Guidelines
Critique Night and Annual Competition GUIDELINES
(Edited July 2018)
OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of the Club’s Critique Night programs are to encourage the development of members’ photographic skills, both technical and artistic, through the sharing of images with the panel and membership in attendance for critique and discussion.
The annual competition will take place in May of each year.
CRITIQUE NIGHT MEETINGS:
▪ Critique Night meetings are held the first Monday night of each month from September through May. In 2018 the September meeting is on the second Monday due to the holiday.
▪ The meetings are held in the Fellowship Hall of The Presbyterian Church unless advised otherwise in advance by the Critique Night Chair.
▪ The meetings begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:
▪ Members in good standing (current dues paid) may enter up to two images into a session.
▪ The images must be entered in digital format to allow for early review ahead of the session.
Print images:
IMAGE CATEGORIES:
Images may be entered into critique session in the “Assignment” category, the “Open” category, or both categories.
Assignment Category
For the purposes of the Critique Night program, members are classified at the Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, or Master level:
· Novice: Members new to photography or the Club, with 2 years or less experience.
· Intermediate: Members who have won at least two awards at the annual competition (other than Honorable Mention) at the Novice level, or who have some ( 2- 5 years) photographic experience.
· Advanced: Members who have won at least two awards at the annual competition (other than Honorable Mention) at the Intermediate Level, or who have extensive (greater than 5 years) photographic experience.
Members compete at the level in which they feel most comfortable within the above definitions. (Current Master level members are grandfathered to that level in the new system. All others may choose to stay at their current level or move themselves up one level. No member may choose the Master level)
PANEL SELECTION:
Providing constructive criticism is a vital part of the critique night program providing a valuable learning experience.
▪ Two panelists will be selected for each critique night meeting.
▪ Panelists will be selected in advance of the competition meeting – preferably a month or more in advance – to allow adequate time for preparation.
▪ Panelists are chosen from the Advanced and Master ranks and occasionally a guest may be invited to participate as a panelist.
PANELIST EVALUATIONS:
ANNUAL COMPETITION:
The annual competition will take the place of the critique night session in the month of May each year. It is a competition for the best projected and print images. All photos from previous Critique Night sessions that year are eligible for the annual competition. Two images from both the assigned and open categories may be submitted by each participating photographer. “Open” category images may not be submitted in the “Assignment” category but “Assignment” images may be submitted in the “Open” category. Images submitted to competition must be in the digital format.
All voting is anonymous and all members are eligible to vote. For each category (Open and Assigned) and each skill level (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master) judging is as follows:
© TACC 2018
(Edited July 2018)
OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of the Club’s Critique Night programs are to encourage the development of members’ photographic skills, both technical and artistic, through the sharing of images with the panel and membership in attendance for critique and discussion.
The annual competition will take place in May of each year.
CRITIQUE NIGHT MEETINGS:
▪ Critique Night meetings are held the first Monday night of each month from September through May. In 2018 the September meeting is on the second Monday due to the holiday.
▪ The meetings are held in the Fellowship Hall of The Presbyterian Church unless advised otherwise in advance by the Critique Night Chair.
▪ The meetings begin promptly at 7:00 p.m.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:
▪ Members in good standing (current dues paid) may enter up to two images into a session.
▪ The images must be entered in digital format to allow for early review ahead of the session.
Print images:
- Some members prefer to show print images. In the new Critique Night format the panelists need to view all images ahead of the session, thus, all images must be submitted in digital format.
- We do want to provide the opportunity for members to display print images at the critique Night session and a place will be designated for that purpose at each session. Members are welcome to bring prints for viewing at all Critique Night sessions.
- Must be submitted by e-mail to the address provided in advance by the Critique Night Committee by midnight on the Saturday prior to the competition.
- Must be submitted as JPEGs whose dimensions do not exceed 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high (be sure to preserve the image’s original aspect ratio and apply the proper amount of sharpening for this resolution).
- Must not be matted or framed virtually.
- Must have their files named in the following format: Category-Title-Name- Classification-Priority.jpg, where Category = image category (A or O for Assignment or Open, respectively), Title = title of the image, Name = member’s name, and Classification = member’s classification level. (N, I, A, or M for Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, or Master, respectively), Priority is #1 or #2 to allow images to be limited if necessary. For example, an image with the title “Butterfly” entered in the Assignment category by John Doe, who is in the Intermediate class with priority #1 would be named A–Butterfly–Doe–I–1.jpg. Note that the first letters are all capitalized and there are no spaces before or after the hyphens.
- Members that will be a no show to the session but wish to submit and receive their panelist feedback via email may do so. We cannot guarantee they will be shown at the session. NS images be the last priority for projecting at the session.
IMAGE CATEGORIES:
Images may be entered into critique session in the “Assignment” category, the “Open” category, or both categories.
Assignment Category
- Images whose subjects are related to the Assignment topic for that month.
- Images entered in the Assignment category must have been taken in the prior 12 months.
- Images taken specifically for the Assignment category are encouraged.
- The list of Assignment topics for the upcoming year will be issued by June of each year
- Members are encouraged to suggest Assignment topics to the Competition Chair.
- Images not related to the assigned topic.
For the purposes of the Critique Night program, members are classified at the Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, or Master level:
· Novice: Members new to photography or the Club, with 2 years or less experience.
· Intermediate: Members who have won at least two awards at the annual competition (other than Honorable Mention) at the Novice level, or who have some ( 2- 5 years) photographic experience.
· Advanced: Members who have won at least two awards at the annual competition (other than Honorable Mention) at the Intermediate Level, or who have extensive (greater than 5 years) photographic experience.
- Master: Members who have won at least two awards at the annual competition (other than Honorable mention) and have extensive experience (have had gallery exhibits and/or have sold their work, many workshops/training sessions, in other words a substantial photographic resume).
Members compete at the level in which they feel most comfortable within the above definitions. (Current Master level members are grandfathered to that level in the new system. All others may choose to stay at their current level or move themselves up one level. No member may choose the Master level)
PANEL SELECTION:
Providing constructive criticism is a vital part of the critique night program providing a valuable learning experience.
▪ Two panelists will be selected for each critique night meeting.
▪ Panelists will be selected in advance of the competition meeting – preferably a month or more in advance – to allow adequate time for preparation.
▪ Panelists are chosen from the Advanced and Master ranks and occasionally a guest may be invited to participate as a panelist.
PANELIST EVALUATIONS:
- Each of the two panelists will have access to the night’s images on the Sunday before the Critique Night. They will make brief notes to share at the critique night for each image addressing image quality, composition, impact, technical competence, etc.
- Critique consists of:
- Positive/constructive comments
- Suggestions for improvement
- Encouragement
- Following the panelists’ critiques, comments from the audience are welcome as time allows.
- At each Critique Night the panelists can recommend one or two images as the best for the session and submit to the board for consideration for a monthly President’s award. President’s awardees will have their images eligible for the annual competition in a separate category.
ANNUAL COMPETITION:
The annual competition will take the place of the critique night session in the month of May each year. It is a competition for the best projected and print images. All photos from previous Critique Night sessions that year are eligible for the annual competition. Two images from both the assigned and open categories may be submitted by each participating photographer. “Open” category images may not be submitted in the “Assignment” category but “Assignment” images may be submitted in the “Open” category. Images submitted to competition must be in the digital format.
All voting is anonymous and all members are eligible to vote. For each category (Open and Assigned) and each skill level (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master) judging is as follows:
- Members will have opportunity to view the images several times prior to voting.
- Each member will vote for three entries, indicating their choice for first, second, and third.
- Five (5) points are awarded for a first-place vote, three (3) for second, and one (1) for third.
- Total points received rank the entries as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention.
- In the event of a tie the TACC Board will review and break the tie.
- Winning entries are displayed as a slide show for the following year on the TACC website.
- Members may have the option of formally displaying their winning entries at the Crooked Tree Gallery in the fall following Competition. (all images would have to in print format for display according to Crooked Tree guidelines)
- The voting results are revealed (slide show and intro for each winning photo).
- Food and drinks and social hour while a slide show of all entries is played.
© TACC 2018
Month |
Theme |
Description |
September |
Beach & Water |
Images using beaches and/or water in the composition |
October |
Critters |
Images capturing domestic or wild creatures |
November |
Doors, Roads, Paths |
Images using Doors or Roads or Paths in the composition |
December |
Reflections |
Images using reflections in the composition |
January |
Street Scene |
Images capturing a street scene or urban environment |
Febuary |
Patterns |
Images using patterns in the composition |
March |
Black & white |
Photos in shades of Black/Grey/White |
April |
Night Photography |
Images captured after blue hour and before sunrise. |
May |
Annual Competiton |
Submit your best Critique Night images (up to 4) for annual competition |

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