The KPC Photo Essay Competition 2011-2012
This competition is designed to get teams of two or three
members to work together to produce a photo-journalistic slideshow,
with the benefit of being able to work together to come up with
ideas and techniques. It is meant, first and foremost, to be a good
way to learn more about telling a story with photography. There will
be a prize awarded annually for the best Essay, possibly with
'runner-up' prizes..... and would make good viewing at our Awards
Night. It is intended that the whole membership can be shown the
essays and asked to vote on their favourites - so no 'judges'. The
winning entry each season will also be submitted to CAPA for a club
entry in their annual Photo Essay Competition, so we're going to
follow their rules.For several years, the KPC ran the area
Audio-Visual Show, a prestigious event which became popular with
members of many clubs in Eastern Ontario - and a good fund-raiser.
Our main experts, however, both left the club at the same time and
we haven't had the expertise to run the show since - perhaps we can
revive the event.
A 'Photo Essay' is an image story - a digital slideshow -
which describes a subject, accompanied by words and/or music and
presented in a pleasing and understandable manner. There are
many photo essays available on the web for viewing. CAPA have
two types of show - 'Photo Essay' and 'Travel Essay'.
(We need some clarification as to whether the club's entry to CAPA
should be one or the other, or both.)
RULES for Team Essays:
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1. The Essay should have either descriptive text
or a spoken commentary, and should contain appropriate music
(credited). (This is where the help of a third or fourth member
of the team may be useful)
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2. The maximum length of the essay is five
minutes Four minutes is recommended. With each slide showing
for around ten seconds, including transitions, that means a lot
of images! Even with Intro images (titles, credits, etc) in the
show as well, it's still going to be around 25 images.
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3. Any image not previously entered in a photo
essay may be used. -
4. Essays should be ready by the end of March
annually and will be judged by the Competition Chair and two
assistants.
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5. As we would be showing the Essay to CAPA, we
must note their recommended software: "Proshow Gold", but
Lightroom or Elements could be used to put the show on a WMV
(Windows Media Video) file. Alternatively, "Sony Vegas",
"Pictures to exe" or "Mac to exe".
- 6. The theme or subject of the Essay is entirely Open.
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7. Team Essay:
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Two (2) member team: not more than 60% of the
images may be made by one team member.
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Three (3) member team: not more than 40% of
images may be made by one team member. -
Four (4) member team: not more than 30% of the
images may be made by one team member. -
It may be beneficial to recruit an extra member
of your team (up to a maximum of four) who is more comfortable
with slideshow software or Lightroom, Photoshop etc. If this
member is employed solely to design the slideshow, then
the team must act as a three-member team, with appropriate
percentages as above. So the maximum
number of members is FOUR.
- Club members can be in more than one team - production of
the necessary images may not take all that long and you may
enjoy it so much you want to do another one, with the same team
or others.
- While the Exec may occasionally ask members about the
progress of the Essays, it's just to make sure we'll have a
reasonable number of entries to vote on (probably in March of
each year) and not be voting on just one or two entries or have
a totally 'blank' evening. There's no 'registration' or need to
inform the Exec about teams, or their subjects until just prior
to the voting night (perhaps February). Feel free to surprise
your colleagues!
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The team needs to submit details of the show,
its subject and the names of the members of the production team
(perhaps February, as above, or when formal entries are called
for) to the designated Competition Organiser. A downloadable
Submission Form
is available, which, when completed, should show the names of
the team members, the essay title, file format, number of
pictures per member etc. Be prepared to bring your Essay on a
USB drive or DVD to the voting night.
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8. Scoring: Members in attendance on the night of the
competition (Monday April 16th) will be given a pre-prepared
Photo Essay Voting Form containing a list of the Essays to
be seen and they will be invited to, individually, give marks
out of 100 points as follows:
Photography |
40 points |
Continuity and Editing |
30 points |
General Appeal |
20 points |
Titles |
10 points |
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9. Results will be known at the end of the
meeting and prizes (to be arranged) will be awarded for 1st 2nd
and 3rd places at the Awards Night.
Most of the following, particularly the planning,
are best done in a team - so here is the agenda for your planning
meeting...
1 Tell a story
Use photography to tell a story. First you’ll need to choose
a subject, which can be the hardest part of the process. Before you
head off to far-reaching countries, try experimenting with story
ideas closer to home. Whether it’s the drudgery of life in an office
or the joy of working your own allotment, you’ll find there are
plenty of interesting stories near by.
2 Do some research
Even if the story is close to your heart or home, you should
still do some research. Plan what you want to say. Ask yourself if
you want to tell the story in just one shot or whether the subject
might benefit from a series of multiple pictures. A photo essay, for
example, could help you to reveal more about your subject.
3 Choose your style
Think about the way you intend to shoot and how you want the
final image to look and feel. Do you want the finished pictures to
be in black and white or colour? Do you only want to use natural
light to enhance the mood, or will hard flash light add to your
story? A bit of planning will make your photos more coherent.
4 Be prepared
Once you’ve decided on an approach and style you’ll need to
ensure you have the right gear to capture your shot. You probably
won’t need to take your entire kit bag with you, so just select the
tools you need. Be sure you’ve got the right focal lengths covered,
and ask yourself if you might need a tripod. Are your camera
batteries fully charged? Have you got spare batteries for your
flashgun and plenty of memory cards? Don’t let a lack of preparation
ruin a shoot.
5 Get permission
Though usually not strictly necessary from a legal point of
view, it’s a good idea to seek permission, especially if you’re
photographing people going about their business. Explain what you’re
doing and you’ll often get a hearty collaboration from your subject,
but sneak around suspiciously and you’ll be given a wide berth or
asked to leave. If you’re working on a long-term project you’ll need
to build a healthy rapport to get results. You could
take your pictures from a distance, but you're not going to
get that immediacy that is required.
6 Don't rush
The best documentary pictures are often the result of a
long-term project, so try not to rush in and attempt to capture all
the shots in one go. If you do end up with limited time in one
location, try to maximise the time you have. Plan with your team
members just what shots are required.
7 Get back-up
One of the most important tasks for a digital photographer
is to ensure all your images are safe. As soon as you get back from
your day’s shooting, download your images and make back-up copies on
an external hard-drive or DVD. It’s a good idea to keep your
back-ups in a different location to your main computer.
8 Process your images
Once your images are safe you can start to process them. If
you shoot in RAW you can make most of your tweaks to colour, tone
and contrast at the processing stage using smart software such as
Adobe Camera Raw. For a documentary project it’s unlikely that
you’ll want to manipulate your images heavily. Just make a few
adjustments or try converting to black and white - it can often, but
not always, give added impact.
9 Think about presentation
Once you’ve finished your project, think about how you want
to show it off. This is where the computer know-how comes in - but
if it's a major problem ask somebody else to put it together for
you. This extra person will be included in your team (up to a limit
of four). Once you’ve made a series of images, as well as the
slideshow you could have them printed and framed to be hung in an
exhibition (possibly using some of the extra shots that were made),
or perhaps they would be better suited to being viewed in a book
format. There are plenty of online printing services that can make
great books of your pictures for a reasonable price.
10 Learn from the best photographers
Magnum Photos
is a photo agency that was founded by Robert Capa, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour just after
the Second World War. It’s since become one of the world’s most
important photographic institutions.
CAPA's Rules for Photo Essay
ANNUAL DIGITAL AV SHOW COMPETITION -- MAY 1st Annually
A computer, some images and inexpensive software and you can
produce a digital AV showClosing Date: May 1st each
yeara. Photo Essay - any subject except travel, with
commentary and/or music.b. Travel Essay - a time-travel
sequence or an in-depth study of a travel subject or
geographical area, with commentary and/or music.
Scores: 40% photography; 30% general interest (originality,
conveys story or idea); 30% production (continuity, music usage,
techniques).
AWARDS Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded to
individuals for the top 3 photo essays and the top 3 travel
essays; A certificate will be awarded for Best of Show. Medal
certificates will be awarded for group and club entries. Honour
Award Certificates may be awarded at the discretion of the
Judges. If prizes have been secured for this competition, they
will be awarded in lieu of medals or certificates. Prizes must
be accepted as offered. No exchanges. No monetary offers or
award substitutions.CONDITIONS OF ENTRY- 1.
By submitting an entry to this competition, entrants agree
that their entry will be retained, duplicated and
distributed by CAPA for promotional/educational purposes.
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2. Each member (individual member, club, family/team or
group) may submit only 1 entry.
- 3. Enter as : an
individual member - the work of one person OR a family
member – i.e. a spousal team, or as a family - only one
person needs to be a CAPA member) OR a group (a joint effort
of two or more CAPA members) OR a club (joint effort of
two or more members of a CAPA club) selected for entry by
the Club.
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For Group, Club and Family Entries (must be two or more
entrants) please include names of all
participants/photographers in the “Photographers” section at
the bottom of the entry form.
- 4. Maximum length of
essay: 5 minutes.
- 5. The show must be produced from
the photographers' original still photographs – no movie
clips.
- 6. CAPA recommends the use of non copyrighted
music or obtaining a release for copyrighted music. The
photographer, not CAPA, will be responsible for legal issues
arising from use of music.
- 7. Each show must begin
with a black 3 second slide. In order that the
photographers' identity not be revealed to the judges:
Credits for the producer/photographer(s) and music must
appear at the END of the show: a three second blank slide
showing the word "Credits", (so that we can stop the show
before the credits are seen by the judges), then credit
slides, ending with a 3 second blank slide.
- 8.
Naming the Show: Place the title first, hyphen, Photographer
or Club Name E.g. Thunder in the
Rockies-KingstonPhotoClub.exe
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9. The show will be copied onto a PC and run from the hard
drive using Windows Media Player. [The Show should be
saved as a WMV file]. Suggested software: PhotoStory;
Pro Show Gold/Producer; and others capable of saving as WMV
(like Photoshop Elements). Do not limit the number of times
or days the show may be viewed/played, a feature provided by
some programs.
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