SPF Print Championship
The SPF Print Championship is a club and individual competition open to monochrome and colour prints, held in February each year. It is judged in front of an audience by three judges. Entries are submitted in advance by the club. Club and individual awards are made. The top two clubs are invited to represent the SPF at the PAGB Print Championship (click here) held in October.
All SPF Club Members can attend this event whether you, or your club, have entered the competition. The cost of admission to the event is £8. No pre-booking is required. Prints will be simultaneously judged and projected onto a big 8’ screen to improve your viewing. Come along to a great day and see over 1200 prints from all over Scotland.
NEW since 2016 - Three additional individual awards are being presented - Best Nature, Best Creative and Best Portrait will join the Campbell McNair Best Landscape, Commendeds, Highly Commendeds, Judge's Choices, Best Mono, Best Colour and Best Overall.
Please see Nature Definition in the Definitions area of this website (click here) for what is eligible for the Nature Award. The Monochrome definition can also be found there. The Best Creative, Landscape and Portrait do not have definitions and will be defined by the Judges on the day.
2025 Event
Your Club members are invited to submit an entry into this year’s SPF Print Championship which will be Judged at Victoria Hall,Dunblane on Sunday 16th February 2025. Please see full rules available below together with the General Info PDF supplied.
The Admission desk will open at 9.15am with access to Tea/Coffee area and doors to the main hall will open at 9.45am for a 10am start and announce Results and Trophies at 4pm. The ticket price will be £8.00 which will include Tea/Coffee throughout the day.
- Online Entry via our website – *Online Entry opens early Jan 2025* - Online Entry Closes 2th Feb 2025 at midnight
- Final Closing date for prints to Carluke, or central belt drop-off points in time for final date to Carluke is by 4th Feb 2025, or by 25th Jan 2025 to non central belt drop-off points.
- The 2025 Print Championship will be the same as 2024
- Mounted Prints only (max 500mmx400mm)
- Digital copies are not required for this event
- Maximum 3 Mono Prints and 3 Colour Prints per author
- max 80 prints per club
- top 10 Mono and 10 Colour prints to count for the Overall top Club, with max 5 Nature prints allowed in the top 20 counting.
- All entries must comply with the Conditions of Entry Statement and competition Rules. Please remember that this now includes compliance with our ‘Advice on What is Allowed when entering SPF Competitions’ (including new AI guidance) from the following SPF webpage (click here)
- Eligibility for Best Colour Club (10 prints) & Best Mono Club (10 prints)
- The cost will be 70p per print.
- Only one person must collate and submit all entries from a club.
Please ensure that all instructions are followed for this event as outlined in the below rules, and as outlined on the 'Online Entry System'.
A printed copy of the online entry form, that will be available after you have submitted your entry, must be included with your prints.
For All Entries - We ask that the Club organiser, collating their Club’s entries, supplies a note of their name, postal address, email address and phone number, by email in case of any queries during processing.
Re Courier/Postal Deliveries - We cannot guarantee to collect non-delivered prints from all carriers, so please ensure we know when your prints are being delivered, before dispatching. *Full Drop-Off Point details will be available shortly*
Club access to the Online Area is by following the link provided by email to the Club Competition Secretary or Secretary which will be sent out by the website as soon as the event is open for entries. Contact Libby if you do not receive this. Please Note - We need to be kept up to date on any changes to these Committee Posts for your Club to gain access when required.
You can also Log in at Admin Login area at the foot of this page if you have previously set a password and are listed as the Competition Secretary for this event.
Full Rules and Collation Forms for the 2025 SPF Print Championships are now available below.
Please Note the Data Protection requirement rule introduced in 2019 - To read the full SPF Data Protection Policy (click here)
Full details and full Online Entry Guidance Notes (with screen grabs) are available below for download. Information is also available in the How to Enter section to get you started.
Please see Nature Definition in the Definitions area of this website (click here) for what is eligible for the Nature Award**. The Monochrome definition can also be found there. The Best Creative, Landscape and Portrait do not have definitions and will be defined by the Judges on the day.
**If Nature is not selected when you enter your author's titles, they will then not be eligible for the nature award.
Downloads
2024 Results
The 2024 Print Championship Judging took place on Sunday 18th February 2024 at Victoria Hall, Dunblane in front of a good sized audience.
The Judges for the event were Leigh Preston MPAGB EFIAP FIPF APAGB from Gloucester (MCPF), Gary Langley DPAGB from Nottingham (N&EMPF) and Nick Hilton EFIAP DPAGB BPE5 from South Ribble (L&CPU).
Some 1325 prints had been entered from 33 Clubs, just 50 prints less than in 2020, which is excellent news given that many Clubs had seen a reduction in prints due to the pandemic. It was heartening also to see several Clubs new to the event participating.
While the prints were being Judged they were photographed and simultaneously projected onto a big 8’ screen to improve the audience viewing.
Once again the scoring was the normal range of each Judge scoring a Max of 5; Min 2 to achieve a Maximum of 15; minimum of 6. These scores were then used to calculate the Club Results. The Individual Awards selected by our three Judges came from the prints scoring 14 or 15 from the Mono and Colour sections. All Individual and Club Results were announced at the Judging adn details are available to download below.
A gallery of all of the Individual Awards for this year is shown in the following gallery on this website (click here).
Except for those of you who have made a specific arrangements with Libby, all Prints have been dispatched to the nearest drop-off points to you if they were not collected on the day. All Individual Scores will be dispatched from the website to the Club Competition Secretary very soon.
Once again the event main sponsor was Paper Spectrum, who had a stand at the event. You can find out more about Paper Spectrum's products by visiting their website. Paper Spectrum - Photographic Fine Art and Graphic Papers Our thanks to Beth Perkins for attending and their support.
We are grateful to the SPF members who donated to our Raffle and to our additional raffle sponsors who supported this event. Please visit their websites for more about their products -
Permajet - Paper and Ink Manufacturer and Supplier
Delivery or Posting of Prints
Drop-off at Carluke will be by delivery left in porch, following email request notification re availability. Please ensure you do so at least 48 hours in advance to ensure someone is at home. If delivering/posting to Carluke please email Libby and Neil to arrange a delivery timescale in advance of making any arrangements to avoid any non-delivery issues. Re Courier/Postal Deliveries - i.e. We cannot guarantee to collect non-delivered prints from all carriers, so please ensure we know when your prints are being delivered, before dispatching.
All prints for the competition have to be submitted by the given deadline. Entries can be posted/couriered or handed in to Libby at Carluke (by prior arrangement) or by prior arrangement with the various drop-off points.
*Drop-Off or Posting to Carluke - Prints must arrive by Tues 4th Feb 2025* - Please contact us before arranging a courier.
All central belt Drop-Off Points must receive prints in time for delivery to Carluke on Tues 4th Feb.
Non-central belt drop-off points must receive prints before 25th January for hand-over on 26th at our EC meeting.
*Full details of 2025 drop-off points coming soon in the above downloads area* - Delivery of prints to drop-off points must be by arrangement.
How to Enter
Club secretaries are asked to collate and deliver all their members’ prints together. We ask for the club person collating the entries to supply their contact details, and address in case of any queries during processing, or return of prints. We do not need any information about the author other than their name.
The fee for 2025 event is 70p per print which is the amount calculated by the website online entry system. Club secretaries are asked to collect all monies from their members and include it, with the prints, as one cheque made payable to the ‘Scottish Photographic Federation’.
For the 2025 competition, the total number of entries is again restricted to 1200 - 1400 prints. Maximum 80 prints per club, but if we go over 1200 we reserve the right to remove prints as per stated rules. Please read the rules carefully for details. There is again no Beginner Section in this competition.
We have supplied a copy of our old entry form (Author Collation Form) for your own use when collecting the prints – copy and hand to your authors, and ask them to return. The person collating the Club entry can then use this information to enter the details online on our website. A copy of this Collation Form can also be be downloaded from this page.
For 2025, we have again online entry of titles through our website. Only one person must collate and submit all entries from a club. Clubs can register for access to the Online Area by following the link provided by email to your Club Competition Secretary's, or Secretary's, email address. Contact Libby if you do not receive this.
This requires to be entered per author, per section, per title, as per the Collation Form. Two Sections - Monochrome and Colour; Max 3 prints per Section; Indicate if Nature to be eligible for the ‘Nature award’. Full Guidance Notes for our online entry are available to download below.
Any problems or queries regarding online entry please feel free to contact Libby Smith preferably before starting to enter.
Please Note – Once your entry has been completed, and you are sure all the details are correct, you require to Submit your entry. If you notice an error after you have submitted your entry contact Libby as soon as possible – she may be able to correct it for you before your entry is fully processed by the website.
After you have 'submitted' your entry you will see a Print button available to you so you are able to print out your Entry Forms. You can log out and back in while this event is open and print further copies if you wish.
Who can Enter
The competition is open to all members of SPF Clubs, but all of the entries from one Club must be collected, collated and submitted by one person from the Club, usually the competition secretary. The total entries from the Club must not exceed 80 prints.
There is however no minimum number of authors required from a club so if only two of you are interested in entering then that is fine – just arrange for one of you to act as the contact, and upload and organise delivery of both entries. Contact Libby if you require access to the online area.
2023 Event
We had planned to hold our SPF Print Championship Judging in March at Stirling Court Hotel, alas due to a change in let and pricing structure this provide impossible. We looked for alternative venues to hold an audience event but were unsuccessful within the required timescale. We were therefore forced to source a venue for a non-audience Judging of the event.
The closed Judging event with our three Judges was held on the 30th April 2023 at New Lanark Hotel and Conference Centre. Our three Judges were - James Hardy (L&CPU), David Gibbins (N&EMPF) and Ray Brammall (YPU).
We were to receive just over 1100 prints from 28 Clubs which is a fantastic entry given Clubs are still getting up and running with prints.
Once again the scoring was the normal range of each Judge scoring a Max of 5; Min 2 to achieve a Maximum of 15; minimum of 6. These scores were then used to calculate the Club Results.
The Shortlist of Prints for the Individual Awards selection by the Judges came from the prints scoring 14 or 15 from the Mono and Colour sections. A total of 90 prints scored 14 or 15 and were considered by all three Judges for the Individual Awards (a list of those high scorers is given below).
All Individual and Club Results were announced on Sunday 14th May at a zoom presentation event to which 62 SPF Club members attended. Please see results available for download above. A gallery of all of the Individual Awards for this year is shown in the following gallery fo this website (click here).
Also, there is an additional Individual Award being presented this year by the event sponsors Paper Spectrum (click here) who hoped to be with you with a stand, if we had been able to find a suitable venue. So, congratulations to the lucky author who as won a box of A3 Pinnacle Premium Silk Baryta 310 and some 500x400 Black Mount Board.
The Paper Spectrum Sponsor's Award winner is Lone Tree at the Quirang by Manoj Mohan of Eastwood Photographic Society .
In addition to the above Paper Spectrum have also given us a discount code for our members which was launched at the zoom event on the 14th May and can be redeemed from Monday 15th May to Friday 19th May inc.
Except for those of you who have made a specific arrangement with Libby, all Prints have been dispatched to the nearest drop-off points to you and are now ready for collection by arrangement. You will also find a Pinnacle catalogue enclosed with your prints.
2022 'Interim' Print Championship Results
As we were still unable to plan to hold our SPF Print Championship Judging in February at SCH due to Covid restrictions, we were once again forced to use an alternative format for the Judging of this year’s event. We opted again for Unmounted prints at a maximum A3 size, to make it as cheap as possible to post given that many Clubs were not yet meeting or were forced to close unexpectedly in the early part of the year. Given that many Clubs hadn’t been able to run their own print competitions we continued the reduced number of prints required to achieve the various Club placings and dropped the nature restriction.
After a couple of extensions to the closing date for receipt of prints due to the slower than anticipated opening up after the winter lockdown; A total of 26 Clubs entered, the same number as in 2021, with a total of 863 prints of which 368 were Mono and 495 Colour, which was slightly up on the previous year. It’s great to see a good number of those Clubs represented in the final Awards, so we hope this will encourage them to enter again in the future.
We were determined this year to hold the Judging with the three Judges all in the same room, but without an audience. That proved a little trickier than we had imagined with one or two localised out breaks of covid just at the time we had planned to initially Judge. Anyway, we finally managed to avoid other commitments and holiday periods to get all three of our Judges together in Holywood Village Hall near Dumfries on 4th August. Our three Judges, who were all extremely efficient and helpful in their Judging of this event and all very experienced were John Williams MPSA EFIAP/b DPAGB (NCPF), Gordon Jenkins HonPAGB (L&CPU) and David Symonds FRPS EFIAP (SPF).
This scoring returned to the normal scoring range with each Judge scoring a Max of 5; Min 2 to achieve the scoring range of Maximum of 15; minimum of 6. Clubs could enter up to a maximum of 50 prints but only 16 prints were required for the various Club Awards. Top 8 Mono print scores counted towards the Best Mono Club ; The top 8 Colour print scores counted towards the Best Colour Club. For the Best Overall Club (John Logan Trophy) you required 15 prints, with a minimum of 5 being Mono.
The Individual Awards and Club Results were announced on a Zoom Presentation event held on Sunday 14th August. A total of 69 prints scored 14 or 15 and were considered by all three Judges for the Individual Awards. These, and the subsequent Award Winners are available to view from the following gallery (click here) or you can download the full Individual Results from the downloads area below.
The top three Clubs in the Best Colour Club results were as follows - Bon Accord 3rd and Edinburgh and Dumfries 1st=
The top three Clubs in the Best Mono Club results were as follows - Bon Accord 3rd, 2nd Dumfries, and 1st Carluke.
The top three Clubs in the Best Colour Club results were as follows – Edinburgh 3rd, Carluke 2nd, Dumfries 1st.
The Best Overall Club winning the John Logan Trophy. The top two Clubs will represent the SPF at the PAGB Print Championship being held at Blackburn later this year.
You can download the full Club Results from the downloads area below, and view a selection of all the top placed Clubs in the following gallery (click here)
2021 'Interim' Print Championship Results
As we were unable to hold our SPF Print Championship Judging in February at Stirling due to Covid restrictions, we were forced to consider an alternative format for this year’s event. As well as accommodating ‘remote’ judging, the new format had to allow all prints to be as easily transferred between Club and the SPF as possible, and then irrespective of the total of prints received still be manageable for the SPF to be able to send to our Judges for Judging, and then be returned to us.
We opted for Unmounted prints at a maximum A3 size, but we had no idea how many Clubs would be able to come up with prints, so we reduced the number of prints required to achieve the various Club placings. After a couple of extensions to the closing date for receipt of prints due to the slower than anticipated opening up after the winter lockdown; A total of 26 Clubs entered a total of 804 prints of which 338 were Mono and 466 Colour, which was a great response considering the situation we all found ourselves in.
Once the prints were received they were labelled and a third of each were sent independently to each Judge to score (Maximum of 15; minimum of 9). The three Judges were Ralph Duckett MPAGB, EFIAP/p, APAGB from Burton upon Trent PS in the MCPF, who attended the presentation event, David Gibbins ARPS, APAGB, EFIAP/b, BPE5 from Beeston CC in the N&EMPF and David Lowe DPAGB, ARPS, AFIAP from Smethwick PS in the MCPF
These scores were then used to calculate the Club Results and give the Shortlist of Prints for the Individual Awards selection by the Judges which was held on Zoom after all prints had been returned, scores collated and prints scanned.
Clubs could enter up to a maximum of 50 prints but only 16 prints were required for the various Club Awards. Top 8 Mono print scores counted towards the Best Mono Club ; The top 8 Colour print scores counted towards the Best Colour Club. For the Best Overall Club (John Logan Trophy) you required 15 prints, with a minimum of 5 being Mono.
The Individual Awards and Club Results were announced on a Zoom Presentation event held on Sunday 25th July. The Top scoring shortlisted prints together with all of the Individual Award winners are available to view from the galleries area of this website (click here)
The full list of Individual Awards and all of the Club Results can be downloaded from the downloads area below.
A gallery of the entries used by the Best Overall, Runner-Up and 3rd placed Clubs in the Club results is available to view (click here).
2020 Results
The SPF Print Championship was Judged on Sunday 16th February 2020 at Stirling Court Hotel (Formerly Stirling Management Centre) , Stirling University, Stirling FK9 4LA.
Despite some terrible weather the day before there was a good attendance for the event.
This year's Judges were - Christine Widdall MPAGB, EFIAP, FBPE, APAGB from Oldham Photographic Society in the L&CPU, Tony Potter APSA, GMPSA, EFIAP/p, ARPS from West Cumbria Photo Group, in the NCPF and Pax Garabedian DPAGB, EFIAP, PPSA from Carlisle Camera Club in the NCPF. All three Judges also battled through some atrocious weather to get to the event.
Some 1372 prints had been entered from 30 Clubs, just one print less than in 2019, and one Club less. It was heartening to see three Clubs new to the event participating.
While the prints were being Judged they were photographed and simultaneously projected onto a big 8’ screen to improve the audience viewing. The event turned out to be one of the closest in many years with many tied positions.
Once again the event main sponsor was Paper Spectrum, who had a stand at the event. You can find out more about Paper Spectrum's products by visiting their website. Paper Spectrum - Photographic Fine Art and Graphic Papers
We are grateful to the our additional raffle sponsors who supported this event. Please visit their websites for more about their products -
Nomad Cases - Boxes for Photographic Prints
Permajet - Paper and Ink Manufacturer and Supplier
Fotospeed - Paper and Ink Manufacturer and Supplier
Burning Pine - Business Communications Experts
Ffordes of Beauly - Second Hand and New Equipment Specialists
Full PDF copies of the 2020 final placings are available to download below. Full Individual scores are being emailed out to all Club Competition Secretaries who completed their Print Championship entry. The Club Competition Secretary can also login and get a copy from this website.
The top Club results were as follows -
Best Overall Club – (John Logan Trophy) - Carluke Camera Club
Best Colour Club – (SPF Gold Medal) - Bon Accord Camera Club, Carluke Camera Club and Edinburgh Photographic Society
Best Monochrome Club - (SPF Gold Medal) - Dumfries Camera Club
Carluke CC have already pre-qualified for the 2020 PAGB Print Championship, so 2nd= placed Dumfries Camera Club and Edinburgh Photographic Society are both invited to represent the SPF at the 2020 PAGB Print Championship.
As well as the Club Placings and Awards, there were loads of Individual Awards to be presented, a PDF containing full details can be downloaded below.
Some of the Award Winning Prints can be viewed on this page. To see all of the 2020 Individual Award Winning Prints visit the Gallery for 2020 (Click Here)
2019 Results
The SPF Print Championship judging was held on Sunday 17th February 2019 at Stirling Court Hotel. The Judges were Colin Westgate FRPS MPAGB MFIAP APAGB and Chrissie Westgate FRPS both from East Anglia Federation, and Gerald Chamberlin EFIAP DPAGB from Northern Counties PF.
Prints were simultaneously judged and projected onto a big 8’ screen to improve the audience viewing of the 1373 prints from 31 Clubs, entered from all over Scotland (140 prints more than in 2018).
Once again the event main sponsor was Paper Spectrum, who had a stand at the event.
As well as the Club Placings and Awards, there were loads of Individual Awards to be presented - Best Nature, Best Creative and Best Portrait, the Campbell McNair Best Landscape, three Judge's Choices, Best Mono Print, Best Colour Print and Best Overall (Esme Smythe Trophy) and a number of Commendeds, Highly Commendeds. Full details are available to download below.
Best Overall Club – (John Logan Trophy) - Carluke Camera Club
Best Monochrome Club - (SPF Gold Medal) - Carluke Camera Club
Best Colour Club – (SPF Gold Medal) - Dumfries Camera Club and Carluke Camera Club
Some of the Award Winning Prints can be viewed on this page. To see all of the 2019 Individual Award Winning Prints visit the Gallery for 2019 (Click Here)
2018 Results
The SPF Print Championship judging was held on Sunday 18th February 2018 at Stirling Court Hotel.
Prints were simultaneously judged and projected onto a big 8’ screen to improve the audience viewing of the 1233 prints entered from all over Scotland.
The Judges were - Des Clinton FRPS, EFIAP, FIPF, MFIAP from Drogheda, Irish PF; John Williams MPSA, EFIAP/b, DPAGB from Penrith, NCPF and Robert Millin MFIAP, EFIAP/p, MPSA, DPAGB from Wigan, L&CPU
Once again the event main sponsor was Paper Spectrum, who had a stand at the event.
As well as the Club Placings and Awards, there were loads of Individual Awards to be presented - Best Nature, Best Creative and Best Portrait, the Campbell McNair Best Landscape, three Judge's Choices, Best Mono Print, Best Colour Print and Best Overall (Esme Smythe Trophy) and a number of Commendeds, Highly Commendeds. Full details are available to download below.
Best Overall Club – (John Logan Trophy) - Dumfries Camera Club
Best Monochrome Club - (SPF Gold Medal) - Dumfries Camera Club
Best Colour Club – (SPF Gold Medal) - Eastwood Photographic Society
Some of the Award Winning Prints can be viewed on this page. To see all of the 2018 Individual Award Winning Prints visit the Gallery for 2018 (click here)
2018 Winning Prints
More Winning 2018 Prints
Winning Prints 2017
2017 Results
Full PDF copies of the 2017 final placings are available to download below. Full Individual scores have now all been emailed out to your Club's organiser for this event. The Club organiser can also login and get a copy from this website. All of the Individual Award winning prints can be viewed in our galleries area (click here).
Best Overall Club – (John Logan Trophy) - Carluke Camera Club
Best Monochrome Club - (SPF Gold Medal) - Carluke Camera Club
Best Colour Club – (SPF Gold Medal) - Dumfries Camera Club and Edinburgh Photographic Society
2nd placed Dumfries CC and 3rd placed Eastwood PS have already pre-qualified for the 2017 PAGB Print Championship, so 1st placed Carluke CC and 4th placed Dundee PS are invited to represent the SPF at the 2017 PAGB Print Championship.
It was great to see such a good turn out at the SPF Print Championship judging held on Sunday 19th February 2017 at Stirling Court Hotel, Stirling University.
The three Judges, who changed in the months leading up to the event due to two late cancellations for health reasons. We are grateful for our two replacement Judges for stepping in to the job very last minute.
The Judges were Joan Blease MPAGB EFIAP ARPS from Warrington PS, L&CPU; Richard Speirs DPAGB APAGB from Morton PS, NCPF and Dave Symonds FRPS EFIAP Newton Stewart, SPF
Full scores were sent out to all Club Competition Secretaries who completed their Print Championship entry. The final Club placings are available to download below, along with the Individual Awards.
More Winning Prints 2017
2016 Event
The SPF Print Championship was held on 21st February 2016 at Stirling Court Hotel, Stirling University, Stirling FK9 4LA.
The three Judges for 2016 were
Roger Parry MPAGB ARPS EFIAP HonPAGB from Smethwick, Midland Counties PF
Judith Parry DPAGB AFIAP HonPAGB from Smethwick, Midland Counties PF
Ross McKelvey MPAGB FIPF EFIAP/b BPE5 from Catchlight, Northern Ireland PF
2016 Results
Full PDF copies of these results are available to download below. Full Individual scores have been emailed out to your Club's organiser for this event. The Club organiser can also login and get a copy from this website. All of the Individual Award winning prints can be viewed in our galleries area (click here).
Best Overall Club – (John Logan Trophy) - Dumfries Camera Club
Best Monochrome Club - (SPF Gold Medal) - Dumfries Camera Club
Best Colour Club – (SPF Gold Medal) - Dumfries Camera Club
Dumfries CC and 2nd placed Carluke CC have already pre-qualified for the 2016 PAGB Print Championship, so 3rd placed Eastwood PS and 4th placed Edinburgh PS are invited to represent the SPF at the 2016 PAGB Print Championship.
2015 Winning Prints
2015 Results
More Winning Prints 2015
