APS Internal Competitions
Results for the current season:
Prints 2024~25
Projected Digital Images 2024~25
For results from previous seasons, click here.
APS Internal Competition Rules and Guidance:
The complete Amersham Photographic Society internal competition rules can be downloaded from the Download page.
The following items on this page are just intended to remind participants of how to enter each competition.
Entrants without email facilities should contact the Print or PDI Secretaries to make their entry arrangements.
Print Competition Entries:
By midnight on the Friday preceding each Monday competition, email the following details to the Print Secretary at printsec@amershamphotosoc.com :
Print Title
Author’s Name
Print Corner Number
All prints must have a unique identifying corner, available from the Print Secretary at the start of each season. Corners from previous years may not be used. All entries must also be accompanied by a digital copy of the print. Size is 1600×1200 pixels maximum or 1200×1200 pixels if a square image. It must be in the sRGB Colour Space and a jpg. See Regulations for Internal Competitions for more information.
Please bear in mind the requirements for prints submitted to the Annual Exhibition at the end of the season. Currently, this is exactly 40x50cm and using off-white mountboard. The following documents describe a number of methods for mounting your prints that you may find useful.
PDI Competition Entries:
Entries must be submitted no later than the Friday before the competition, preferably by e-mail attachment but also on CD, DVD or flash memory stick delivered to the competition secretary. E-mailed images should be sent to: pdientry@amershamphotosoc.com where software will check conformance with the entry rules. Amonst them:
- Images for projection must be in JPEG format (maximum quality), with maximum dimensions 1600 pixels wide x 1200 pixels high. Note that if a square format is used, the maximum size will therefore be 1200 x 1200 pixels.
- For predictable colours from our projector it is necessary for the image to be in the sRGB colour space.
- Filenames must be in the following format: IMAGE TITLE by Your Name.jpg.
(The use of the image name in upper case and the ‘by’ in lower case letters is essential because the competition software uses this to automatically recognise the title and author’s name). - Please avoid special characters in filenames as this confuses the software. In particular, ! ? * ‘ can cause problems. If you want a name to be displayed using these characters, please include the desired name in the mail to the competition secretaries.
- For comprehensive help with preparing your PDIs, see the following documents (All updated March 2022):
Print and PDI Finals: Competition Guidance on image changes
This Guidance is in addition to the Regulations for Internal Competitions (see downloads page).
An entry to either the Print or PDI Finals must have been in that year’s league competition, however changes to the original image may be made by the author to improve it.
Changes can be based on feedback already provided by the competition Judge or feedback from any other source e.g. external competition Judges, APS members, etc.
Changes to the image must be such that it is still recognisable as the original. New content must not be added.
Examples of acceptable changes are:
- Cropping or removal of over cropping
- Adjustment to colour and tonal balance
- Lightness/Darkness
- Conversion from colour to mono or vice versa
- Removal of distractions
- Sharpening/blurring
Please note that the Print or PDI Secretary will have copies of both the original and the updated files. In the event of disputes on eligibility, their decision is final.
Changes must not contravene the APS AI policy (below).
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence has been around for many years in the photographic context. We have it in our Cameras, Mobile Phones and image editing software. The use of this AI is generally accepted without question. The problems are now arising from developments in Image Generators that are trained to produce images using libraries of images created by multiple authors. Amersham Photographic Society operates under the auspices of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britian (PAGB) and images created by Image Generators are already prohibited by the General Conditions of the PAGB on the grounds of plagiarism.
The PAGB view is that images must be entirely the work of the photographer. In composite images, all component images must meet this requirement. For the avoidance of doubt, use of images from any other source including, but not limited to, royalty free image banks and clipart are not permitted. The Royal Photographic Society (RPS) offers very similar advice to members of that Society.
There is a separate question as to how clubs detect the use of generated images or plagiarism in general. Detection is difficult so reliance must be placed on individual members not to enter images for club competitions or any external competition or assessment that they know contains generated images that are not their creation.
Honesty and Respect is expected when competing on common ground. If you haven’t created the input, how can you claim credit for the output.
Areas of particular concern are text to image AI generators such as Chat GPT, Dall-E, MidJourney, Microsoft Image Creator, Adobe Firefly etc.
Adobe Firefly is also the engine behind Generative Expand, Remove and Fill which can be found across Adobe image software (including Photoshop & Lightroom). No such generators or tools may be used in the production of images by APS members for competition purposes.
Long-standing tools such as Content Aware are acceptable as are other tools that only manipulate the original image data such as Topaz Labs’ Gigapixel AI or DeNoise AI. Although trust is at the heart of our policy, the use of Firefly-derived Generative AI tools will be increasingly detectable from the Adobe Content Credential tamper-aware metadata in Adobe output.