1) All rules must be adhered to - non compliance in any respect will result in ALL that club’s work being excluded from the relevant competition. No late entries will be accepted.
2) Please ensure that in all communications it is clear which Club is involved.
3} These are open competitions but the number of Nature images is limited simply to ensure a good range of entries and to recognise that Clubs going forward to the PAGB Championships will be similary constrained. The PAGB Nature definition is given below. Note: images that appear to be nature will be counted as nature.
4) Clubs can choose to enter either one or both of the Championships.
5) In each Championship awards will be presented to the EAF Champion Club and Runner Up and a certificate to the third place Club. The Best Rookie Club will also be recognised with a certificate.
6} In each Championship an award will be presented to the highest scoring image. If more than one image scores the top mark then the judges will decide which of those images is the best of the day.
7} In each Champioship an award will be also presented to the personally selected image of each judge.
8) An image, incuding the front of a print mount, must not display any of the Photographer's name, Club or Federation.
9) All entries must originate from a photographic image, or images, taken by the author. The copyright of all elements of a picture must be at the disposal of the author. Clip-art and royalty-free images are not permitted.
10) Clubs must ensure that photographers whose work forms part of their entry to the Championships are bona fide members of that Club and that their work is not being used by another Club in this year’s Championship. However, where a photographer is a member of more than one Club, it is permissible for that person’s work to be used by one Club in the PDI Championship and by another Club in the Print Championship. In this respect the integrity of competing Clubs is implicitly relied upon.
11) Any PDI or similar image thereof, which has been judged in a previous PAGB Inter-Club Slide or PDI Championship at National Finals is ineligible for re-use. Similarly, any print or similar image thereof, which has been judged in a previous PAGB Inter-Club Print Championship at National Finals is ineligible for re-use. This rule applies to the image, irrespective of which Club or Federation it represented before.
12) To meet the requirements of the GDPR Rules the EAF will rely on implied consent passed on by Member Clubs for the legitimate use of data (including images) in connection with the Championships. It is the responsibility of Member Clubs entering the Championships to obtain ‘specific consent’ for the use of their data directly from the Club Members concerned.
13) Clubs must also ensure that any work used by them in the EAF Club Championships will remain available to the Club and eligible for use by them should the Club be invited to represent the EAF at the PAGB Inter-Club Championships. An individual photographer’s work may be used by only one Federation each year (PDI and Prints combined).
14) The re-use of an image previously used only in an EAF Championship is permitted but such an image will not be eligible to win an award if it has won one on a previous occasion.
15) In each Championship, the Club with the highest total score will be the EAF Champion Club. The Clubs with the two highest total scores in each Championship will be invited to represent the EAF at the relevant PAGB National Inter-Club Championship. If either or both of those Clubs reached the ‘Final’ (top eight) in the previous PAGB Inter-Club Championship or won the Plate Competition, (thus gaining automatic entry this year) then the next highest scoring Club/s will be invited to join them.
16) In the event of a tie at the end of each Championship, the marks of the highest and lowest scoring images, from both rounds if appropriate, from each tying Club will be added together. The Club with the highest total shall prevail. Should there still be a tie, the next highest and lowest scores shall be taken into account until a winner is decided.
17) Photographing and/or videoing the Championships is strictly not allowed other than by the EAF for EAF use. The EAF will assume permission to utilise any Championship image for the benefit of the EAF or the PAGB at no charge, unless specifically refused. Images published on the web-site will be in low resolution.
18) Whilst all possible care will be taken, the EAF cannot accept responsibility for any damage or loss.
19) Closing date for the PDI Championship is 26th January 2025. Required by that date are the Entry Form and Titles List in Word-compatible format, plus the 25 images.
20) Titles Lists must use the identical image numbers and titles to those of the images submitted and the ‘not for web use’ column must be marked with an asterisk, if relevant.
21) The PDI Championship shall consist of two rounds with a total of 25 images per Club.
a) Round One – (15 images): Not more than 3 Nature images. Not more than 3 images per photographer.
b) Round Two – (10 images): Not more than 2 Nature images. Not more than 2 images per photographer.
22) In Round One, an image from each Club shall be shown sequentially and anonymously to a panel of three judges until all fifteen images from each Club have been shown.
23) The 10 to 15 Clubs (depending on number of participants) with the highest scores from Round One will progress to Round Two. i.e. 10 = up to 27 Clubs taking part; 11 = 28 or 29; 12 = 30-32; 13 = 33 or 34; 14 = 35-37; 15 = 38 or more. In the case of a tie, all Clubs with that score will progress to Round Two.
24) In Round Two, one image from the eligible Clubs shall be shown sequentially and anonymously to a panel of three judges until all ten images from each Club have been shown.
25) Digital Files are to be saved in the following format. Should you need them, a detailed set of instructions for preparing digital files using Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements is at the end of these rules. These instructions are also on the EAF website www.eaf.org.uk under Downloadable Documents.
a) Colour Space - sRGB (In full - sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
b) Mode - RGB Colour 8 bit/channel or Greyscale 8 bit/channel.
c) File Format - JPEG (.jpg) only, saved at its finest setting (12 in Photoshop).
d) File Size - Maximum width 1600 pixels, maximum height 1200 pixels. At least one side must be at least 1400 pixels wide or 1050 pixels high.
e) Filename – Images must be numbered e.g. 01 etc. up to 25 followed by a space and then the title of the image. The space is important: please do not use any other character.
f) The title of each image [excluding the image number, space and .jpg extension] to be a maximum of 24 characters. If a space is included between words it will count as a character. Note that the title on the Titles List may be longer than 24 characters but if this occurs, then the digital file title must be cut short at the 24th character.
e.g. “01 Misty morning.jpg” (i.e.13 characters including the space between "Misty" and "morning") - OK
e.g. “03 Paired silver spotted skipper butterflies”. This title is 41 characters long which is OK for the Titles List (which will be the title read out) but the digital file title must be named thus: “03 Paired silver spotted sk.jpg” (i.e. 24 characters only)
26) Send the 25 PDI images by We Transfer, Dropbox or by email by the closing date. Other bulk mail systems may be accepted at the Championship Secretary’s discretion – please check before sending.
27) If sending by email, send Round One and Round Two separately with your Club name in the subject line.
28) If sending by Dropbox - please name your folder with your Club’s name.
29) All images will be checked when submitted and any found with a virus will not be accepted.
30) Closing date for the Print Championship is 23rd February 2025. Required by that date are the Entry Form and Titles List in Word-compatible format and PDI's of the images (format as for the PDI Championship). (The 15 Prints are not needed until the day of the Championship, 16th March, when they must be delivered to the Fulbourn Centre between 9.00am and 9.30am.)
31) Titles Lists must use the identical image numbers and titles to those of the images to be submitted and the ‘not for web use’ column must be marked with an asterisk, if relevant.
32) The Print Championship shall consist of a single round with a total of 15 images per Club.
a) At least five prints must be Monochrome
b) At least five prints must be Colour. (See below for Monochrome and Colour definitions.)
c) Not more than 4 Nature images are permitted.
d) Not more than 3 images per photographer are permitted.
33) An image from each Club shall be shown sequentially and anonymously to a panel of three judges until all fifteen images from each Club have been shown.
34) Prints must be mounted on a rectangular card 50cm x 40cm and adequately backed to avoid damage. The minimum print size acceptable is 300sq.cm.
35) Any Velcro and/or loose sticky labels must be removed or the print will be excluded.
36) Competing Clubs will receive labels, 1 to 15, before the day of the Championship. These must be affixed as close as possible to the top right corner on the back of the mount of all 15 prints. All 15 numbered labels must be completed clearly, as indicated, with the title of the print, photographer and Club. The score is written on this label and it is preferable, therefore, to ensure that the label is placed over the mount and not the print itself. All 15 prints to be handed in on the morning of the Print Championship between 9.00 and 9.30 hrs.
Should you need them, a detailed, step-by-step, set of instructions for preparing digital files using Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements is available on this website under the Info/Downloadable Documents menu tab.
Nature means Images where living organisms are the primary subject matter. The story telling value of an Image will normally be weighed more than the pictorial quality.
Nature includes:
• Images taken with subjects in controlled conditions such as zoos, game parks, botanic gardens, aquariums and enclosures where the subjects are dependent on man for food. Scientific bands, tags or collars are permissible.
Nature excludes:
• Images where the subjects are obviously domestic animals or plants.
• Images where an obviously artistic treatment has been applied.
Processing of the captured image, by cropping, exposure adjustment, colour correction, noise minimisation, dodging/burning, HDR, focus stacking and sharpening is permitted, as is cloning of image defects and minor distractions including overlapping elements.
An Image appearing to meet these criteria will be accepted as Nature. The Judges will normally assume that any Image presented to them is eligible.
Access to some biological subjects may be restricted. Where that is relevant, then Photographers warrant that they have followed relevant codes of practice and hold any necessary licences.
Cute titles should be avoided in Nature images.
Monochrome Images include:
An Image in tones of neutral grey ranging from transparent/white to opaque/black.
An Image in a single colour:
A print using a chemical process such as sepia, cyanotype, etc.
A digitally produced Image ‘colorized’ in a single hue.
All other images are Colour images.