2007 LAUPS Club Competition rules and guidelines for all club competitions:

The Los Angeles Underwater Photographic Society holds competitions at each regular monthly meeting for both digital still images and video.

SLIDES WILL NO LONGER BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY COMPETITION. Digital scans of slides are welcome.

To enter any of the competitions and/or vote on entries, the entrant must be a current, paid member.

Entrants do not need to be present to participate.

Each competition’s specific details and rules are under their headings at left.

There must be a minimum of three entrants for each competition category.

Winning entries in stills will (eventually) be published on the website. Please let the webmaster or club comp chair know if you do not want your images posted.

Videos or slideshows may also be one day published the website. For this to occur, any audio used must be properly licensed. Royalty free music may not include rights for web publication; entrant takes the responsibility for web publication of audio.


Eligibility of Images:

All images must be exposed underwater unless noted otherwise in individual competition rules (no pool or aquarium images except in the intra club competition category Creative Freestyle).

For all competitions, entrants must have shot all footage or images.

Any images that have placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in a previous Intraclub competition, any major competition or have been published are ineligible for entry in any club competition.

Minicomp winners (1st, 2nd,3rd) may be used in Portfolio, Slideshow, or Intraclub competitions. They may not be used in future Minicomps.

Shootout winners may be used in Portfolio, Slideshow, or Intraclub competitions. They may not be used in future Minicomps.

Portfolio and Slideshow winners may be used in future Minicomps and may also be used as elements in future Portfolio and Slideshow competitions, but entire portfolios or slideshows may not be re-entered.


Conservation Rules (from EPIC):

Marine should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo. Entries exhibiting the following behavior will be disqualified.

1. Divers visibly damaging (e.g. gear dragging or kicking up sand) the environment.
2. Animals with signs of stress (e.g. puffed puffers, inking octopus).
3. Animals moved to an unnatural environment or risky location.
4. Animals being fed artificial food from divers.
5. Marine life being touched (e.g. coral polyps, seahorse tails).
6. Divers exhibiting poor buoyancy control.


Digital Still image Manipulation Rules:

No image manipulation is allowed, other than the type of full-frame manipulations which happen during the computer processing of raw images, the creation of in-camera JPEGs, or the scanning of slides or negatives. These include minor full-frame changes to white balance, brightness, contrast, color, saturation, and sharpening.

In addition, minor traditional darkroom style manipulations are allowed, including cropping, B&W conversion, and dodging and burning with large, basic brushes. Complex manipulations requiring masks, advanced elements like the healing tool or clone tool, and precise brushes are not allowed. Burning simple backscatter out of a black background with a coarse brush is allowable; precisely healing backscatter in a complex background is not.

Our intent is to run a photo contest, not a Photoshop contest, and to keep the playing field level for those still shooting jpegs and less knowledgeable in Photoshop.

Our intention is also to encourage and teach you to make the best prints possible for entry in our contests and to hang on your wall. Some prints may require manipulation which render them ineligible for contest entry, but make them wonderful art for your wall.


Digital Image File Entry Submission Guidelines:

File names:
Please name your image files as follows:

YYMM_open_your-title_your-name.jpeg for open entries
YYMM_novice_your-title_your-name.jpeg for open entries

replace YY with 2 digit year (07)
replace MM with 2 digit month (03 for March)
This really helps us sort entries. Please use your full name on entries.

example:
0702_open_ garibaldi_ SuellenHiatt.jpg

For other comps, please use the formats:
YYMM_shoot_open_your-title_your-name.jpeg for the shootout
YYMM_color_open_your-title_your-name.jpeg for intraclub color
YYMM_marine_open_your-title_your-name.jpeg for intraclub marine related
YYMM_west_open_your-title_your-name.jpeg for intraclub west coast cold water

File formats:
JPEG is greatly preferred due to file size issues. TIFF and other open standard file types are acceptable. Raw files are strongly discouraged and may not display at all.

Pixel size:
Our projector has a pixel count of 1400x1050. This is the ideal pixel count for your entries. DPI doesn't matter, that's for prints.

Images larger than 1400x1050 in any dimension will be automatically reduced and black borders added if needed. We have not seen any loss in quality by letting the software take care of downsizing. Some entrants prefer to size their images manually.

Images smaller than 1400x1050 will appear at their native size and will appear smaller on screen.

Our projector is a Canon SX5O.

Color profles:
Our display software obeys color profiles. Our projector has an Adobe RGB profile, and we calibrate to that, so we consider that the ideal profile for your files.


Video Entry Submission Guidelines:

Video entries should be submitted on DVD or VHS videotape, these machines are always available in our meeting room. DVD is greatly preferred.

for club competitions should be submitted by DVD to be brought to meeting at time of competition.

If the Crumbs are there we will also be able to submit HDV and DV play back.


Submitting your entries:

Digital still and video entries can be brought to the club meeting.

Bring stills on CD or USB memory stick.

Bring videos on DVD, preferably, or VHS tape. Feel free to pre-coordinate other playback methods and media with other video entrants.

Still entries for can also be submitted by email. Please submit them the night before the meeting. Expect an email confirmation. If you are attending the meeting, it's wise to bring your entries with you as backup.

email your entries to:
comp_entry@laups.org

Members need not be present at the meeting to enter.


Open and Novice Categories:

Members start out in the Novice division and move up to the Open division the next year if their total accumulated points for the year are 25 or higher.

Members may move up to open voluntarily. Members competing as open can never drop back to novice.

If there is an insufficient number of entrants (three) in the Novice or Open divisions, the divisions may be combined for the competition.


Challenges:

Any member may challenge an image by notifying a Board member with in 48 hours of the competition. The Board of Directors will take up the challenge at the next Board meeting, If the Board finds cause, the owner of the challenged image will have an opportunity to either present all necessary evidence at the Board meeting or to withdraw the image. If an Image is withdrawn, the member will lose points for that image. If the Board disqualifies the image, the member will lose all points accumulated in all competitions for that calendar year and will be barred from any further competition for that calendar year.