SPF Digital Championship

Our 2024 SPF Digital Championship went ahead on Sunday 17th November 2024 at the Victoria Hall, Dunblane to which we had an excellent attendance from Club members from all over Scotland, together with an excellent support of our raffle. The day went well although a little cold. 34 Clubs competed on the day, 24 in the Plate and 10 in the Bowie.

Our Judges for these Championship Competitions were - Jeremy Malley-Smith DPAGB EFIAP LRPS BPE3* from Keswick (NCPF), Robert Millin DPAGB MFIAP EFIAP/d3 FBPE MPSA from Wigan 10 (LCPU), and Steve Proctor EPAGB BPE5* PPSA from Chorley (LCPU).

The event format was amended slightly to make a shorter more interesting day following last year's feedback, which seems to have been favourably received. The addition of tick-sheets for teh Final Round selects helped both processors, title reasders and Clubs alike.

The final results were to show new winners in both competitions from 2023, who were all delighted with their wins.

Details of all of the Club and Individual Awards are available for download below, including all of the Scores for Round 1 and the Final for both the Plate Trophy and Bowie Trophy.

Some of the Award Winning Images are shown here. Galleries of all of the Individual Awards can be viewed (click here) or view the Plate Overall Joint Winning Clubs' entries (click here) and the Bowie Overall Winning Club's entries (click here)

Our thanks to everyone who support our raffle, whether by donation of prizes or by purchaing tickets, it does help us run these events.

A special thanks to Paper Spectrum for supporting this event through raffle prizes. In return, please support them - visit their website (click here)

Clubs compete for the ‘Ian Bowie Trophy’ as Best Bowie Championship Club, together with an invitation to represent the SPF at the PAGB Digital Championship for the winning Club and Runner-Up as the PAGB pre-qualifier event. The following will also be awarded – Winner, SPF Gold Medal; Runner-Up, SPF Silver Medal; 3rd Place SPF Bronze Medal.

• Clubs require to upload a Bank of Images (40 images max. NB – Only 22 are required to compete, but the extra images allow more choice for your final round selection) to the SPF website.
• NEW - When completing your Club’s entry online all images that look like Nature must be declared as ‘looks like nature’, whether or not they comply with the SPF Nature Definition. NB – Only obviously creative images are excluded from this.
• Additionally, Nature images that comply with the strict SPF Nature Definition* should also be marked as Nature when uploading your Bank of Images. These images will then be eligible for the Best Nature Award. NB - You must supply the author with a copy of our ‘SPF Nature Definition’ and have them confirm if this applies to their image or not, before marking as Nature. * See strict SPF Nature Definition in the downloads area.
• Clubs then require to pre-select 10 images for Round 1 from their Bank of Images in advance from those uploaded to the website.
• Clubs may not enter more than 4 images in each Round, that is declared as ‘looks like nature’.
• No author may have any more than 3 images selected in each Round. (i.e. max 3 in Round 1 and 3 in Final)
• Titles should not exceed 25 characters, and should not include any punctuation, only letters or numbers

On the day these 10 Round 1 images are Judged, and the total of their top 8 scores carried forward to count in the overall placing. Clubs also use those results to gauge what the Judges were ‘going for’ on the day before making their final selections.

• On the day Clubs then require to select 12 NEW images to represent them in the Bowie Competition Final from their remaining Bank of Images (No Round 1 Images can be reused)
• At the end of the Final Judging, all scores from the Final Round, and the Total from Round 1 (top 8 scores) will be added together to give the Club’s Overall Placing.
• All high scoring Images entered into either Round 1, or the Final will be considered for the Overall Individual Awards.

The total score received from the 20 images (Round 1 top 8 scores and Final 12 images) will give the final Bowie Competition Club Placings, winners of the Ian Bowie Trophy and the Invitations to represent the SPF at PAGB Warwick.

Clubs compete for the ‘Kirkintilloch Plate Trophy’ as Best Plate Championship Club. The following will also be awarded – Winner SPF Gold Medal, Runner-Up SPF Silver Medal, 3rd Placed SPF Bronze Medal.

• Clubs require to upload a Bank of Images (22 images max. NB – Only 17 are required to compete, but the extra images allow more choice for your final round selection) to the SPF website.
• NEW - When completing your Club’s entry online all images that look like Nature must be declared as ‘looks like nature’, whether or not they comply with the SPF Nature Definition. NB – Only obviously creative images are excluded from this.
• Additionally, Nature images that comply with the strict SPF Nature Definition* should also be marked as Nature when uploading your Bank of Images. These images will then be eligible for the Best Nature Award. NB - You must supply the author with a copy of our ‘SPF Nature Definition’ and have them confirm if this applies to their image or not, before marking as Nature. * See strict SPF Nature Definition in the downloads area.
• Clubs then require to pre-select 9 images for Round 1 from their Bank of Images in advance from those uploaded to the website.
• Clubs may not enter more than 3 images in each Round, that is declared as ‘looks like nature’.
• No author may have any more than 3 images selected in each Round. (i.e. max 3 in Round 1 and 3 in Final)
• Titles should not exceed 25 characters, and should not include any punctuation, only letters or numbers

On the day the 9 Round 1 images are Judged, and the total of their top 7 scores carried forward to count towards the overall placing. Clubs also use those results to gauge what the Judges were ‘going for’ on the day before making their final selections.

• On the day Clubs then require to select 8 NEW images to represent them in the Plate Competition Final from their remaining Bank of Images (No Round 1 Images can be reused)
• At the end of the Final Judging, the scores from the Final Round, and the Total from Round 1 (top 7 scores) will be added together to give the Club’s Overall Placing.
• All high scoring Images entered into either Round 1, or the Final will be considered for the Individual Award

The total score received from the 15 images (Round 1 top 7 scores and Final 8 images) will give the final Plate Competition Club Placings, and winners of the The Plate Trophy.

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY STATEMENTS – including new AI rule and guidance.

‘To be eligible to enter SPF competitions individuals must be resident in Scotland* or via application to the SPF’ *An exception is made for members of Clubs close to the Scotland/England border who stay in the north of England provided they indicate they do not wish to enter through NCPF. See Competition Guidance webpage for more details if required (click here).

‘Images entered must be entirely the work of the photographer. Composite Images are permitted provided all component images meet this requirement. For the avoidance of doubt, use of images from any source including, but not limited to, royalty free image banks, textures and clipart are not permitted’.

‘The use of AI software is allowed provided all images used have been taken by you, and only your own photographs are used in the processing. No modifications are allowed based on AI generated text input or generated using images or elements not taken by the photographer.’

All images entered must comply within the ethos laid out in our “What is and Isn’t Allowed...” document. – See full document, ‘Advice on What is Allowed when entering SPF Competitions’ (including new AI guidance) available from the downloads area above.

‘RAW files or jpegs (incl. neighbouring jpegs) may be requested if there is any doubt of the eligibility of the entry.’

‘By entering, the Photographer consents to the retention by the SPF of information identifying the Photographer as the creator of an Image. Where a Federation, or Club is the Entrant, on behalf of multiple Photographers, then the Entrant warrants that each Photographer has consented to the retention of identifying information as if the Photographer had entered in person. Any photographs submitted may be selected to represent the SPF. By virtue of submitting an entry the entrant certifies the work as his own and permits the SPF to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and /or display in media related to its Competitions, including on its website or by circulation to its member Clubs. The Photographer of each image will normally be credited with any use. The SPF assumes no liability for any misuse of copyright.’

The competition is open to all SPF Clubs, the entry to be collated and submitted by one person from the Club, usually the competition secretary. 

Please Note the changes to Club Member eligibility from Sept 2022 onward as previously noted to Clubs by email re Scottish Residency and the requirement for members to only submit via one Club to SPF competitions. See the document 'SPF Club Members and Eligibility to enter SPF or PAGB Competitions' available on the above downloads area or go to the following webpage for a copy and added details (click here)

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.

Club secretaries are asked to collate their club entry. We ask for the club person collating the entries to supply their contact details, and address in case of any queries during processing. We do not need any information about the author other than their name.

Online Entry Guidance Notes (illustrated) for this competition, will become available in the 2024 Event Downloads area above once the website changes are complete. - Please have a look before completing your entry as some stages can't be corrected if an error is made.

The entry fee for 2024 is £20. Please make cheques payable to the ‘Scottish Photographic Federation’ and send with a printed copy of your completed form that will be available after processing, to arrive with the Joe Prior by the deadline given in the Rules.

Entry will be via online entry upload of images through our website.

You require to decide which of the Competition you wish to compete in 'The Plate Competition' or 'The Bowie Competition'. You cannot compete in both. 

You will require to enter via the online option for the Competition your Club has chosen to enter. Please see full rules for quantities and restrictions for each competition.

You will only have to size your image; there will be no need to filename in a particular way, other than titles must be not more than 25 characters long. You will simply be entering an image title and author name for each image up to the maximum allowed for the competition you are entering.

NEW - When completing your Club’s entry online all images that look like Nature must be declared as ‘looks like nature’, whether or not they comply with the SPF Nature Definition. NB – Only obviously creative images are excluded from this.

Only Nature images eligible for the Best Nature Award that fully comply with the SPF Nature Definition must be indicated in the column provided.

NB - You must supply the authors with a copy of our ‘SPF Nature Definition’ and have them confirm if this applies to their image or not, before marking as Nature. * See strict SPF Nature Definition in the downloads area.

Please see the full rules for the number of nature images allowed in the first round and the final - remember this should be counted as all images that look like nature, (i.e.those not obviously creative - See PAGB Nature Definition for more guidance) not solely those that comply with our SPF Nature definition for the Best Nature Award.

Full Rules available from the downloads area above. We have supplied a copy of our manual bank of images form for each competition (above) for your own use when collating the PDIs. 

Please Note the Online entry process  - You can upload your images by author, in any order you wish. You will then have one opportunity to reorder your bank of images (There is no opportunity to reorder your 'Round 1' separately) - Full Online Entry Guidance Notes are given above. The process is given below -

You can log in and out as often as you like, as long as you click SAVE before leaving the website.

Online Entry Guidance Notes (illustrated) for this competition, *coming soon for 2024* in the downloads area - Please have a look before completing your entry as some stages can't now be corrected if an error is made. 

1 Upload all of your images by author. Please make sure that you do not exceed the number of Images for the Competition you wish to compete for (i.e. 'The Plate Trophy' OR 'The Bowie Trophy')

Don't worry about the order you upload them in you will be able to correct this later - and don't worry about the filenames - the website will take care of this Simply enter the Author's name (no distinctions please!)

- Size your image (max 1600 x 1200) save as an 8 bit jpeg and upload (sRGB colour space is recommended)

- Enter the 'title of the image' (as you would like it read out) with a maximum of 25 characters (including spaces) in the box provided - no punctuation please

- Click SAVE Once you have entered all of your authors and their images (or after each author if you have a dodgy internet connection)

- Select your 'Round 1' entry (please refer to the Rules for restrictions per author and nature) Do not proceed to Step 2 until you are sure everything is correct - you won't be able to correct any images, titles or selections after this.

2 Order your Bank of Images and SAVE your new order. Note - There is no longer the facility to re-order your 'Round 1' Images separately

3 Once you are sure everything is correct SUBMIT your Entry.

4 Print Off and send us your paperwork as directed in the Rules, and also your Entry Fee payment by Cheque (made payable to 'SPF') Remember to keep copies of the paperwork for yourself as none will be available to you on the day.

Our first audience event since February 2020 went ahead on Sunday 19th November 2023 at our new venue the Victoria Hall, Dunblane to which we had an excellent attendance from Club members from all over Scotland, together with an excellent support of our raffle. Many also commented that they really liked the venue, although it got a little warm in the afternoon. Ironically we were a little cold at our event there the day before so it should be just right for the next event. 37 Clubs competed on the day, 24 in the Plate and 13 in the Bowie.

Our Judges for these Championship Competitions were - Richard Speirs DPAGB APAGB BPE2 from Carlisle (NCPF), Tillman Kleinhans DPAGB EFIAP/g ARPS BPE5 HonLCPU from St Helens (LCPU), and Gordon Jenkins HonPAGB from Chorley (LCPU).

The day over ran our projected timetable by an hour, which was unfortunate, due in part because the process was new to many, or had been forgotten since 2019 when this event last ran, which resulted in a few late entries and processing delays. We will look at addressing this as best we can for next year's event. The knock on effect of the delays were that a number of people had to leave before the results were able to be announced, but fortunately representatives from almost all of the Clubs were able to stay and hear the results and collect any awards.

The final results were to show new winners in both competitions, who were both delighted with their wins.

Details of all of the Club and Individual Awards are available for download below, including all of the Scores for Round 1 for both the Plate and Bowie, and placings and scores for the Plate Trophy and Bowie Trophy.

Some of the Award Winning Images are shown here. Galleries of all of the Individual Awards can be viewed (click here) or view the Plate winning Club's entries (click here) and the Overall Winning Club's entries (click here)

Our thanks to everyone who support our raffle, whether by donation of prizes or by purchaing tickets, it does help us run these events.

A special thanks to Paper Spectrum for supporting this event through raffle prizes. In return, please support them - visit their website (click here) 

We held a 'Zoom' Awards Presentation event' on Sunday 29th January 2023, where we announced both the Club Results and Individual Awards.

This was attended by all three of our Judges- Clive Tanner FRPS MPAGB APAGB from Maidstone (KCPA) - Gerald Chamberlin DPAGB EFIAP from Carlisle (NCPF) and Robert Millin MFIAP EFIAP/d3 MPSA FBPE DPAGB from Ellesmere Port (L&CPU). Together with over 115 SPF attendees on Zoom, they were welcomed by the SPF President, Gordon McMann, who led the afternoon's proceedings.

The Club final scores and winners were announce in both sections, and the top three placed Club's winning images were shown. This was followed by a showing of the 123 images scoring 13 or above that the Judges had shortlisted for selecting their Awards.

Gordon followed this by announcing the Individual Award winners. It was great to see a number of the Individual Award winners were able to attend the event.

The format of this 'Interim' event was set up to make it as easy as possible for as many Clubs as wished to be able to enter. The two separate Competitions, rather than the usual one, allowed the numbers required to be restricted to suit Club's entry abilities in these challenging times; ‘The Plate Trophy’ requiring 15 images, and ‘The Ian Bowie Trophy’ requiring 20 images. These competitions are named after the two Trophies normally presented at our SPF Digital Championship. Clubs themselves decided which competition to enter dependent on the images and authors available to them.

Once all of the 36 Clubs had completed their entries online, the images were downloaded and split into the two separate competitions. Each Club’s entries was then distributed evenly throughout the competition they’d chosen to compete in (i.e. the 1st image from each Club, then the 2nd image and so on..) The two competitions were then sent independently to each Judge to score using Adobe Bridge’s star rating facility. After scoring, each Judge returned their star rated images, and the SPF assigned score values to each Judge’s star rated images (5* = 5; 4* =4; 3* =3; 2* =2) . The three Judge's scores were then collated by the SPF to give the total score for each image (Maximum of 15; minimum of 6). These total scores were then used to calculate the Club Results and give the Shortlist of Images for the Individual Awards selection by the Judges.

A total of 38 Clubs entered, two more than last year, and a great response considering the situation we all find ourselves in, particularly as we normally average 28 to 30 Clubs for our usual championship format. 21 Clubs competed for the Plate and 17 for the Bowie. meaning our Judges had a mammoth task of Judging a total of 656 images between the two sections.

The resultant quality was high with 123 images scoring 13 or above. These 123 images formed the Judge's shortlist for the Individual Awards to be selected from.

The Club Results were calculated as follows -

In the Plate Trophy – 12 Image scores counted (8 of which were selected to count by the Club) and the remaining 4 highest images.

In the Ian Bowie - 16 Image scores counted (8 of which were selected to count by the Club) and the remaining 8 highest images.

The full list of Club placings, including details of the winning Clubs in both in 'The Plate, and 'The Ian Bowie' are available to download below or visit 'The Ian Bowie Trophy Gallery' (click here) or 'The Plate Trophy Gallery' (click here) where you will see the entries from the top 3 Club placings in each section.

You can download a copy of the Individual Awards presented below, or visit the following gallery to see these Individual Awards (click here), together with the Judge's top scoring shortlisted images 

A self-executing show, showing all of the competing Clubs’ entries (that counted towards their final placings) will be supplied free, to each Club that entered. If your Club would like a copy, but didn't enter, please contact Libby for details.

This is a Pre-Qualifying event for the PAGB Digital Championship in 2023, and the top two placed Clubs in the Ian Bowie Trophy event therefore qualify to go to the PAGB's Warwick event to represent the SPF.

We held a 'Zoom' Awards Presentation event' on Sunday 27th February 2022, where we announced both the Club Results and Individual Awards.

This was attended by our two of our three Judges Paul Keene MPAGB FRPS EFIAP/d1 MFIAP from Amersham and Sue O'Connell DPAGB EFIAP/d3 ABPE from Bristol . Together with 100 SPF attendees on Zoom, they were welcomed by the SPF President, Gordon Rae, who led the afternoon's proceedings.

Our third Judge who was unable to attend this event was Roger Evans MPAGB FBPE EFIAP/p from Shropshire.

The Club final scores and winners were announce in both sections, and the top three placed Club's winning images were shown. This was followed by a showing of the 101 images that the Judges had shortlisted for selecting their Awards.

Gordon followed this by announcing the Individual Award winners, which included an extra 6 awards at the request of the Judges given the high standard so 3 Commended and 3 Highly Commendeds were awarded in addition to shown then commented on by the Judges in turn. It was great to see that a number of the Individual Award winners were able to attend the event.

The format of this 'Interim' event was set up to make it as easy as possible for as many Clubs as wished to be able to enter. The two separate Competitions, rather than the usual one, allowed the numbers required to be restricted to suit Club's entry abilities in these challenging times; ‘The Plate Trophy’ requiring 15 images, and ‘The Ian Bowie Trophy’ requiring 20 images. These competitions are named after the two Trophies normally presented at our SPF Digital Championship. Clubs themselves decided which competition to enter dependent on the images and authors available to them.

Once all of the 36 Clubs had completed their entries online, the images were downloaded and split into the two separate competitions. Each Club’s entries was then distributed evenly throughout the competition they’d chosen to compete in (i.e. the 1st image from each Club, then the 2nd image and so on..) The two competitions were then sent independently to each Judge to score using Adobe Bridge’s star rating facility. After scoring, each Judge returned their star rated images, and the SPF assigned score values to each Judge’s star rated images (5* = 5; 4* =4; 3* =3; 2* =2) . The three Judge's scores were then collated by the SPF to give the total score for each image (Maximum of 15; minimum of 6). These total scores were then used to calculate the Club Results and give the Shortlist of Images for the Individual Awards selection by the Judges.

A total of 36 Clubs entered, which is the same as last year, and a great response considering the situation we all find ourselves in, particularly as we normally average 28 to 30 Clubs for our usual championship format. 19 Clubs competed for the Plate and 17 for the Bowie. meaning our Judges had a mammoth task of Judging a total of 625 images between the two sections.

The resultant quality was high with 101 images scoring 13 or above. These 101 images formed the Judge's shortlist for the Individual Awards to be selected from.

The Club Results were calculated as follows -

In the Plate Trophy – 12 Image scores counted (8 of which were selected to count by the Club) and the remaining 4 highest images.

In the Ian Bowie - 16 Image scores counted (8 of which were selected to count by the Club) and the remaining 8 highest images.

The full list of Club placings, including details of the winning Clubs in both in 'The Plate, and 'The Ian Bowie' are available to download below or visit 'The Ian Bowie Trophy Gallery' (click here) or 'The Plate Trophy Gallery' (click here) where you will see the entries from the top 3 Club placings in each section.

You can download a copy of the Individual Awards presented below, or visit the following gallery to see these Individual Awards, together with the Judge's top scoring shortlisted images (click here)

A self-executing show, showing all of the competing Clubs’ entries (that counted towards their final placings) will be supplied free, to each Club that entered. If your Club would like a copy, but didn't enter, please contact Libby for details.

This is a Pre-Qualifying event for the PAGB Digital Championship in 2022, and the top placed Clubs in this event therefore qualify to go to the PAGB's Warwick event to represent the SPF.

The 2019 SPF Digital Championship was held on Sunday 17th Nov 2019 at Stirling Court Hotel (Formerly Stirling Management Centre) , Stirling University, Stirling FK9 4LA. 28 Clubs competed in the Competition, although many more Clubs were represented in the audience on the day. 

The Judges for this event were Dianne Owen FRPS from Ainsdale in the L&CPU, Gordon Jenkins HonPAGB from Chorley in the L&CPU and Michael O'Sullivan FIPF FRPS from Cork, IPF.

It was an extremely close competition, particularly in the Plate, with three Clubs tied for first place. Details of all of the Club and Individual Awards are available for download below, including all of the Scores for Round 1 and Round 2, and placings and scores for the Plate Competition and Final Competition.

Some of the Award Winning Images are shown here. Galleries of all of the Individual Awards can be viewed (click here) or view the Plate winning Club's entries (click here) and the Overall Winning Club's entries (click here)

Best Overall Club - Ian Bowie Trophy - Dumfries Camera Club

Best Plate Club - Plate Trophy - Dingwall Camera Club

Best Image – On Jokulsarlon Beach by Ken Lindsay, Eastwood PS

Dave Symonds’ Judge’s Choice – Reaching new Heights by Al Buntin, Dundee PS

Chris Palmer’s Judge’s Choice – Osprey Fishing in the Mist by Jo McIntyre, Dumfries CC

Gordon Jenkins’ Judge’s Choice – Luskentyre Light by Ken Lindsay, Eastwood PS

Full details of the 2014 Results are available below to download.