Club League and POTY

League Competitions

(Photographer of the Year (POTY))

Niall Whelan - Tulip Study

COVID-19 Notice: To ensure the safety of our members and external judges all entries into this seasons club competitions (2022/23) will be digital images only until further notice.

League and Photographer of the Year Overview

The League is a graded competition with a separate competition for each of the Novice, Intermediate and Advanced grades.

Please see the specific details of the league rules for Novice, Intermediate and Advanced below as the league will run slightly different for each grade.

These details up to date for the 2022/2023 season.

The Novice League

This season all entries for the Novice league will be Digital Projected Images (DPI) and there will be three categories:

  • Colour (Open)
  • Monochrome (Open)
  • Themed (see below for the themes)

There will be six rounds in the league.

For each round of the league, each novice member will be entitled to enter up to three images - One Colour image, one Monochrome image and one Themed image.

Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded in each of the categories.

Your score in each category will be the sum of your best five scoring images in that category.

The score for the POTY is the best combined score across the three categories, and the Novice Photographer of the Year will receive a trophy and a gold medal.
All entries must be submitted by email, following the instructions here. Any images submitted that do not follow the instructions may be disqualified from that round of the league.

The Intermediate League

This season all entries for the Intermediate league will be Digital Projected Images (DPI) and there will be three categories:

  • Colour (Open)
  • Monochrome (Open)
  • Themed (see below for the themes)

There will be six rounds in the league.

For each round of the league, each intermediate member will be entitled to enter up to three images - One Colour image, one Monochrome image and one Themed image.

Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded in each of the categories.

Your score in each category will be the sum of your best five scoring images in that category.
The score for the POTY is the best combined score across the three categories, and the Intermediate Photographer of the year will receive a trophy and a gold medal.

All entries must be submitted by email, following the instructions here. Any images submitted that do not follow the instructions may be disqualified from that round of the league.

The Advanced League

This season entries for Rounds 1,2,3,5,6 of the Advanced league will be Digital Projected Images (DPI). One round of the POTY will be a Print round subject to the Covid-19 situation in 2023. This will be communicated to Advanced members in good time.

There will be three categories:

  • Colour (Open)
  • Monochrome (Open)
  • Themed (see below for the themes)

There will be six rounds in the league.

For each round of the league, each advanced member will be entitled to enter up to three images - One Colour image, one Monochrome image and one Themed image.

Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded in each of the categories.

Your score in each category will be the sum of your best five scoring images in that category.

The score for the POTY is the best combined score across the three categories, and the Advanced Photographer of the Year will receive a trophy and a gold medal.

All entries must be submitted by email, following the instructions here. Any images submitted that do not follow the instructions may be disqualified from that round of the league.

Competition themes

Turlough OReilly - Men At Work

This season, themes will apply to all Grades, one themed image per round. The themes are listed in the table opposite. FIAP Definitions apply, but here's a little help:

Still Life Photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. Similar to still life painting, it is the application of photography to the still life artistic style.

Creative Photography is an extension of conventional photography into creative art. Its purpose is to stimulate creative thoughts and encourage experimentation with new ideas going beyond a simple photograph. Creative images are often montages (a blend or composite of multiple images).

Round Theme Media type for each round
1 The Built Environment (Architecture) Colour/Mono DPI
2 Still Life Colour/Mono DPI
3 Pure Imagination (Creative/Composite image) Colour/Mono DPI
4 We're only human (Portraiture) Colour/Mono DPI
5 A Sporting Chance (Sport) Colour/Mono DPI
6 The sky at night (Landscape/Seascape/Sky) Colour/Mono DPI

 

Scoring for the League

Michael Linehan - Diving Gull

On each competition judging night the judge will award marks out of 50. For the purposes of scoring the league, points will be allocated based on the placing of each entry in that month’s competition. This is done according to the adjoining table (a process referred to as Normalisation).

Internal league points (normalised) will be allocated on the placing of each entry.
Joint placing will be allowed from 2nd place down. E.g. if two images are placed 2nd then both will get 19 points normalised. Also, in this case the next normalised score will still be 18.

All entries after 11th place will be awarded 10 points normalised.

Results will be published by the Competition Secretary.

Placing based on Judges score Normalised Score
1st 20
2nd 19
3rd 18
4th 17
5th 16
6th 15
7th 14
8th 13
9th 12
10th 11
All other 10

League Awards

Gerry Kerr - Hoi An lady

Trophies and medals are awarded in each of the ‘Novice’, ‘Intermediate’ & ‘Advanced’ grades as outlined above.
In each of the leagues: Where no more than four people compete, medals will only be awarded to 1st and 2nd place and a certificate for third.
Where no more than three people compete, a medal will be awarded to first place and a certificate for the other places.
It is deemed unlikely that this situation will arise very often as most members in each grade enter at least one league competition, they may then “drop out” for various reasons but they have competed in the league.
In the event of a tie in a category: Medals will be awarded for tied positions. However, once at least three medals have been awarded, no further medals will be awarded in that category for lower placings. For example, if three people tie for 1st place, then three gold medals will be awarded, but no further medals will be awarded in that category.
In the event of a tie for POTY: Where there is a tie for POTY, then the award will go to the person with the most highest placed images (considered in order from 1st to last until a resolution is reached). Only counting images will be considered in this process. If there is no resolution by this means, then the award will go to the person with the highest gross (non-normalized) score for their counting images. If there is still no resolution, then a joint award will be made.