How to Enter Poly Competitions
Poly’s monthly competitions from January to November consist of three parts: the Project Competition; and two Open Competition categories called the Realistic category and the Creative category. Each member may enter one image in the Project Competition; and two images in either one of or split between the two Open Competition categories.
Here’s how to prepare and send your images.
Entries must be attached to an email (attach all three images to a single email) and sent no later than 11:59 p.m. the Sunday before the competition. The email address for entries is given to Poly members and not shown here.
Poly’s computer uses Windows. Please be sure to send your images as attachments to your email. Mac users need to be aware that the default behavior of Mac email software is to embed images into the body of an email and becomes unusable for competition.
File Names in General
Proper naming of your files is important. Images which are not properly named may be rejected.
The file name of each submitted image must start with a category prefix (either ‘PROJECT”, “RI”, or “CI”), then the Image Title followed by the word “by”, then your first and last name, and ending with the file-extension suffix, “.jpg” (note: only JPEG files can be accepted into Poly competition).
Here is an example of a file name for a Project entry: PROJECT Toy Story by Walter Disney.jpg.
Open Competition
Poly’s Open Competition is made up of the Realistic and Creative categories. Descriptions of each category are given below.
You may enter both of your images into one category or enter one image in each category.
If you want to submit your image in the Realistic Category, begin your image file name with prefix letters, “RI”; or the letters “CI” to submit into the Creative category. If the image maker cannot be identified the image may be rejected from competition. Image files without proper starting prefixes will be entered into the Creative category.
Example of a Realistic category file name: RI Clearing Winter Storm by Ansel Adams.jpg
Example of a Creative category file name: CI Martian Invasion by Orson Welles.jpg
REALISTIC CATEGORY
Images entered in this category must only contain subjects and scenes that do, or look like they could, exist in the real world. In addition, images that have adjustments such as, exposure correction, dodging and burning, etc., are allowed. The Realistic category includes images that may use the following techniques: black & white, multi-toned, stitched-panoramas, HDR, multiple-exposures, composites including sky replacements photographed by the maker, backgrounds photographed by the maker, cloning, along with other Assisted/Supportive AI tools, if the goal is to make the image look natural and appear photographically realistic. An image post-processed to appear painterly in whole or in part is not considered photographically realistic. Textures and brushes are not allowed in this category.
If the maker is not sure if an image qualifies for the Realistic Category, the recommendation is to enter the image into the Creative Category. Judges will be advised to give a score of 6 to images that are not photographically realistic, including artistic filters, artistic backgrounds and/or other artistic processes. This will enable the maker to reenter the image in Creative.
Important: Image titles must begin with the letters “RI” followed by a space to be entered into the Realistic Category (example: RI Winter Storm by Ansel Adams).
CREATIVE CATEGORY
Images entered in this category may be one or both of the following:
-
- Images that do not qualify for the Realistic category because they are not photographically realistic, including artistic filters, artistic backgrounds and/or other artistic processes.
- Images that contain some or all subjects, elements, and/or scenes that could not or do not exist in the real world.
Images must start from the maker’s original photograph. All photographic elements must have been created by the maker. No stock, clip art, or Prompt-Generated-AI images are allowed.
Textures and brushes for which the maker has the right of usage are allowed. Sky replacement and backgrounds are allowed if the new sky or background was photographed by the maker.
The Creative Category can include photographically based styles such as: photo-illustration, black-light, infrared, fantasy, enhanced or altered reality, imaginative photo-art, along with other techniques that are not photographically realistic, if all elements in the image are the maker’s own work.
Important: Image titles must begin with the letters “CI” followed by a space in order to be entered in the CreativeCategory (example: CI Martian Invasion by Orson Welles.jpg).
If an image title does not begin with the letters “RI” or “CI” it will be entered into the Creative Category by default.
PROJECT CATEGORY
Entries for the PROJECT Category must contain subject matter that relates to the Project’s monthly theme (i.e., January: Out-of-Focus, February: Toy Story, etc.). In addition, images for the Project Category must be photographed after November 1 when the themes are announced for the new year starting in January. The creation date of primary subject matter photographed by the maker must be included in the image file that is submitted for competition.
Important: Image titles must begin with the capitalized word “PROJECT”. If you decide to give your image a title, place it after the word “PROJECT” such as PROJECT Water Drops by Doug Smith.jpg. If your project image does not have a title, use “PROJECT” as your title in the file name like this: PROJECT by Doug Smith.jpg. Although titles of Project images will not be announced during competition, they may be used for winning Project entries that are posted on Poly’s website and in the year-end competition.
Judges shall be instructed to select First, Second, and Third place winners at each monthly competition.
First, Second, and Third place winners shall be considered accepted images for exhibition and may be entered into the year-end competition as detailed in Article XIII – Year- End Competition.
Once an exhibited image has been selected as a First, Second, or Third place winner in the PROJECT Category it following the year 2022, or a near duplicate taken at the same time, cannot be entered in any future monthly competition in any category. A similar image that is created from the same original digital file but is clearly different and not a near duplicate may be entered in a future competition.
All images must conform the rules concerning original work, plagiarism and the use of AI as outlined in Addendum 1 – Poly Photo Club Competition Rules.
File Format and Image Size
Images MUST be in JPEG format (using file extension .jpg). Poly will not accept TIFF, PSD, and other file types.
Image dimensions: no greater than 1920 pixels wide, no greater than 1080 pixels tall. Convert to sRGB, 8bit, save as JPEG.
For horizontal images, make the image 1920 pixels on its longest side and let the shorter side be adjusted to whatever size necessary to maintain the proper aspect ratio. For vertical images, make the longest side 1080 pixels.
Images slightly larger than this are acceptable because our software will automatically shrink them to fit, but do not submit images at their original in-camera resolution as these will be too large.
When converting to JPEG, use maximum quality (minimum compression). If done correctly, your file will be around one, two, or three megabytes in size.
For accurate projected color, be sure your images use the sRGB color space (not Adobe 1998 or ProPhoto). Convert them to sRGB as necessary.
What to Enter
For ideas about what kinds of images do well in competition, look at the winners displayed in the Winning Images galleries on Poly’s website.
Because Poly uses a variety of monthly competition judges, and judging is subjective, you’ll never know for sure what will do well. But after you’ve been to several competitions, you’ll begin to get a good idea of what judges are looking for. Feel free to enter subjects that interest you in their appropriate category, and most of all, have fun.
