The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar
Digital
Contest Rules
Contest
deadline is extended to Nov 14, 2008 @ 5pm!
Seminar December 5 & 6, 2008.
The
contest categories
can be found here.
The
Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar's annual competition accepts only
digital entries. Photographs may have been originally shot on film or
with a digital camera, but the entries must be submitted to us in
digital form. No
slide or print entries are accepted.
Photographs do not have to be published to qualify. You do
not have to attend the Seminar to enter. Any photographer from any
country is eligible to enter the contest.
The
contest form
must be enclosed with your entry. The
entry fee of US$45 payable to the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar
can be made online (online system not currently active) or may be
enclosed with your entry.
All
photographs must have been taken (except for picture stories entries,
please see next paragraph) between November 2, 2007
and November 7, 2008.
No
photograph previously entered in the Seminar competition may be entered
again. Photographs in a picture story entry, taken over a period of
time that begins before the eligible date but extends into the period
of eligibility, may be entered as long as they have not been entered in
the Seminar's competition before.
Each
entrant may submit a maximum of 15 entries. Each
picture story entered in category judging counts as one entry. A
portfolio entry does not count towards the 15 entry maximum.
- Choosing
a code
Choose
your unique photographer's code. This is important as you will use this
code in naming all your files. Use a lower case five-letter sequence.
Every photographer must have a unique code. Do not spell words or names
and if you are preparing entries for multiple photographers be sure
their codes vary. Do not use a code that might reveal your name or
employer.
A
photographer's code might look like this: bdwrz
(don't use this exact code)
- Preparing
Your Images
We
recommend using Adobe Photoshop to prepare your images, although it is
not required. DO NOT LOCK YOUR FILES. Your files will not be altered in
any way.
The
image orientation must read in normal viewing position, with top of the
image actually being at the top. We will not flop or rotate photographs.
-
DO
NOT ADD ANY TYPE OF BORDER TO YOUR PHOTO. Images with black or white
borders may be disqualified.
- Sizing
your photos
Scan
or adjust image size to 100 dpi with the largest dimension not larger
than 11 inches.
- File
Compression
Save
and compress the file using JPEG compression set to 5, or medium. Use
the optimized JPEG option if available. The resulting RGB file size
will vary. Images not compressed properly will be disqualified. We
strongly advise that you do not re-compress (re-jpeg) an already
compressed file. This will degrade image quality. Optimum image quality
will be achieved by originally scanning to our specifications.
- Captioning
your photos
Using
Photo Mechanic or Photoshop's "File Info" option (under the File menu), caption the photo
using a concise 25-words-or-less description. At the end of the caption,
add your image title. Please try to be concise as
captions longer than 25 words can become truncated and incomplete with
contest software. Add your unique Photographer's
code to the "Author" field in Photoshop or "Photographer" field in
Photo Mechanic. Your caption information should be in the "Caption"
field in Photo Mechanic or the "Description" field in Photoshop. Your name should not appear in any of the IPTC fields.
When
captioning picture stories, the caption of the first photo in the
picture story should be a very brief summary of the story. Remember to
keep the entire caption shorter than 25 words.
- Naming
your files
Name
your picture files beginning with the two-digit category
number,
followed by your unique photographer's code, followed by sequential
two-digit numbers corresponding to the number of photos you are
entering in that category. Add sequential letters to the string for
each photo in a picture story entry. End it all with .jpg (Sounds
complicated, but it's not).
Find
the category numbers/descriptions here.
A
single photo entry might have a file name like this: 04bdwrz01.jpg (04 is
the category number, bdwrz is the photographer's code, 01 is your first
entry within this category, and .jpg is the mandatory suffix). Other
entries within the same category would be 04bdwrz02.jpg and 4bdwrz03.jpg
Photos
in a picture story entry might look like this: 12bdwrz01a.jpg,
12bdwrz01b.jpg, 12bdwrz01c.jpg (12 is the category number; bdwrz is the
photographer's code; 01 is your first entry in the category; a, b and c
indicate the first three photos in a picture story, and .jpg is the
mandatory suffix).
- Submitting
your files
Files
may be submitted on CD-ROMs. DO NOT use
mini-CD-ROM's. Protective cases (like CD jewel cases) are strongly
suggested to prevent damage during shipping. The Photographer assumes
responsibilty for proper shipment of their entries. More than one
photographer's work may be placed on a CD-ROM as long as each
photographer's entries are placed in a clearly marked folder. Use the
photographer's code to name the master folder for each photographer.
Please burn your CDs in a format readable by both MAC and PC.
THERE
WILL BE NO NOTIFICATION OF ENTRY RECEIPT.
- Picture
Stories
Place
the files comprising a single picture story together in a folder. Title
the folder with the file name (leaving off the letter associated with
individual images) of the photos it contains.
To
clarify, if you have two News Picture Story entries, you will have two
folders, each folder containing the photos that make up a single entry. One folder would look like this:
08bdwrz01a.jpg, 08bdwrz01b.jpg, 08bdwrz01c.jpg., etc. The folder they are placed in would be
titled 08bdwrz01.
A second folder would look like this:
08bdwrz02a.jpg, 08bdwrz02b.jpg, 08bdwrz02c.jpg., etc. The folder they are placed in would be
titled 08bdwrz02.
The
first two digits are the category code, the second 5 characters are the
photographer code, the next two digits indicate whether this is the
first, second, third, etc. entry in this category, the final character
shows the sequence of the images in the picture stroy entry.
Picture
stories may contain a maximum of 12 photographs. Edit tightly for a
strong story line.
- Multimedia Entries
- 2008 marks the
second year that there will be categories for Multimedia entries in the
Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar contest. Because of time constrains, the majority of multimedia entries will be judged offiste by a distiguised group of experts. Meet the 2008mjudges. The entries that make the final rounds will be judged on site at the seminar on Friday December 5th. There are some significant
rule changes that pertain only to Multimedia entries. Here's what you
need to know to enter the Multimedia Categories.
-
Do not
physically send your Multimedia entries with your other contest
entries. Just provide a valid URL. The judging will be done
online.
-
There are two Multimedia categories; Slideshow and Interactive. See the contest categories page for a complete explanation of these categories.
-
A photographer
may enter a maximum of 3 Multimedia entries. These 3 entries count
towards the maximum entry total of 15 permitted per person. Do not
include Multimedia entries in the Portfolio category.
-
If a single
photographer is responsible for all the photographs in a Multimedia
entry, simply enter normally and include the information about the URLs
for your Multimedia entries along with your contest entry. Now
here's where it gets funky... If there are multiple photographers
responsible for the photographs in a Multimedia Entry you must make a
separate entry and contest registration payment on behalf of the team.
The categories are the same (team entries and single photographer
entries are judged together) but the registration must be unique for
each team. There is a limit of 3 Multimedia entries per team but there
is no limit on the number of teams a photographer may be a part of.
A team entry does not count towards the maximum entry limit of 15
that pertains to individual photographers.
- Portfolio
Entries
Photographers
may enter Rich Mahan Student Portfolio or Best Portfolio, but not both.
To enter student portfolio, you must currently be enrolled in school or
on internship with credits remaining to graduate. People who graduated
in 2008 and now working professionally should enter Best Portfolio
category, not the Student category.
Portfolios
may contain a maximum of 10 entries. A picture story counts as one
entry. Do not include Multimedia entries as part of your portfolio.
 Photographers
wishing to be considered for one of the Portfolio awards should place
all the photos in their Portfolio entry into a folder marked with
photographer's code and Portfolio category (bdwrz Best Portfolio or
bdwrz Student Portfolio). Portfolio entries will be judged separately
from Category entries so you must make copies of the category entries
you wish to be considered in your portfolio entry. You may simply
duplicate your category entries, placing the copies in your portfolio
folder. When captioning picture stories, the caption of the first photo
in the picture story should be a very brief summary of the story.
Remember to keep the entire caption shorter than 25 words.
- Check
your disks
Before
sending us your CD-ROMs, verify their integrity by making sure they are
readable and not damaged. The Seminar reserves the right to disqualify
any disk that is unreadable, or defective.
- Virus
The
Seminar reserves the right to disqualify any disk that is found to
contain a virus or other suspicious file.
- Labelling
your disks
 Label each CD-ROM and case with your unique
photographer's code and your name. Indicate whether the CD-ROM disk
contains single or portfolio entries, or both.
We
strongly suggest mailing CD's in a protective case. The Atlanta
Photojournalism Seminar is not responsible for disks damaged during
shipping.
- Entry
Form
Carefully
fill out an entry form. Use one entry form per photographer or team.
Send
your entry
form
along with your disk and method of payment to arrive
no later than 5pm EST, November 14, 2008. Do not
send your contest entry and your seminar registration in the same
shipment.
Send
your entries to:
Jeremy
Brooks
The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar Contest
PMB #301
541 10th St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30318-5713 USA
No
CD's will be returned.
Here's
how a hypothetical entry might look....
Amy
Adams decides her photographer's code will be bdwrz. Her submission to
the contest consists of nine single picture category entries, a news
picture story entry, and a Best Portfolio entry. She prepares and
captions her files and names them:
-
- 01bdwrz01.jpg (first 01 is category, bdwrz is photographer's code, second 01 is entry number within the category)
02bdwrz01.jpg
06bdwrz01.jpg
06bdwrz02.jpg (06 is category, bdwrz is photographer's code, 02 is entry number within the category)
06bdwrz03.jpg
07bdwrz01.jpg
07bdwrz02.jpg
(the
next six are how one News Picture Story entry would look)
-
08bdwrz01a.jpg
08bdwrz01b.jpg
08bdwrz01c.jpg
08bdwrz01d.jpg
08bdwrz01e.jpg
08bdwrz01f.jpg
Amy
makes a copy of each file for her portfolio entry into a folder titled
"bdwrz Best Portfolio." Her News Picture Story Entry is placed in a
folder called "08bdwrz01." She then copies her single entries and
picture story folder into a seperate folder titled "bdwrz." These two
folders ("bdwrz" & "bdwrz Best Portfolio") are then copied on
to a CD-ROM.
- DEADLINES
- Enter
Early! Deadline for receipt of entries is 5pm Friday, November
14, 2008. No entries will be accepted after that date. No
Exceptions can be made. Entering early will allow us time to check and
possibly correct errors in your entry and will help compensate for any
delivery problems. The Seminar reserves the right to disqualify entries
that do not follow rules listed here.
- Judging
- Contest
judges consist of seminar speakers and workshop leaders. Open
elimination rounds and closed portfolio judging will take place on
Thursday December 4. There will be no other seminar activities on
Thursday. Final rounds of open judging are held during the Seminar on
Friday, December 5. Winners will be announced during the Seminar and
posted on our website soon after the December 6 awards ceremony. A
winners list will be sent on request to any entrant who provides a
viable and legible e-mail or physical address.
- Questions?
- If
you're confused by these rules you may contact us for clarification.
Please don't wait until the contest deadline week to get your questions
answered. By far, the best method of communication is e-mail.
Contact
contest chairman Jeremy Brooks at contest@photojournalism.org.
These
rules are subject to change. Please check for any last minute changes
before completing your entry.
- Prizes
- US$1,000
and Nikon equipment for Best
Portfolio
US$750
and Nikon equipment for 1st place Rich Mahan
Student Portfolio
US$250
2nd place Rich Mahan Student Portfolio
US$100
3rd place Rich Mahan Student Portfolio
US$500
for Best in Show
US$100
awarded to all First Place winners
First
place winners receive plaques; second and third place winners and
honorable mentions receive certificates. Special recognition will be
given to the newspaper staff winning the most points in competition.
We apologize for any delays in delivery of awards from past
contests. We are working hard towards the goal of prompt delivery
of all awards immediately following the announcement of the
winners.
- Staff
Awards
- The
Newspaper staff winning the most points in competition will be declared
Outstanding Staff of the Year. Staff points are awarded as
follows:Honorable Mention=1 point, Third Place=2 points, Second place=
3 points, First place= 4 points, Best Portfolio= 5 points. No staff
points will be awarded for Best of Show.
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