The annual exhibition will be for both Print and Digital images in an attempt to return to our customary submission. We hope to be open for normal business and that the prints will be appraised in preference to digital submissions. However, if we are forced to have an on-line Zoom event we would revert to the digital version.
There are two entry categories, GENERAL (Open) and THEME (‘Impressions of reality’).
ELIGIBILITY – Entries will ONLY be accepted from fully paid up members of CH&VPS as at Thursday 12th May 2022 which is the closing date for submission. No images will be accepted for appraisal after this date.
Eligible members may submit up to a maximum of three entries each. In line with the last two years there is no time limit set for when images were taken. Entries may be submitted into either category or can be split between the two. Entries may be colour or monochrome. ONLY the author is permitted to make alterations to the image in photo-editing software such as Photoshop.
Each submission must be of a print and digital jpeg file of the same for each image entered.
PRINTS SUBMISSIONS – Prints shall be displayed within a card mount making for an attractive exhibition. Mounts must be Snow White or Black with no exceptions, no thicker than 4mm including a backing board and be NOT larger than 50 x 40cm (or equivalent area 2000 cm2) and NOT be less than 16 x 12” (40.6 x 30.5cm or equivalent area 1200cm2). The size of the window is down to the author allowing the mounting of panoramas, letter box and square mounts as well as out of camera formats.
The society will offer THIS YEAR ONLY white mounts overall size 50cm x 40cm with an aperture size A3 Standard window (40 x 28cm) and 4:3 Ratio window (39 x 29.3cm) for which no entry fee will be levied. These apertures will cater for most popular camera outputs.
We encourage members to use mounts that are 50 x 40cm which is the normal accepted size in many competitions and exhibitions such run by PAGB, and this would enable you to reuse the print many times. If however, you require a different sized mount or aperture or you wish to use a Black mount, you must organise this yourself and bear the cost yourself on an approved mount.
DPI IMAGE SUBMISSIONS –Digital files of your images should be saved as jpeg maximum quality and must not exceed 1200 pixels tall and 1600 pixels wide. The image file name should be the title of the image, e.g. the jpeg image file for the image ‘Mam Tor’ would be labelled ‘Mam Tor.jpg’.
These should be emailed to chvps-exhibition@googlegroups.com or preferably using a file handling service such as https://wetransfer.com to the same email address.
APPRAISAL – Eligible entries will be appraised and commented on by Judy and Mike Smith (Sheffield Photographic Society) at our meeting on July 14th 2022. Prizes will be awarded for the top three images in each category together with Commendations as appropriate.
The best monochrome image taken from either category will receive The Denis Thorpe Trophy; the best colour image taken from either category will received the Catherine Cup.
EXHIBITION – A print exhibition of award winning and members’ images will be mounted for show at a range of local venues subject to Government guidelines at the time with the option of displaying a digital exhibition as well.
A) GETTING YOUR IMAGES READY FOR PRINTING
Ian Ord has kindly offered the following advice with regard to ensuring that your images are the correct size and that the colour profile you use in manipulating your images matches the best one with the printer.
Ensuring that an image you are submitting for the 2022 Exhibition exactly fits the card mounts being providing
To resize an image you want to print (as an example using Photoshop Elements), open the Photoshop ‘Image Size’ dialog box (Image > Image Size) and start by turning the Resample option off.
Enter the size you need into the Width and Height fields, and then check the Resolution value.
For example if you want to ensure that a printed image you are entering into the upcoming Exhibition exactly fits the mount for an A3 sized image for a landscape format image, go to Image > Resize > Image size. Set the horizontal (width) size to be 42cm and the height as 29.7cm. If you don’t do this and you took and processed an image (in for example, a 3:2 aspect ratio camera), some of the printed image may be hidden.
The same applies if you are submitting 4:3 prints for which the printing dimensions should be 40cm x 30cm.
Ensuring that the printed image you are submitting has the same colour tones and value as the printed image:
I know from experience, that people are sometimes disappointed that the image they submitted to various colour processing outlets is too dark, or don’t have the exact tonal or colour range they saw on their computer screen. So in addition to resizing the digital images members want to be printed by commercial online printers, I strongly suggest that you also set the colour profile for the online printing format you want to use. Purely as an example, if you use DS colour Labs, you should select the appropriate colour space profile.
If you are using Photoshop, you must ensure that you save the file as sRGB, not a RGB file. This is easily done in Photoshop. With your file open, go to Edit > Convert to Profile, A window will pop up displaying the ‘source space’ (which is the current colour profile) and the destination space is what you need to convert to. Find ‘sRGB IEC61966-2.1’ 1/3rd of the way down in the drop down menu and click OK.
Please note that all files sent to DS Colour Labs for printing should be saved in JPEG format. If you use Lightroom, you can select the appropriate colour space profile when you export the file to your Desktop. If, for example you want DS Colour Labs to print in glossy colour, select ‘DS Colour Labs frontier Glossy’ in your export box. Browse the web for other online printing organisations, for advice on selecting their colour space profiles.
B) MOUNTING YOUR IMAGES
Ian Stanyon’s email to members, sent on 11th April at 1204 listed a number of on-line and local photographic printers and custom mount cutters that you may wish to consider when preparing your entries for the C&HVPS annual exhibition. Indeed, you may wish to use these services for your own personal prints too without the constraints of the exhibition rules.
To confirm the society is able to provide two window sizes in pre-cut mounts. The mounts measure 500 x 400mm (in line with PAGB photographic competition guidelines) and the two window openings measure:
a) A3 ratio, 414 x 291mm aperture (suitable for Canon and Nikon cameras), white core Snow white card
b) 4:3 ratio, 394 x 294mm aperture (suitable for Olympus cameras and many smart phones), white core Snow white card
If you require submitting any entries in that do not fit the supplied mounts above, you will need to make your own arrangements to a) cut your own mount or b) order a bespoke size mount to suit. Please refer to the exhibition rules for the specific requirements of mounts sizes and colour as anything outside of these constraints will not be accepted.
CONTACT – Questions regarding the above guidelines can be emailed to Ian Stanyon.