Digital Camera World Forum - Rules for the Weekend Competition

[B]Rules for the weekend competition are:- (please read carefully).[/B]

1. All members of the forum are encouraged to take part in the competition, and eventually select by voting, a winner. Voting however is not restricted to participants in the competition which is open to all members of the Photo Radar forum.

2) To be valid images must be taken after the theme has been posted, up to midnight Sunday in your time zone. ALL of the elements of any composite images or montages must also be taken within this time frame.

3.[B] Unless stated otherwise there will be no restrictions set on the amount of post processing/editing [/B]of images. However, where the setter of the theme/topic determines that the restrictions on post processing/editing would be desirable then [B]any such restrictions should be clearly stated when the theme/topic is first set.[/B]

Equally, there are no restrictions on equipment that can be used bar the fact that a camera of some description must be used for the image capture e.g. not a scanner

4. Images should be posted in the relevant "Entries" thread by no later than 12:00 (midday) UK time on the Monday immediately following the period of the competition. Images posted later than this time will not be considered eligible and consequently will not appear in the "Poll" (voting) thread. [B]You are allowed only One entry per competition.[/B]

5. The "Poll" will run for 2 days from the time of posting (approximately 12:00 Monday UK time) so that it generally ends midday on the Wednesday.

6. The winner accepts responsibility for posting a new topic by starting a fresh "Chat & Entries" thread no later than 23:59 UK time on the following Thursday. This affords participants in the competition 3 full days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to compose their thoughts, take a suitable image(s), edit and submit the same in the "Entries" thread. The winner also accepts responsibility for setting up the said "Entries" thread and in setting up and managing the "Poll" thread. (See How to set up the poll) below.

7. Participants in the competition are not allowed to vote for their own image. The Poll will be set as 'open' thereby showing who has both voted for and appreciated your work.

When setting a new topic/theme please choose carefully so as not to exclude members by virtue of their location or religion amongst other things. For example, setting a topic/theme to include snow might be easy for a member located in the North pole but impossible for people located in Dubai. Likewise, festivals celebrations exclusive to a particular region e.g. Bonfire night should also be avoided for the same reason.

8. Whilst not compulsory, participants in the competition are encouraged/requested to add some comments regarding their submission in the appropriate "Chat" thread. Explanations regarding the reasoning behind the capture and drawing attention to any particular aspects of it, including any post editing work, will not only possibly help to explain your image when members come to consider the image for voting upon, but also may be of benefit to the community as concerns particular aspects of composition, lighting and editing work with which they may not be familiar with.

9. Critique: It should be accepted that by submitting an image to the competition, in fact in any open forum or competition, this leaves open the possibility of critique being offered, whether specifically requested or otherwise. In fact, in the absence of open and honest critique we effectively close the door upon the learning process or the accumulation of knowledge in which to further and better our interest in Photography. That said, any critique should NOT be posted in the "Chat" thread until the end of the voting time window thereby negating the possibility of any influence being placed upon the voting process. Furthermore, for critique to have any real meaning, it should be written in a constructive manner to highlight both positive as well as negative points (if necessary) with the critique being so constructed so as to not cause any personal offence. In short then, an advisory/recommendatory terminology should be used leaving the recipient of the critique in no doubt that the view expressed is only a personal one to which others may differ. Please consider that the written word can often be interpreted in a different way to the spoken word.

10. Above all - ENJOY

Additional notes regarding critque:-

Participants in the weekend competition are encouraged to provide a critique of the image above and below theirs in the entries thread. It's not compulsory but it has a few clear benefits for the reviewer and reviewee:

1 - it encourages you to think critically about the images. What do you like? What could be improved?
2 - It encourages reviews for images that may not have gotten many votes, thus supporting beginners
3 - It provides a spread of reviews without any one person having to take loads of time to prepare a set of reviews
4 - When it works, everyone gets at least two reviews

[URL="http://cameracraniums.com/forum/tp-images/sitetuts/pr_postimg/pr_embed.htm"][U]How to post an image[/U][/URL] - short video tutorial courtesy of Lurkalot

[URL="https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_umxTtnIOPDMWYxYzFkY2MtZDMwOC00ZDFlL Tg4YzQtNzZkZWM0YzY0NTAy&hl=en"][U]How to set up the poll[/U][/URL]