RHCC Regular Competition Rules

Detailed rules for the RHCC competitions are available using the links below:

Digital Competitions
Print Competitions
Nature Trophy Competition

Uploading Your Images

( All Competitions )

Entries:  You identify and upload each individual entry our RHCC web server.  All information about your image, whether Print or Digital, is provided on the website form – there are no paper forms to fill in or hand in.

To submit an image you must be a fully paid-up member and you must have a login id and password to access the server. Existing members have a login id/password; new members will have them emailed shortly after they join. If you don’t know your login id/password, simply email or for a reminder.  If you remember your login id but forget your password, please use the reset password facility on the log in page.

Upload Links:  The Competition Upload Links page contains links to the upload pages for all currently open competitions.

For digital images you use the appropriate website upload page to identify and upload the image. Each competition has a separate upload page. The upload page will only accept images within a couple of weeks prior to the deadline.

For prints you use the website upload page to identify and upload a digital version of the image. You physically bring the print to the Club meeting on the submission night or deliver them to the Competitions Coordinator prior to the submission deadline. Refer to the print competition rules for more information

Preparing Digital Images

You should edit your image at its original resolution (master image) and create derivative files for output as needed (derivative image). This might require you to open and close the image in PhotoShop or other editing software multiple times. To do this without ruining the quality of your image, these intermediate master saves must be done in the photo editor’s native format (a PSD file in the case of PhotoShop). By saving to the native format, hereafter referred to as a PSD file, you will retain your image layers and the image will not be compressed when saved. If you were to repeatedly save/re-open the file in JPG format you would eventually overly compress the image and it would become pixelated. There is no real benefit to saving to the TIF format – use your photo editor’s native format for maximum compatibility.

Cropping your image is an important step to improve your image’s composition. However, recognize that while the Crop tool is one of PhotoShop’s most important tools, it’s also it’s most destructive (and in some subtle ways). Once you have cropped the image, you can never restore the pixels – they are thrown away forever (unless you back track your history … but once the cropped, master file is saved the pixels are gone for good). So, while it is important to crop compositionally, it’s best to leave this step to later in your workflow. For example, if you crop to print an 8×10 then later want to produce an 11×14 you will notice that the width :: height ratio for these two formats is different (10x 8 is 1.25 :: 1 and 14×11 is1.27 :: 1. This difference might cause a compositional issue in your final print.

After you have worked your master file and it’s time to produce a derivative file for printing or web loading, then it’s the time for re-sizing the image to it’s final size and sharpening it. Since the cropping, resizing and sharpening steps are not terribly creative and are repeatable it’s conceivable that in your workflow you would create the derivative file to your requirements; perhaps note the crop/resize/sharpen parameters in your notes; use the file and then discard it to save space.

To drive the point home, you should not resize or sharpen your master image as that will introduce digital artifacts (distortion) that will become unnatural as you work with the image. Do cropping, resizing and sharpening on a derivative image and always go back to your master and work forward to make subsequent copies for different purposes.

Color Space

Image files include information about the “color space” used for the image. The most common color space in use is called sRGB. The “color space” defines the scope of colors included in the image. sRGB is a small color space, but it is capable of showing most of the colours in our photographs. It should generally not be used for processing images, since wider color spaces, such as AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB give more editing possibilities. In any case, for competitions, the final version of your image should be exported into the sRGB color space. This ensures that the judges will all see the colours in your image all the same way.

One of the easiest ways to ensure your final image for submission is in the sRGB color space is to “export” the image using Lightroom. The export dialog window (see below) has settings to define the resolution of the image (sizing), the file type (jpg), and the colour space. You can also set the maximum file size at 3000 KB (3 MB), but this is seldom needed when the resolution is set for 1920×1080.

For more information about sizing, see the section below.

There is a lot of variability in the way different processing software will manage color profiles, so check the supporting information for the software you are using, or consult with the competition team for more specific help. Don’t get discouraged with the technical issues. Color space is technically complex, but fortunately for most of us, we can let the software manage the conversions with just a couple of clicks.

Help Documents for sizing your images

How to resize your images for submission to competitions at 1920 wide x 1080 high, 3 MB maximum dimensions?  Download this tutorial document.

Standard Monitor Target Image

For online judging, we provide our judges with a standard monitor target image. They use this to ensure their calibrated monitors are set for the correct brightness. You can use this image to do the same in order to ensure that what you see on your monitor will be the same as they see on theirs when they are judging your competition images. You can download this image and use it for this purpose.

Using the reference image, all should look perfect on your display and one should be able to see all of the grey squares. Skin tones should look natural and there should be no blown highlights on the dress. You must also be able to see the entire 10-pixel red border to ensure you are not missing any of the image.

Click on the thumbnail below to go to a larger version, which you may right-click to download if you like.