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.

[vievetrick]

Okay I am a little slow what do you mean buy this
-You'll attach your submission in the submission forum at https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/21-contest-submissions/ (other members will not be able to view your thread)

[carpents]

Well, the eagerly-requested contest section is now here!

We will have photo contests every two weeks- the basic structure will be as follows:

-I post a theme (yes, suggestions will be taken)

Are the shots time-driven as well? (I.e. they must be taken within the two weeks?)

-You'll attach your submission in the submission forum at https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=21 (other members will not be able to view your thread)

Are you going to be able to vote for as many/few pictures as you want? Is the voting a 1st-2nd-3rd or is it one vote for one picture sort of thing? Are the votes public or anonymous?
I also think we might want to set up disclaimers for ownership of the photos themselves. I vote to make the ownership/copyright stay with the photographer at all times.

Also, how about keeping the entries anonymous? Like the monthly Pentax Challenge on dpreview - no posting your entry beforehand because it could sway the voters.

[Adam]

vievetrick, this is so that members can't see what's been submitted until the voting begins. (I believe that also answers your last question, carpents)

carpents, you'll be able to vote for 1, possibly 2 pics. The voting will be anonymous (only I will be able to see who voted to prevent possible cheating).

Obviously, ownership remains with the original photographer

I hope that clarifies things up a bit...

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



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[carpents]

About the anonymous thing, my question was more in regard to making sure people don't post on their pbase site, or at dpreview, or somewhere that other people can identify the picture as theirs. This doesn't have to be mandatory, but maybe recommended?

Also, how many entries can each person have?

[Adam]

One entry per person per contest will be the limit.

And yeah, I also recommend that the photo you submit not be published or posted anywhere else on the web

[photo_mom]

Hi Mo!

This looks to be a neat way of running the challenge. It also looks to be an administrative nightmare to you! With keeping up this forum and the challenge, you've taken on a fulltime job it seems!!

OT: I REALLY like how you can see the previous thread entries while editing your own post. That is one thing that drives me crazy about DPR. I either have to have two tabs open so I can see the previous posts to remind myself about what's been said and what I'm mentioning or constantly use the back button.

One of the questions Sean (carpents) asked was about whether there was a time constraint. Does the photo have to be taken within the 2 weeks that posting is allowed?

My question is: The title of the challenge is 'bi-monthly.' After 2 weeks of posting and during the week of voting will a new theme be posted?

[Adam]

No, the photo can be taken at any time, not within the 2 weeks.

And yes, a new theme will be posted every 2 weeks

Heh, it does look like an administrative nightmare, but I've found a few moderators who can help me with thread managment

[Tom Lusk]

Bi-monthly is every two months...

I assume this contest is bi-weekly or semi-monthly?

Sorry- as an editor, I couldn't resist!

[Adam]

I guess I meant bi-weekly. I'll fix that

[foxglove]

Let's see if I understand any of this.

If I reply to the submission thread, attaching an entry (however that's done - I'll work on that!), it will only be visible to you (Mo) and me.

The contest runs for two weeks... so are the dates for the "September" contest 9 through 23 Sept? If the contests are bi-weekly, there isn't really a September, October or any month-related contest. I suppose that's just semantics, but I'm confused by it...

Being the end of summer, I've posted most of my best insect macros already on my PBase account. Are you planning to stick to the "not posted anywhere identifiable" rule or can I just ask everyone not to look at my pbase gallery? Not that anyone would in the first place...

Thanks for sorting out my various confusions!

Julie

[Adam]

Let's start with your first question and work our way down

- Don't reply to the submission thread. Rather, post your photo in a new thread here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=21 . To attach photos, scroll down to "thread options" when posting a new thread, and click on the "manage attachments" button. Then, select the file from your PC (or enter the .jpg's URL from pbase) and click "upload."

-Yeah, each contest will run for 2 weeks. This first one, however, will run through all of September. Future topic threads will be entitled October Contest #1, October Contest #2, November Contest #1, November Contest #2, and so on.

-That's just a recommendation, not a scrict rule You'll be allowed to post those pics.

I hope these answers help!

[little laker]

For a very affordable prize I'd be willing to donate 1 or 2 of my best photo's (If other members are as well) to use in a poster, or something like that.

[foxglove]

...
I hope these answers help!

I hope so, too! I'm a learn by doing kind of person, it should become clear once I try it. Thanks for the detailed instructions!
Julie

[HogRider]

Couple of questions:

Are those pictures posted anonymously? When they are up for voting will people know who posted it? If so, it would probably advised to not a have a signature or the Copyright thing on it.

Is there a size limitation (pixels and KB?)

Oh and BTW, just as with others a lot of the pictures I like have been posted either on my page or some forum somewhere at one time.

Thanks