APS Monthly Club Challenges and Rules

All members should be familiar with the content of this page. It includes the Code of Conduct, the Challenge Rules and the formats for submission of images into the APS challenges.

APS hold monthly club challenges at 7:30pm on the third Thursday of each month from January to October. An End of Year (EOY) event is held in November.

Participation in club challenges is an excellent way to receive feedback from a variety of expert judges, and members are encouraged to enter images each month.

Challenge Format

• There are normally four challenges - SET SUBJECT section (as defined in the Events Calendar) with a challenge for Prints and Digital entries and OPEN challenges for Digital and Prints (where images on any subject can be entered).
• Members compete within their own grade - NOVICE, ADVANCED or SALON.
• Images will be judged by approved external judges, who provide feedback and awards.
• Members may enter a maximum of two images per evening - either two prints, OR two digitals OR one of each.

Competition Rules

General:

• Members must observe the Code of Conduct
• Challenges are open to financial and life members.
• Images must originate as one or more photographs captured by the photographer. Images may consist of multiple layers, but every layer must be the photographer’s creative work including adjustment layers. Textures and overlays purchased or obtained online are explicitly not permitted.
•  Significant editing and processing of images is permitted provided it is carried out by the author. However, computer-generated graphics and images created using generative AI must not be incorporated in the submitted image in any way
• While incidental inclusion of someone else’s artwork in an image is allowable, photographing someone else’s artwork as a principal subject is only acceptable if the author has used it as the basis for contributing their own significant transformational value using standard photographic techniques. Note that outside of an Architecture challenge, judges may deem architectural subjects to be someone else’s artwork. Once an image has achieved “ACCEPTANCE” or better in an APS Challenge, that image, in whole or in part, can never be submitted again in an APS challenge. For the purposes of this rule, multiple images by the same author taken in rapid succession (e.g. burst mode), or differing only by post processing (e.g. crop, colour settings) will be deemed a single image and are therefore ineligible to enter again.
• Images taken during a photo tour or workshop are only allowable if the author had direct control of any lighting, props, models, and sets. Specifically, the photographer, in good faith, must have had full control over all camera settings and post-production steps, and the image would not have been taken under the direct guidance of a tutor or instructor.
• Judges will, at their discretion, award ACCEPTANCE, MERIT, HIGHLY COMMENDED, or HONOURS to each entry in all sections. Images can also be “PASSED IN” by the judge if they do not meet an acceptable standard. The text of the guidelines to Judges can be found  here
•  Any image deemed by the APS Committee to have breached the rules above will be withdrawn and treated as “PASSED IN”.This can apply before or after the challenge date.
• Points are awarded as follows (noting that SET subject entries receive more points than Open entries):

Points are transferable if a member changes grade.  Aggregate Points trophies are awarded at the EOY competition to the member in each grade who has accrued the highest number of points during the year in the monthly competitions. In the event of a tie, the award goes to the member with the most Honours for the year.

Image Submission guidelines (Prints and Digital)

• Digital images AND digital versions of prints MUST be submitted by 11.30 pm on the published date via the APS website using the Challenges\Submit Images to a Challenge tab. The judge will then receive and view the images prior to the challenge.
• Images must be submitted as .jpg files, and in the sRGB format.
• The optimum Image size will be  3840 pixels wide and  2160 pixels high.
• The name of the file is not important. The Image Title is what the judge will see and what is displayed or read out on the challenge night.  ‘No Title’ is acceptable as the Image Title.
• The dpi (dots per inch) setting is not critical (typically defaults to 72 dpi).
• Members’ names must not be included in the title. No watermark should appear in the submitted image files.

Additional guidelines for Prints

• Prints may be of any size, up to a maximum of 400mm by 500mm mounted, provided that they are mounted on firm card or foam board, have a minimum size of 297mm by 210mm and a maximum size of 400mm by 500mm. Multiple images (e.g. triptychs) must be submitted as a single work on the same mount and this mount must conform to the minimum and maximum size requirements. Mats (commonly black or white) may be used, but the print and mat together must not exceed the maximum dimensions.
• Prints must meet minimum size rules. “Snapshot” size prints would not normally be acceptable, except in the case of dye transfer type prints, which are permitted to be smaller. Framed and/or glass covered prints will not be accepted.
• Prints may be either professionally or home processed.
• Prints may be printed either on paper or on other media (e.g. aluminium), as long as they meet the size requirements.
• Prints must be brought to the club for display no later than 7.15 p.m. on the challenge night.
• Members are responsible for removing their prints from the display stands at the end of the evening.

Labelling Prints

Prints must be clearly labelled on the back of the print with:

• The author’s name
• The author’s grade – i.e. Novice, Advanced or Salon
• The section entered – i.e. Set Subject or Open
• A title which corresponds to the title submitted on the website.

Audio Visual Competitions AV Rules and Guidelines

• Guidance on Audio Visual Competitions

End of Year (EOY) event and Competition

The EOY is a social event which takes place in November and includes the presentation of awards and trophies for the EOY Challenge and Aggregate points. The names of members who have been regraded will be announced.

All challenge submissions achieving “ACCEPTANCE” or better during the regular year are automatically entered in the EOY Challenge. All entries for the EOY Challenge are treated as Open subject and Print images are judged digitally.

The EOY judging process is as follows:

• Preselection – A panel of three experienced judges independently rate every image from 1-5. Once all images have been rated by each judge, scores are accumulated
• Based on the accumulated scores the APS Committee decides a cutoff for each challenge category and grade. The cutoff point will vary from year to year but is intended to identify the top 30-40 images. Images with an aggregate score at or above the cutoff for their category and grade are treated as EOY HONOURS
• The judging panel are invited to critique all EOY HONOURS images where all three judges give public feedback on each image. The critique session is held live online. Immediately following which, the judging panel will , in closed committee, decide the champion image for each category and the overall winners for Print and Digital. The APS Committee will be consulted in the event a decision cannot be reached
• Champions are announced and trophies awarded during EOY celebration event which will be held in person

APS Code of Conduct

The Auckland Photographic Society (APS) is one of the largest and most active clubs in New Zealand. It is appropriate that we have a Code of Conduct based on a shared commitment to ethical practice and common values. Such a Code sets out our commitment to preserve and enhance the reputation of the Club, and identifies what we collectively embrace as acceptable and unacceptable behavior in pursuing our photographic endeavours. We have an obligation, collectively and individually, to behave in accordance with this Code in all situations, from interactions with each other in the Club, our approach to challenges, and in pursuing our photographic interests more generally. The values we aspire to cannot be described by written rules alone, but depend on the understanding and judgment of individuals and the collective.

Values

Our key values are to behave at all times with

• Integrity;
• Sensitivity; and
• Respect

and in a manner that supports:

• Trust in our collective and individual endeavours in taking and creating a photograph and submitting it for challenge or exhibition;
• Responsibility and accountability; and
• The reputation of the APS.

To this end, in addition to adhering to all laws, regulations and customs applicable to the place in which they are photographing, including overseas, members will not:

• Behave or engage in activity, including disrespectful behavior, that may bring the APS or individuals into disrepute
• Engage in any form of plagiarism and should appropriately acknowledge copyright in other photographers’ work
• Unjustly claim ownership or creative endeavor when using or incorporating another photographer’s or artist’s work
• Explicitly copy an idea or approach of another photographer.

For example:

• You must not create a photograph that draws directly on familiar, well publicised subjects found on the internet or in books by recreating the same scene, or obvious variation of it, and present it as original authorship: or
• Misrepresent their own involvement in creating the work or misrepresent it as entirely their own creative and intellectual property.  For example. APS encourages members to take part in workshops/mentoring. When is it acceptable or unacceptable for a photograph taken in a workshop/under mentorship to be entered into challenge as the author’s own work?  

Acceptable: where the photographer sets up their own scene within the workshop environs (e.g. takes a model to another location or pursues a new perspective on a landscape) and is responsible for the choice of all camera settings and artistic input.

Unacceptable: where the scene, lighting and other creative input (instructions re speed, aperture, ISO, and/or framing, etc.) are provided by the instructor and where the photographer is effectively only pushing the shutter button.

There will always be shades of grey between acceptable and unacceptable practice. Each member is encouraged to reflect on, and represent, the values of the club in deciding whether to claim a work represents their authorship.

Discipline

Where it is judged that this Code of Conduct has been breached, the APS Committee may, on taking account of representations from parties and having regard to the best interests of the Club, take appropriate action, including but not restricted to:

• Warning a member of the need to observe the principles and general behavior expected of all club members consistent with the values underpinning this Code of Conduct;
• Asking the author to withdraw a photograph from challenge;
• Directly, as a decision of the Committee, withdraw a photograph from challenge;
• Nullify a challenge result retrospectively in the face of observations that the author’s photograph or behavior did not live up to the values of this Code of Conduct; or
• Refuse to accept a photograph for inclusion in an APS exhibition.

It is the responsibility of every member to ensure that their actions reflect positively on the APS and on the wider photographic community in New Zealand and beyond. This will be achieved if we collectively commit to always act with sensitivity and respect towards each other.