1. Competitions are open to all PAID-UP members of the society. (£15-00 membership payable at start of winter season to The Treasurer)

2. All photographs must be the entrants own work, including any digital or darkroom manipulation. Prints maybe trade or home processed/printed, from digital or film. All parts of a digital montage must be taken by the entrant.

3. Monthly Competitions - There will be two Divisions 1 & 2, members will be allocated a division by the competition secretary based on their previous years performance, each year the lowest two in division 1 will go down and the top two in division 2 will go up. (this may vary depending upon the amount of participating members in each division)

There will be two sections in each division, digital and prints. Each section being an individual competition (with it's own individual annual trophy). A maximum of three entries in each section (three prints and three digital). (Except were stated). The same image may not be entered in more than one section in the same monthly competition but may be entered in other monthly competitions provided the image has not gained a position as print or digital. The image may be used again if manipulated in such a way as to create an image that is acceptably different from its original e.g. not just turned to black & white.
No photograph can be re-entered once it has gained a position.

3a.Prints - Print titles and entrants club number to be written on reverse, (use a quick drying felt-tip type pen, that way it wont damage the print and the ink wont mark any other entries) orientation notes may be added if not obvious e.g. "this way up". Prints can be any size up to a maximum of 40cm x 50cm, Prints may be mounted or un-mounted up to A4, and prints larger than A4 should be mounted to aid their display.
Entries to be presented to the "Print comp co-ordinator" (John Keelan) or dropped off to The Cherry Orchard reception desk before 6pm on the Sunday ten days prior to the competition.

3b.Digital - Digital images must be filed using the following format:-
entry no. title. entrants club number e.g. 1 flower 999, 2 landscape 999, 3 green duck 999 (assumes that the entrant has been allocated a club number of 999)
Images should be in .jpg format with the longest side no larger than 2000 pixels; eg 2000x1400 for landscape or 1400x2000 for portrait. (on competition nights the images will be viewed at normal resolution with the longest side of an image approx 1000 pix. but the judges may be using a higher resolution screen when judging so an image smaller than 2000pix long/high will look smaller and so may be at a disadvantage).

Entries to be e-mailed to the "Digital comp co-ordinator" before 6pm on the Sunday ten days prior to the competition. Please make the effort to resize and rename your entries correctly as this saves the competition secretary a lot of time and effort

Email address for entries photographic_society @manx.net

3c.Digital Art - This is for members who may wish to produce more "arty" images. This is a separate competition with no divisions and is only for digital images and will only take place on "open" competition nights (not those where the competition has a theme).Images should be named and sized as per normal entries and sent (in a seperate e-mail) to the same e-mail address by the same time. Points gained in this competition will not be counted towards the overall totals but there will be a trophy for the member with the most points in the “Arty” competitions.

4. Points will be awarded from 1st to 10th place (10 points for first place to 1 point for tenth place) in each section; points are totaled up at the end of the year to determine the winners of the various trophies.

5. The Mike Goldie Competition - The rules for the 2010 competition were amended by Mike Goldie, this meant that the winner of the 2010 and any subsequent competitions will choose the theme and judge the following years competition. This is a digital only competition. bring entries on the night on CD, DVD or USB drive. Enter as many photographs as you like!. This is a "FUN" competition and winning entries may be used again in other competitions. The winner of this competition wins the Mike Goldie Trophy.

6. Print and Digital Photograph of the Year Competitions - open to photographs taken after January 1st of the year the season starts. Five entries per section, these are OPEN competitions and may include photographs that have gained positions in previous competitions. The same image should not be entered in more than one section. Original images for prints must be included with the entry, this includes all images used to make a composite, they can either be on disc or memory stick.

7. Photograph of the Year - This will be judged from the winners of the Print and Digital Photographs of the Year competitions.

Click here to download an Adobe PDF version of the Competition Rules.

Click here to download an Adobe PDF guide to resizing photographs prior to submitting your entry.