Section 2 External Competitions and Battles
Members shall be asked from time to time to submit images for consideration to represent the Club in inter-club competitions or ‘Battles’.
A battle is a competition between two or more (usually local) clubs, and at the other end of the scale are inter-club competitions which are regional or national in scale.
For example, the annual Digital Projected Image Competition (DPIC) held by the Western Counties Photographic Federation (WCPF) is open to all of the 100+ member Clubs of the Federation and around 50 of them typically participate.
Devizes also have a special Battle internally – between the ladies and the gentlemen members of the club. It’s often the most fiercely contested of the lot!
Battle Format
The format varies from Battle to Battle in terms of the number of images each Club needs to put forward, and whether these are Projected Images or Prints.
Most Battles these days are Projected Images only – which simplifies enormously the logistics around selection delivery of the entry and management – but there are occasional ones which involve Prints. An example of this is the WCPF Interclub Print Competition, which is a print equivalent to Western Counties Projected Image Competition (DIPIC) and is judged alongside DIPIC.
Scoring and Judging
The host club or event organisers will appoint a Judge for the occasion. For Battles, the judge must award each image with a mark – usually out of 10 or 20. There is no absolute scale for the marking – so an 18 from one judge isn’t necessarily equivalent to an 18 from another – but the marking is a means for the judge to express his or her views on the images relative to one another in that Battle. In DIPIC and the GB Cup formats 3 judges each give marks out of 5, so each image is given a combined score out of 15.
The winning Club will be the Club with the highest aggregate score across all the images they have entered.
How are images selected to represent the Club?
All members can put forward images for consideration to represent the Club.
Normally a request will be sent to all members a few weeks before the Battle giving them the opportunity to submit images.
We will also select from the images that have been submitted for recent competitions. If you enter a competition therefore your images will be deemed available to represent the club unless you specifically confirm otherwise to the Competition Secretary or the Battle Secretary.
Some Battles have specific rules as to what is eligible in terms of subject, number of images per author, age of the image or whether it has been used by the club in a previous year’s version of the Battle.
We keep detailed records of what has been used before – but it is also very helpful if individual members do the same and if an image has been selected to represent the Club previously, draw attention to it; images with similar names or similar subjects from the same author can sometimes cause confusion.
Selection is done by the Battle Secretary assisted by up to 3 members.
We like to select the best images to represent the Club and achieve the best result possible – but selection is also done to include work from as many members of the Club as we can, to be as inclusive and representative of the Club as possible.
It does not follow therefore that only work from members in the Advanced section will be selected.
The normal procedure on selection is that the selection panel view the images selected by each member, member by member, to reduce the images from that member to a shortlist.
Normally that will be 2 or 3 images maximum from each member depending on the maximum number per author that is permitted for the Battle concerned.
Once we have completed that process for each member, we then reduce the overall shortlist further to the number needed for the battle, striking a balance between including as many members as we can, and the best set of images to represent the Club, while also complying with the rules for that Battle. It can be quite a complicated process!
Rules applying to Battle Images
2.1. Projected Images submitted for Club Competitions will be presumed available for selection to represent the Club unless the Member has specifically notified the Club otherwise.
2.2. Members who belong to more than one Photographic Club must notify the Battle Secretary if their images are not available to represent the Club in external competitions.
The Club is entitled to assume that work submitted is eligible to represent Devizes Photography Club unless notified otherwise. Such members are responsible for ensuring that all relevant rules of the Western Counties Photographic Federation are complied with in respect of their images.
2.3. An image entered in a club competition by a member of Devizes Photography Club (or a significantly similar image) shall not also be entered on behalf of a different camera club in a Battle, Regional or National competition in which Devizes is also participating.
2.4. The General Competition Rules section applies to images being used to represent the Club in external competitions, except that: -
· PRINTS: Mounts must be 500mm x 400mm with title and membership number only on the back
· DIGITAL IMAGES for projection to be named as follows –
Title underscore members name e.g., Sunset_Joe Blogs.
· Titles must not exceed 35 characters (including spaces) with no other punctuation.
· Images do not require numbering.
2.5. Any additional Information on the entry requirements for each Battle, according to the rules of the Battle or outside Competition will be circulated to members.
2.6. Entries are to be sent to the Battle Secretary (or other designated recipient) by no later than the given date.
Devizes Photography Club Ladies v Gents results
Western Counties Projected Image Competition (DPIC) results - 2012 -2022
G.B. CUP Open and Nature Competitions results
Calne Multi - Club Annual Digital Battle results
Frome Wessex v Devizes PC results
Back to Competitions home page.