Eligibility
You must be a current member in good standing. All photographs must have been taken or initially published between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. No photograph previously entered in the POY competition may be entered again. Photographs from a project taken or published over a period of time that begins before the eligible date but extends into the period of eligibility may be entered as long as they have not been entered in the competition before. Each entrant may submit a maximum of 20 entries. A picture story counts as one entry.
Each entrant is limited to no more than five entries per category.
Cost
There is a $10 entry Fee to enter the POY. This fee applies to both professionals and students.
Choosing a code
Choose your unique photographer's code. This is important as you will use this code in naming all your files in each category. Use a lower case five-letter sequence. Every photographer must have a unique code so do not spell words or names and if you are preparing entries for multiple photographers be sure their codes vary. A photographer's code might look like this: bdwrz (don't use this exact code).
Preparing Your Images
We recommend using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 or later to prepare your images, although it is not required. The image orientation must read in normal viewing position, with top of the image being at the top. We will not flop or rotate photographs.
Captioning your photos
Using Photoshop's "File Info" option (under the File menu), caption the photo using a concise 25-words-or-less description. Following the caption, add your photographer's code and a title. Do not use a return in your caption or it will not show up on the website when uploading. Include your Name and Publication in the "Author" field of "File Info." This will be used to identify your work on the website after the contest.
For example: "Karen Smith stretches to reach the finish in the 100-meter final of the World Track and Field Championships. bdwrz Big Stretch"
Use the file info option, not a captioning plug-in. Even if your photos are already captioned using a captioning plug-in, re-enter the information directly into File Info. If you are using an older version of Photoshop or another image-editing program that does not offer the file info option, your photos will NOT have captions.
Sizing and File Compression
Save and compress the file using JPEG compression set to 7, or medium. Do Not "Save for Web" (or Optimize) in Photoshop. This will erases your caption information embedded in the EXIF information of your image. Do not use SSC JPEG. Last year, some people forgot to resize their pictures down to 72 dpi and submitted files that were 5-8 megabytes. This year, those files will be disqualified. (Not to worry, your files will not upload if this step is missed.) Your pictures must be 72 dpi and not more than 11 inches on the long side.
Categories Click
here for a detailed list of categories
Naming your files
Name your picture files beginning with the two-digit category number, followed by your unique photographer's code, followed by sequential two-digit numbers corresponding to the number of photos you are entering in that category. Add sequential letters to the string for each photo in a picture story entry. Do not have spaces or weird characters (&,$,%,@,",') in your file names.(Sounds complicated, but it's not).
A single photo entry might have a file name like this:
04bdwrz01.jpg
(04 is the category number, bdwrz is the photographer's code, 01 is
your first entry within this category, and .jpg is the mandatory suffix).
Other entries within the same category would be 04bdwrz02.jpg and 04bdwrz03.jpg.
Photos in a picture story entry might look like this:
12bdwrz01a.jpg
12bdwrz01b.jpg
12bdwrz01c.jpg
(12 is the category number; bdwrz is the photographer's code; 01 is
your first entry in the category; a, b and c indicate the first three
photos in a picture story, and .jpg is the mandatory suffix).
Picture Stories
Place a JPEG "dark slide" image (same dimensions as your entry images) at the BEGINNING and the END of EACH photo story. This provides a separation from each story during the judging. Your Beginning slide may be a title slide, but is not required, but please keep your ending slide all black.
Place your synopsis information in the File Info of the beginning dark slide/title slide. Picture stories may contain a maximum of 12 photographs plus the two darkslides: 14 files total. Edit tightly for a strong story line.
Please keep your synopsis to the length of your story (being shown on a 4 second per frame slideshow). The synopsis reader will stop reading when the images stop showing.
Remember to embed captions into each image in the File Info. If judges ask for a caption on a particular image, it need to be there.
Portfolio Entries (Portfolio entries determine the 2009 NCPPA Photographer of the Year POY)
Photographers may enter Student Portfolio or Portfolio, but not both. To enter student portfolio, you must be enrolled full-time in school or have been in school for at least 8 months during 2009 and you could not be working as a full-time professional before October, 2009.
There is a maximum of 10 entries in the portfolio competition (with picture stories counting as one entry). There can be no more than 50 images total in a portfolio.
A portfolio must contain entries in at least four of the first separate categories, including at least one entry in one of the multiple picture categories (News, Feature or Sports Picture Story) and at least one entry from one news category (Spot News, General News, or News Picture Story). Portfolios will be judged for overall excellence and as a measure of the photographer's versatility.
Category entries will be judged separately from Portfolio entries so you must also upload the category entries you wish to be considered in your portfolio entry into the portfolio category.
Prizes and Awards
Plaques will be awarded to winners 1-3 in each category. Honorable mentions will receive a paper award.
The NCPPA POY and Student POY will also receive a plaques and a donated cameras. The second runners up will receive a plaque.
Important to Note:
*It is important with the upload to not use a captioning plug-in on your images. Use Photoshop, Photomechanic or iView to caption your images.
*Add a black slide at the end of your picture story (plus the beginning like last year).
*Students must be members of NCPPA to enter the portfolio category.
Common Questions
• Q:Can we enter individual photos from a story into one of the single categories?
A: Yes. The file will need to be uploaded twice. Once for the single category. Once for the story.
