Submitting Images to NDPS
It is important that ALL images being submitted to the Society for competitions, the annual exhibition, f1.4 forum or simply for feedback are submitted using the correct option below. Failure to do so makes administration much more difficult as the software used by NDPS to catalogue images and prepare entries ahead of of the competition (including for preview by external judges) requires the data in the correct format.
All NDPS Members are encouraged to enter the club competitions. For members who are new photographers or have recently joined NDPS this can be quite daunting but remember you are amongst friends and the judge’s critique and any other feedback provided, is just his/her opinion and can be very beneficial. Feedback is also given anonymously as the name of the author is not anounced unless you are one of the ‘winners’...! The name of the winning author is only announced once all judging has been completed.
Terminology
If you are not familiar with the terminology used then here is a brief summary:
PDI = Projected Digital Image. This is simply a JPG that is projected onto the screen. No author identification or similar text/logo may appear on the image
PRINT = a printed image with a minimum size of 300 sq. cm (this is the area of the image and excludes any surrounding border). No author identification or similar text/logo may appear on the print
MOUNT = a mount card to display the print, 50 cms by 40 cms in either portrait or landscape orientation. It must be carefully backed by another large card. Please ask the Competition Secretary if you are not sure about this. A label should be added on the back, top left corner, identifying the Society’s name, author, and image title.
Full details explaining how to prepare and name digital images before submission are contained in the last section of this page It is recommended that Members should read this guidance in full before submitting a digital image for the first time.
Submitting images for NDPS Annual Competitions…
Annual Digital League (PDIs)
Digital League Round 1
Information about Digital League Round 1 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is DLR1T and for free-choice image is DLR1F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 8th October 2023
Digital League Round 2
Information about Digital League Round 2 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is DLR2T and for free-choice image is DLR2F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 12th November 2023
Digital League Round 3
Information about Digital League Round 3 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is DLR3T and for free-choice image is DLR3F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 31st December 2023
Digital League Round 4
Information about Digital League Round 4 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is DLR4T and for free-choice image is DLR4F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 10th March 2024
Digital League Round 5
Information about Digital League Round 5 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is DLR5T and for free-choice image is DLR5F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 5th May 2024
Annual Print League (Mounted Prints)
Print League Round 1
Information about Print League Round 1 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is PLR1T and for free-choice image is PLR1F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 26th November 2023
Prints must be handed in no later than 7:00pm on TUESDAY 5th December 2023
Print League Round 2
Information about Print League Round 2 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is PLR2T and for free-choice image is PLR2F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 4th February 2024
Prints must be handed in no later than 7:00pm on TUESDAY 13th February 2024
Print League Round 3
Information about Print League Round 3 and Submission Dates:
Each member is allowed to enter a maximum of Two (2) images.
The reference for the themed image is PLR3T and for free-choice image is PLR3F
The Deadline for PDI submissions is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 14th April 2024
Prints must be handed in no later than 7:00pm on TUESDAY 23rd April 2024
Other Annual Competitions
The other two other main annual competitions that members are able to enter are the Annual Print Panel Award and the Image of the Year (IOTY) that includes both Digital images (DIOTY) and Prints (PIOTY)
Print Panel Award
The Deadline for PDI submissions of the images being entered in the Annual Print Panel Award is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 31st March 2024. The reference to be added to filname is PPA24
Mounted Panels (Prints) must be handed in no later than 7:00pm on TUESDAY 2nd April 2024
Image of the Year
The Deadline for PDI submissions of the images (both DIOTY and PIOTY) being entered in Image of the Year is 7:00pm on SUNDAY 28th May 2024. The reference to be added to filname is DIOTY24 (Digital) and PIOTY24 (Print).
Note images that have prequalified via either the Annual Digital or Print Leagues do not have to be re-entered as the PDI will already be in the NDPS database.
Prints for PIOTY must be handed in no later than 7:00pm on TUESDAY 4th June 2024
Remember that the score awarded to a member’s images entered in the Digital and Print Leagues, Print Panel Award and Image of the Year competitions all count towards their Photogragher of the Year placing.
Inter-club Battles
Inter-club Battles
Information about Inter-Club Battles and Submission Dates:
Traditionally in November each year NDPS competes against Ipswich & District Photographic Society and Lowestoft Photographic Club. This is a pictorial competition comprises three rounds each consisting of 7 images. The three rounds are Monochrome prints, Colour prints and PDIs which can be either monochrome or colour.
Additionally, in January each year NDPS competes with our friends in Koblenz, Germany and Nivernais, France. Each club takes it in turn to choose the theme for the competition which comprises 20 PDIs from each club judged by a local judge in each country.
Members are invited to submit images to be considered for the NDPS entry in both these competitions. The Deadline for PDI submissions of potential entries is the end of October for the battle with Ipswich and Lowestoft and the end of December for the battle with Koblenz and Nivernais
Submitting images to NDPS for other reasons…
Monthly Image Challenge
Information about the Monthly Image Challenge:
The Monthly Image Challenge is OPEN to ALL CURRENT members of the Society including eMEMBERS. Images can be submitted for each challenge throughout the month - BEGINNING on the first day of the month and ENDING on the last day of each month. Filename should include the reference MC followed by the month of the year. For example, MC01 = January, MC02 = February and so on with MC12 = December.
The Society’s Monthly Image Challenge is the perfect opportunity for members to test their photography skills, and to compete with other members in a friendly environment without the rigours of formal competitive photographic competitions. It is, therefore, a perfect challenge for anyone who has recently joined NDPS, particularly if they are just starting out on their photographic journey, and/or, have not entered a photo-competition before.
Just Submit an Image
Information about Just submitting an image:
This option is provided for any other situation when either it is necessary to submit an image or to be used in an emergency if a member is having difficult with any of the other options.
In both situations it is advisable to also send an email (ndps.infocus@gmail.com) to confirm a image has been submitted using this option.
In addition, this option can also be used by members to submit images for their own gallery on the NDPS website. Please use add the file reference MG and provide a plan if you wish the images to be presented in a particular sequence.
f1.4 Image Forum
Information about f1.4 Image Improvement Forum:
Members of the f1.4 Image Improvement Forum are readily available to offer advice for improvement on any image and will give constructive support for those members aspiring to a higher level of achievement. For full details are available on the website (see Groups menu).
When submitting an image to the Forum
Please include a note (in a separate word/pdf file that you can also upload with your image) which sets out the objectives you are trying to achieve and the scope of help you initially think you might need from the Forum.
Images should be sized and named in the normal way with the reference ‘FORUM’ added. If a original RAW file of the image is required the member will be contacted directly by the member of the Forum assigned to work with you.
External Competitions
External Competitions
Information about External Competitions NDPS regularly enters
Every year NDPS participates in several external photographic competitions. These include the EAF PDI and Print Championships (two competitions), the Cambridge Inter-Club Digital Competition and the St. Ives Interprint Competition. Both the Cambridge and St. Ives competitions only require 6 and 8 images respectively and therefore members are limited to just one of their images being selected. For the EAF Championships NDPS tries to include images from at least 12 different members. If members want any of their own images to be considered for these competitions they can use the adjacent link to submit them. The Deadlines for entries are stated below. However, members need to be aware that selection normally takes place 2 weeks EARLIER to allow sufficient time to submit the final entry.
Cambridge = end of November each year
EAF PDI Championships = end of December each year
EAF Print Championships and St. Ives Interprint = end of January each year.
The rules for all external competitions can be found on the NDPS website and the following websites cambcc.org.uk - stives-photoclub.org.uk - eaf.org.uk or alternatively ask the Competition Secretary for details.
NDPS Annual Exhibitions
Annual Exhibitions
Information about NDPS Exhibitions
Use this option for both the new MOMENTS 24 exhibition (MX24) and the traditional Annual Exhibition later in the year (EX2024)
Except during the two world wars and more recently due to the covid pandemic an annual exhibition of the members’ photography has been held every year since the first annual exhibition was held in Norwich for three days in March 1904.
How to Select, Prepare and Submit an Image
Full details explaining how to Select, Prepare and Submit an image are provided in the ‘Useful Documents’ section of the Members Area
Members are advised to read and make sure they understand the Rules and Terms and Conditions of entry for NDPS Competitions before submitting an image.
Submit an image
Submitting Projected Digital Images (PDIs) is completely automated, and images that members wish to enter in a competition organised by the Society or want to be considered to be included in the Society’s entry in external competitions and inter-club battles must be submitted before the published deadline via the appropriate link above.
For PRINT Competitions a digital image (PDI) identical to the final print version must in all circumstances be entered as above by the published deadline via the appropriate link.
Images being entered in the Annual Exhibition, monthly challenges or simply for feedback via the ‘just submit an image’ must be made in a similar way
The Golden Rules are:
Eligibility
Is your image eligible to be entered in the competition and are you the exclusive owner of the copyright …?
Preparation of Digital Files - size and colour space
Has the image been formatted to fit within a frame of 1,600 pixels wide x 1,200 pixels high…? In addition, is it a Jpeg, in the sRGB colour profile…? Note: Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB should not be used.
Naming images
Have you named and saved your digital image files in the following standard manner…?
TITLE OF YOUR IMAGE_First Surname_REFERENCE
PLEASE NOTE the correct use of CAPITAL and Lowercase letters in each part of the file name is extremely important so that when the competition is run your image is correctly projected onto the screen during the competition evening.
The REFERENCE you need to add at the end of the file name MUST correspond to the information given in the rules for each competition.
Please take care to follow the naming convention as failure to do so makes organising the files much more difficult before each competition in the limited time available after the submission deadline and may result in your entry(s) being REJECTED BY THE COMPETITION SOFTWARE and not being included in a competition.
The competition software puts all text before the underscore of the file name into the ‘TITLE’ section and the member’s name in the ‘NAME’ section exactly as you type it – if you use variations on your name for each round you will appear as different entrants.
For example - if you use Fred Smith, Frederick Smith and F Smith the software will create three different entrants in the competition and your scores won't be aggregated.
Metadata
All files containing digital images must include photographic ‘metadata’ since it is essential for identification, maintaining correct records, and image database management purposes within the Society and in addition, for all important aspects of copyright protection. The minimum requirements are explained in the document NDPS General Competition Rules and Conditions of Entry. This document and other important documents relating to competitions can also be found in the ‘Useful Documents’ section in the Members’ Area
Competition Rules
The rules for all competitions are available and can be download in the ‘Members area’ of the website.Member’s are solely responsible for making sure they are aware of the rules of each competition before submitting their entries particularly regarding copyright and other matters that might affect an image’s eligibility.
Queries or Questions
In the case of doubt the matter should be clarified with the Competition Secretary before the image(s) is submitted as failure to prepare and submit images correctly may result in an image not being included in a competition.