If you are thinking about entering any of our competitions, please make sure you are familiar with the rules about what is and what isn’t allowed..
Much of this information is also covered in the little WPS Handbook. Members can logon and see the current season’s handbook on our website.
General Rules & Guidance for All Internal Competitions
Applies to: PDI League, Print League, Society Evening, George Walsh Trophy, Set of Three
Please review these rules carefully before entering any internal competition. Contact the Competition Secretary with questions or clarifications.
All competition trophies are presented at the Social evening and Prize giving at the end of the season. Trophies must be returned the following April.
If you have any questions, please contact the WPS Competition Secretary.
1. Image Content
Respect all subjects and viewers: no discriminatory, indecent, inflammatory, degrading, hostile, or otherwise offensive material.
The committee may exclude any image it finds inappropriate.
2. Authorship
All creative elements—capture, composition, lighting, post-processing—must be your own.
If significant creative contributions (e.g., staging or camera settings) come from a third party or workshop leader, assess whether your own contribution is sufficient to claim the image as your own work.
3. Use of AI & Digital Tools
Standard in-camera and editing tools (exposure optimisation, cloning, subject removal) are permitted as part of photographic practice. The RPS considers AI-enabled algorithmic automation of basic image processing to be under the photographer’s control and an evolution of longstanding capabilities.
Fully AI-generated images or pixel-level elements created by non-photographic algorithms are not allowed. Such entries are not considered entirely your work.
4. Single-Use Submission Policy
Purpose
This policy ensures fair opportunity, fresh content in each internal competition, and a level playing field for all members.
Key Definitions
- Substantially similar: Two images are substantially similar if the overall content, composition, or subject matter remains essentially unchanged, even if minor edits are applied.
- Minor edits: Include cropping; colour, contrast or exposure tweaks; and converting to monochrome. These do not create a new entry.
Core Rule
Each image may appear only once in any WPS internal competition. An identical—or substantially similar—image counts as the same entry.
Member Responsibilities
- Maintain a personal log of all images you’ve entered.
- Before submitting, verify that your new entry isn’t substantially similar to any past submission.
Exceptions
- Christmas Knockout and Winchester National Exhibition (WNE) follow their own rules and are not subject to this one-time-use restriction. Photos captured at the Safari event may be reused in future internal competitions.
Annual Print Exhibition (APE) Crossover
Once an image is accepted into the APE, it may not re-enter any internal competition after the APE opening date.
Flexibility and Appeals
The Competition Secretary or Exhibition Organiser will:
- Review borderline cases with understanding
- Allow reasonable accommodation for genuine mistakes
- Consider brief appeals if similarity is debatable
Suggested Best Practice
To streamline compliance and avoid accidental duplication, consider maintaining a simple spreadsheet or using metadata tags when archiving your images. This log can include:
- Image title or file name
- Submission date and competition name
- Notes on edits applied
5. Anonymity
Do not include your name or any identifying marks on the image itself.
6. Usage Rights
By default, WPS may use any submitted print or PDI for Society publicity, external exhibitions, or competitions (e.g., SCPF).
If you object to this, notify the Competition Secretary in writing before the event.
Deadline: Midnight on the Friday before competition.
Dimensions: Max 1920 px width × 1200 px high (maintain aspect ratio).The upload service can resize your image for you, but you will get more reliable results and predictable quality if you learn to do it yourself.
Format: High-quality JPEG, sRGB, max filesize 2 MB.
Upload: PhotoEntry at compent.photoentry.uk/compent/
New PhotoEntry users will receive a confirmation email with a temporary password; set a new password after first login.
Full instructions under “PDI Image Upload Instructions”
Digital Upload
Upload a digital version (max 1920 × 1200 px) not later than the Friday before the competition as described above.
Physical Prints
- Prints can be produced by any photographic process; chemical or digital, by anyone.
- Mount on stiff board, max size 50 × 40 cm.
- No exposed tape or glue or anything which might damage an adjacent entry.
- Back of mount: your name, image title, and class.
See the Preparing Prints for Competitions & Exhibitions guide
Deliver to the Competition Secretary’s desk by 7:15 pm on competition night. (ask a friend to bring it in if you can’t be there yourself)
During judging, titles are announced; authors of successful images are revealed at the end of the evening.
Please note:- The WPS Competition Secretary reserves the right to exclude on the night any print mounted in such a way that it may cause damage to another print.
There has been a lot of debate recently both within our Society and the wider photographic community about images taken in tightly controlled workshop environments. The paper below gives some more background.
See also SCPF Judges’ September 2020 paper New Guidance on Marking, and Appraising Workshop Images
Q. Can I enter the same image in more than one competition?
A. In brief, No.
- an image which has been entered into an internal WPS Competition may not be entered into another internal competition. This includes images which are identical or fundamentally similar.
- an image which has been accepted for display in the Annual Print Exhibition (APE) may not be entered into an internal competition after the opening night of that Exhibition, nor may it be submitted for a future APE.
- These rules do not apply to informal competitions such as the Christmas Knockout or President’s Safari.
The explanatory paper below was written by Competition Secretary Gordon Brown and approved by the WPS Committee in April 2025.
PAGB enews 338 special AI edition
Most organised events and photoshoot require the full participation of the photographer and, as a well-known organiser once said to me, “I give you the ingredients, but you have to make the cake”.
If you weren’t there, please don’t be quick to judge.
It may well be true that some photographers have very little input to the images they have taken and may not do much to process them later. If you haven’t made the INPUT, can you claim the OUTPUT?
When it comes to post processing the PAGB already requires the entrant to have shot every element of an image and this, whilst more complicated, will not change with AI or other processing tools. In the end, whilst organisers may find it difficult to detect, you will know if you have gone too far.
ONLY YOU CAN KNOW. Do you believe in your heart that you have contributed enough to feel that you own this image?
If you don’t feel that way, and you are successful in competitions with it, then what have you won?
PAGB enews 338 special AI edition
If you do not resize your image to match the resolution of our projector, you are at risk of unpredictable results because PhotoEntry will resize it to fit the 1920 x 1200 resolution used by the projector, keeping the correct aspect ratio.
Please do still try to get your resolution correct. If you leave PhotoEntry to resize it for you, you lose control over the quality of the final image.
Most standard image-editing software (such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Affinity Photo) includes the ability to re-size an image.
Where this function is located varies, but it is usually around an ‘image’ action or the ‘export’ function.
The key criterion you need to bear in mind is that you need to adjust the PIXEL dimensions and not the mm/Inch measurements.
The final pixel dimensions of your image need to fit within a frame 1920 pixels x 1200 pixels (WxH), so you’ll need to work out which dimension to set. You must also constrain the proportions when you re-size to ensure your picture isn’t stretched or squashed but maintains the correct aspect ratio.
If you need more assistance, see our detailed step-by-step guide “Resizing Digital Images for Projection”
- Updated March 2021 to clarify rules and guidance on acceptability of images taken in workshops.
- Updated April 2023 to clarify the position of images which have been accepted for the Annual Exhibition.
- August 2023 with guidance about the use of AI tools and techniques and to align with wording in current handbook
- Updated October 2024 to remove obsolete references to the pandemic restrictions
- Updated December 2024 to clarify and expand on some wording.
- Updated June 2025 to include paper on image reuse
- September 2025 to match the content of the new Handbook