.
Files are to be named, Image title.JPG No underscores or special characters.
Digital Album Entry:
All page/spread files must have the longest file dimension at 4000 pixels, have an embedded color
profile of either sRGB or Adobe RGB1998 and saved at a JPEG quality setting of 10.
Each page/spread file may contain as many images as you desire.
An entry shall contain a minimum of 5 page/spread files up to 36 page/spread files.
Files are to be numbered in viewing order using two digits, i.e. 01 jpg, 02 jpg, 03 jpg, etc.
All individual files must be compressed into a single ZIP file. ZIP file must be named: Album Title.zip
(e.g. Summer Wedding.zip).
Studio identification or entrant's name cannot appear on any file within the album entry. Each entrant must use the same title when entering a multi-maker album.
DIVISIONS OF ENTRY:
There are two divisions for entry. You must determine your division and enter only in the division of your eligibility.
General Division: The General Division is open to qualified entrants who have NOT won six or more
trophies in the following: first place trophies in any of the six major categories (Portrait, Wedding, Illustrative, Commercial, Master Artist or Wedding/Event Album), the William Hughes Award, the Pete Major Award, the Photographer of the Year. Entrants in the general division are eligible to compete for all special awards.
Salon Division: The salon division is for qualified entrants who have won a total of six or more trophies in
the following: first place trophies in any of the six major categories (Portrait, Wedding, Illustrative,
Commercial, Electronic Imaging or Wedding/Event Album), the William Hughes Award, the Pete Major Award or Photographer of the Year. All PPA Masters are also in the Salon division. Entrants in the salon division are eligible to compete for all special awards except “Best Photograph by a First Time Entrant“.
CATEGORIES OF ENTRIES:
Entries must be designated by the entrant in one of the following
categories. If no category is marked, the Image Competition Chairman will make the decision. Entries placed in the wrong category may be penalized by the judges. If an image is determined to be in the wrong category, the Image Competition Chairman will place the image in its proper category.
The Photographic Open categories are:
Portrait (P): Any portrait of a person or pet should be entered in this category.
Wedding (W): Photographs pertaining to brides or wedding should be entered in this category.
Commercial (C): Any photographs pertaining to commercial or industrial photography should be entered in this category. A digital “tear sheet” may be included (but NOT required).
Illustrative (I): Any photographs of a pictorial or artistic nature should be entered in this category.
Creative Open (CO): Consists of images that have additional elements not created by the maker. All elements not created by the maker must be shown in a guide image that is shown on the digital canvas. (All the other PO rules still apply with the exception that you may have addition elements in your image not created by the maker. The purpose of this category is to allow makers to enter some of their everyday images that may contain digital background or other elements that were previously not allowed. You will still need to have all releases necessary. The jurors will be instructed to evaluate the entire image but the elements that were created by the maker must still be merit worthy as well as the overall image.)
MASTER ARTIST (MA):
ELIGIBILITY & EXCEPTIONS:
Entries may be reproduced from existing photographs, portraits, graphics or any other artwork so long as the entrant is prepared to provide appropriate written documentation indicating permission for usage. This documentation may be requested by APPA before, during or after the competition. If an entry, in the good-faith opinion of the APPA Image Competition Committee, violates copyright, trademark or any other applicable law and cannot be proven otherwise, that entry shall be disqualified and merits revoked, if issued.
All processing, manipulation, artwork or rendering must be done by the entrant. Any image editing may be done under their direct supervision.
The entrant’s name shall not appear anywhere in or on the face of the entry.
No entry will be eligible if it has been made under the supervision of an instructor or as a class assignment. All images submitted must be self-directed. Images created in an educational environment under direct supervision from an instructor are ineligible.
Entries of the same subject in multiple images will be allowed, as long as the images are entirely different concepts.
Entry media includes digital files only.
Once an image has been awarded an exhibition merit in any category of APPA competition, it may not be entered again in any other category, at any time, by any entrant. No image that receives a merit may be entered more than once under any condition, including any image from a merited album..
Entries in the Artist category shall include any subject and must have guide images.
Guide images, must be included on the submitted digital canvas.
ARTIST COMPETITION CATEGORIES
You must designate one of the below categories for each entry.
· Creative
· Artist Restoration
WEDDING/EVENT ALBUMS
There are now two distinct album categories. The original category where all images appearing in the album
are to be photographed entirely by one entrant. And now, the Multiple Photographer Album category. This
album category has been created specifically for events that require more than one photographer . All
albums will be judges utilizing the twelve (12) elements of a merit image.
ALBUM ENTRIES
Album entries may be submitted in the form of a Digital Album Note: Multi-maker and single-maker
albums will be judged as one category.
No multiple volume albums are allowed.
Any studio identification or entrant’s name in the traditional album must be covered.
Each page/spread file may contain as many images as you desire.
An entry shall contain a minimum 5 page/spread up to 36 page/spread.
Digital file must be named: Album Title.jpg (e.g. Summer Wedding.jpg). Multi-Makers must use same
album title.
Multi-Maker Album Entry:
The makers of a multi-maker album MUST both be members in good standing of the APPA to be eligible.
Each entrant must pay the appropriate entry fee.
Images in the album must be the work of the entrants, with a minimum of 20 images per entrant.
Multi-maker albums will be judged as one entry.
AWARDS:
First Place awards will be given in the six major categories (Portrait, Wedding, Illustrative,
Commercial, Electronic Imaging or Wedding/Event Album), in both General and Salon Divisions. In
addition to the First Place Awards, Distinguished Image awards will also be awarded in each category.
SPECIAL AWARDS:
Ben Red Award– Best Photo-Décor selected by the judges.
Delores Shrader Award– Best Black and White selected by the judges.
Pete Major Award– Best of the show as selected by the judges.
William Hughes Award– Best of the show as selected by the membership.
Past President’s award Best of the show as voted by the attending Past Presidents.
Photographer of the Year- Entrant with highest total points scored (includes images and albums)
ASP State Elite Award- ASP member with the highest scoring image.
CPP Award- Certified Professional Photographer with the highest scoring image.
Photographer of the Year-Wedding Determined by the highest total score of the maker’s top 3 entries in the wedding category (a minimum cumulative score of 240 is required).
Photographer of the Year-Children Determined by the highest total score of the maker’s top 3 entries in the children category (a minimum cumulative score of 240 is required).
Photographer of the Year-High School Senior Determined by the highest total score of the maker’s top 3 entries in the HS Senior category (a minimum cumulative score of 240 is required).
Best Photograph of a Woman– Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph of a Man- Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph of a Child- Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph of an Animal- Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph of a Bride- Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph of a Group- Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph of a High School Senior- Selected by the judges.
Best Wedding Candid- Selected by the judges.
Ron Jackson Award- Best Photograph by a First Time Entrant- (General Division ONLY) Selected by the judges.
Best Photograph by an Out of State entrant (*if offered, determined by the image competition committee/judges) highest scoring image from an out of state entrant
Judges Choice Award (formerly Judges choice ribbons)- Each judge is given one certificate to award at their discretion to their personal favorite image in the competition.