Every month, PentaxForums.com hosts an official photo contest for its members. All members are invited to participate! The contest procedure and rules are outlined in this post.

How to Submit

To submit a photo, it is enough to start a thread in the submission forum containing your photo. Note: others won't be able to view your submission until voting time.

Official Rules for PentaxForums.com Monthly Photo Contests

Please follow these guidelines when submitting entries for our monthly photo contests. Your photo may be disqualified or you may be asked to re-upload it upon any violations.

• Submit only one photo per contest
  
• Your submission must have been taken with a Pentax or Ricoh camera and match the contest theme
• Post your submission in a separate thread within the contest submission forum
• The photo dimensions must be between 300x300 and 1400x1200 pixels (WxH)
  Recommended dimensions: 1200x800 for horizontals, 800x533 for verticals
• To ensure smooth loading, photos must be no larger than 1.5MB in filesize
• We recommend that you use our attachment system to ensure you are within limits
• You may receive an e-mail or PM prior to voting time if we detect any issues with your submission
• To verify that your submission was successful, navigate to the contest submission forum and make sure you see your submission thread as well as a photo within it. Only the last photo in your first submission thread will be considered. If you did not use our attachment system, make sure that your photo can be accessed by the public (i.e. isn't behind some sort of permission-based system).
  

Fine print:

• Photos that have won a previous contest (1st, 2nd, or 3rd place) cannot be re-submitted to future contests
• Your submission must be taken by you and may not be a derivative work. Composites are allowed provided you advise in your submission that it is a composite and provided that you took all the photos that form part of the composite image.
• Photos that are Not Safe for Work/Not Work Safe (NSFW/NWS) (i.e. any form of nudity) are no longer allowed in our monthly photo contests. You may still share these photos in our Post Your Photos forum.
  
• Post-processing that enhances your submission is allowed
• Image borders are allowed, but should be used in moderation
• Submissions do not have to be taken in the same month as the contest unless otherwise specified
  
• To avoid voting bias, please do not watermark your photos with your username (but rather with your real name or website if needed)
• Do not specifically list which photo(s) you voted for or comment on others when commenting on the voting thread
• Only the first post of your first submission thread will be checked for a photo. Thus, to change your submission prior to the closing of the contest, simply edit your post. Do not reply with additional submissions.
  
• If your photo doesn't contain EXIF information, please specify the camera and lens in your thread, using the appropriate fields
• Contest start/end dates subject to change based on staff availability
  
• If your photo wins, it will be showcased in our Premier Gallery along with all previous winners. We reserve the right to permanently leave a copy of your photo in that gallery.
  We also reserve the right to publish your photo on our homepage and via social media channels. Proper attribution is guaranteed. You may request that the published photo be altered to include a copyright notice.
  
• Regarding prize substitutions: we do not guarantee substitutions if you are unable to claim your prize. International shipping is offered.
• Prior to receiving your prize, we reserve to right to ask you for a brief blog post describing the technique you used to shoot and process your photo, as well as what equipment you used.
  

Note that we use an automated system to process voting threads. Therefore, if your photo does not meet any of the submission requirements, it WILL NOT BE INCLUDED, and you may or may not be notified of disqualification beforehand.

General Procedure for PentaxForums.com Monthly Photo Contests

Note that our contest procedure has been changed as of July, 2014.

Around the first day of each month, we:

• Announce a new contest theme in a sticky thread in the main contest forum
  • As soon as the theme is announced within the users may start submitting their contest photos
• Close the previous month's contest and make those submissions visible to the public in a special gallery
• Start accepting user nominations for finalist photos from the previous month
  • Comment on others' submissions via the gallery linked above to nominate them to become finalists
  • Include the text "not a nomination" to ask a question without nominating

Following the end of the 2nd week of each month, we:

• Announce 15 finalists from the previous month's contest based on highest number of nominations
• Create a public poll to determine the winners
  • Every forum member gets one vote

At the end of the 3rd week of each month, we:

• Close the voting thread
• Announce a winner of the previous month's contest and send out prizes
  

Proper Conduct

We ask that you do not comment on which photos you voted for within our voting threads.

When submitting photos, your submission thread must have the photo embedded (i.e. IMG and not URL tags), and it must conform to the size guidelines above. You may only submit one photo per contest: if you submit more than one, then only the FIRST photo within your thread will be included.

Additionally, once a new theme is posted, the previous month's contest is considered closed. No late submissions are accepted. As a failsafe, try to have your submission in before before last day of each month. We typically don't announce themes until midnight U.S. time on the last day, but this may vary.

You cannot vote in contest polls if you registered after the corresponding contest closed to submissions.

[Fdooch]

Hello! Indeed, there is no selection on the topic of the competition.
While most Christmas photographs may fit the theme of the season, others are simply confusing.
Apparently there is no way to view the work of candidates and select for compliance.
And this problem repeats itself over and over again.
Your resource is dedicated to photography, and I like to communicate, learn new things and share experiences. And I'm not against post-processing, but someone sends in collages and completely redraws the pictures. And this completely discredits the very idea of ​​love for photography.
Can you provide more rigorous definitions of the topics for the competition?

[Adam]

Hello! Indeed, there is no selection on the topic of the competition.
While most Christmas photographs may fit the theme of the season, others are simply confusing.
Apparently there is no way to view the work of candidates and select for compliance.
And this problem repeats itself over and over again.
Your resource is dedicated to photography, and I like to communicate, learn new things and share experiences. And I'm not against post-processing, but someone sends in collages and completely redraws the pictures. And this completely discredits the very idea of ​​love for photography.
Can you provide more rigorous definitions of the topics for the competition?

Are you referring to the current contest? There is no specific theme- just your best photo taken last year.

Contest #185 - January, 2022 (Best of 2021) - PentaxForums.com

[Fdooch]

Are you referring to the current contest? There is no specific theme- just your best photo taken last year.

Contest #185 - January, 2022 (Best of 2021) - PentaxForums.com

I was talking about the December competition - a seasonal one. Also about those that came before

[Adam]

I was talking about the December competition - a seasonal one. Also about those that came before

I'm still a bit confused on the request/suggestion- are you calling for more clearly defined bounds on what is or isn't allowed, clearer guidelines for what fits the theme, or something else?

Adam
PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide | Site Help | My Photography)



PentaxForums.com server and development costs are user-supported. You can help cover these costs by donating or purchasing one of our Pentax eBooks. Or, buy your photo gear from our affiliates, Adorama, B&H Photo, KEH, or Topaz Labs, and get FREE Marketplace access - click here to see how! Trusted Pentax retailers:

[Fdooch]

I'm still a bit confused on the request/suggestion- are you calling for more clearly defined bounds on what is or isn't allowed, clearer guidelines for what fits the theme, or something else?

Yes, Adam. The competition for which the nominees are currently being selected is seasonal (December). In my opinion, a third of the participants did not hit the topic. And the point is not that I myself participate there and thus want to get rid of competitors. I may or may not participate. I'm not the first to raise the issue of inconsistency with the topic. If the definition of the assignment becomes more rigid, we will all have to be more critical of our photographs. This will increase quality and interest.

[RocksandRocks]

I'm sure this was answered previously but I'm looking for clarity and I havent seen the answer in the last 5 pages or so. If I BB/link a photo from flickr, does it still have to be within the contest sizing requirements of 1400x1200?

[Adam]

I'm sure this was answered previously but I'm looking for clarity and I havent seen the answer in the last 5 pages or so. If I BB/link a photo from flickr, does it still have to be within the contest sizing requirements of 1400x1200?

Yes, the same requirements apply. The image will show up fine on the forum but it wouldn't be included in the nominations gallery.

Adam
PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide | Site Help | My Photography)



PentaxForums.com server and development costs are user-supported. You can help cover these costs by donating or purchasing one of our Pentax eBooks. Or, buy your photo gear from our affiliates, Adorama, B&H Photo, KEH, or Topaz Labs, and get FREE Marketplace access - click here to see how! Trusted Pentax retailers:

[RocksandRocks]

Yes, the same requirements apply. The image will show up fine on the forum but it wouldn't be included in the nominations gallery.

Awesome, thank you for the fast reply!

[Adam]

Yes, Adam. The competition for which the nominees are currently being selected is seasonal (December). In my opinion, a third of the participants did not hit the topic. And the point is not that I myself participate there and thus want to get rid of competitors. I may or may not participate. I'm not the first to raise the issue of inconsistency with the topic. If the definition of the assignment becomes more rigid, we will all have to be more critical of our photographs. This will increase quality and interest.

We previously did "winter" or "snow" themes in December, but the problem is that it doesn't snow everywhere during the holidays. So, this year the "seasonal" theme was quite open-ended and up to the participants' imagination. If you (or anyone issuing nominations) believe that the image doesn't match the theme, however, the best way to express that is to avoid nominating it.

In other months, the moderators will also disqualify entires that clearly don't match the theme, but we prefer to include borderline photos and leave it up to the users to decide.

[ehrwien]

Yes, the same requirements apply. The image will show up fine on the forum but it wouldn't be included in the nominations gallery.

I'm seeing a fine photo in the January contest that is embedded from outside, larger than the size stated above, which does show up fine both in the traditional thread view and the nominations gallery.

When submitting photos, your submission thread must have the photo embedded (i.e. IMG and not URL tags)

It seems to be fine to put a link over an embedded image, though, like the standard flickr BBCode option?

[Adam]

It seems to be fine to put a link over an embedded image, though, like the standard flickr BBCode option?

Yes, that will still work (the link is ignored in the gallery but visible in the post).

[CristiC]

Hi, can somebody please help me understand how to submit a high quality photo on PF that is not losing detail / sharpness when viewed on the forum?

I'm aware of the limitation of max 1.5MB and the recommended dimensions: 1200x800 for horizontals, 800x533 for verticals, maybe up to 1400x1200 pixels (WxH) and I was using the PF attachment system for upload. However, the post looks much different (muddy, catastrophic loss of detail) compared to the same file viewed on my local computer. I suppose it comes from additional JPG compression settings, I don't know. However, it ruins the pleasure up to the point that I won't upload anything anymore because it looks so different. I do have a flickr account and I prefer hosting on smugmug.com where images do not get butchered the way PF does.

I also use Silkypix 11 for raw development and here are the settings:





regarding optimal sharpness I feel the need for more education on "unsharp mask" settings. How much does this matter on PF?



Thank you.

[Adam]

Any attachment at or below 1400x900px, and at or below 1.0Mb, will not be modified from what you uploaded. But because the photo above was > 1.0Mb, it was compressed and thus lost quality.

A few options to preserve the quality:

• Slightly scale down the original upload so it's below 1.0Mb
• You'll find higher limits in the gallery- no resolution limit and up to 3.0Mb uploads.
• Embed your photo from flickr or smugmug

[Michael Piziak]

I didn't read all the rules (shame on me!), but is there a time frame that the photos for this contest for photos?

[Adam]

I didn't read all the rules (shame on me!), but is there a time frame that the photos for this contest for photos?

Not for this contest.