PMPA Digital Photographic Competition Guidelines

The purpose of this competition is to allow photographers to enter digital files, or digital albums to be judged against a standard of excellence using the 12 Elements of a Merit Image in preparation for the State, Regional and International PPA Competitions (For more information, go to www.ppa.com/ipc.) Through this competition, PMPA members are also eligible to achieve PMPA exhibition merits toward the PMPA Associate Fellow of Photography degree (silver medal) or the PMPA Fellow of Photography degree (gold medal).

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.

Registration:

1. Registration opens 30 days prior to the event date – be careful when indicating on your registration, which print competition category you are entering:
   1. Portrait – consists of family, individual or pet portrait images
   2. Wedding – portrait or wedding images
   3. Illustrative – consists of commercial/industrial images
   4. Scenic – consists of landscapes or nature images
   5. Electronic Imaging Artist – images evaluated for computer applied techniques and proficiency
2. Registration entry fee of $10 per image or 3 for $25, $10 per Album entered
3. All Entries must be registered by midnight the Saturday prior and no later than the Tuesday prior to competition event date’s or pay a late fee of $15 per entry:
   1. 1^st – March competition
   2. 2^nd – May competition
   3. 3^rd – July competition
   4. 4^th – September competition
   5. 5^th – November PMPA Open – not necessary to be present to enter – entrance fee $15 per image for non-PMPA entrants
4. No changes to your entry are permitted once submitted; no refunds will be issued after the entry fee is paid.
5. Entrants are required to email one image or album at a time to printcomp@pmpa.net plus ticket info in the body of the email or image will be disqualified.
6. All entries must be submitted electronically prior to the print competition – no entries will be taken at the door.

Single-Image Entry Eligibility:

1. 1.      Entrant must have captured and created the original exposure.
2. All processing, manipulation and printing or rendering, were done by the entrant or under their direct supervision
3. The entrant’s name shall not appear anywhere on the face of the entry.
4. A maximum of three entries may be submitted per entrant per competition.
5. No entry will be eligible that has been made under the supervision of an instructor or as a class assignment.
6. No two entries shall be of the same subject
7. Files must be sized so the longest dimension is 4,000 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.
8. Files are to be named, “#_Image_Title_Last Name” (use _ for spaces, use 1,2 or 3 in place of # to indicate order of prints for judging e.g. 2_See_Spot_Run_william.jpg).
9. The digital file submitted MUST be for presentation. If for example the print has a mat, the digital file should also have a mat.
10. Members only – Must be current on your membership to enter or the submission will be disqualified.
11. Must be present at the print competition to be eligible to participate or the submission will be disqualified, with the exception of the 5^th print competition held in November.
12. Once an image has been awarded an exhibition merit in any category of PMPA 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

Digital Album Entry Eligibility:

1. 1.      Entrant must have captured and created the original exposure.
2. All processing, manipulation and printing or rendering, were done by the entrant or under their direct supervision
3. The entrant’s name shall not appear anywhere on the face of the entry.
4. A maximum of three entries may be submitted per entrant.
5. No entry will be eligible that has been made under the supervision of an instructor or as a class assignment.
6. No two entries shall be of the same subject

7. All page/spread files must have the longest file dimension at 4,000 pixels, have an embedded color profile of either sRGB or Adobe RGB1998 and be saved at a JPEG quality setting of 10.
8. Each page/spread file may contain as many images as you desire.
9. An entry shall contain a minimum 5 page/spread files up to 36 page/spread files.
10. Files are to be numbered in viewing order using two digits (i.e., 01 jpg, 02 jpg, 03 jpg, etc.).
11. All individual files must be compressed into a single ZIP file. ZIP file must be named: #_Album_Title_Last Name (use 1,2 or 3 in place of # to indicate order of Album for judging, use _ for spaces, e.g. 3_Summer_Wedding_william.zip)
12. Studio identification or entrant’s name cannot appear on any file within the album entry.