Using PhotoEntry
At Bridport Camera Club, we use the PhotoEntry system to enter images for competitions.
Most members find it straight forward to use. It helps to make sure that images are in the right format for competitions by automatically converting them where it can. It also gives you, the member entering images, the ability to change the title, change the image etc yourself right up to the competition deadline.
The quick start guide
The process for using PhotoEntry for the first time is briefly as follows:
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When you join the club, an account will be created for you. You will receive an e-mail with a link, username and a temporary initial password.
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Login to PhotoEntry and set a new password of your choice.
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Pick a camera club season, such as 2020-2021.
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Pick a competition to which you want to add images. The competition must be "Open"; if it is "Closed" then the deadline has already passed.
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The process to "Add a new entry" is a multi-step process. First create an entry and give it a title, then select the image to add, then upload it. There are more steps to this than you might be used to on other websites. The steps are:
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click "Add new entry",
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enter a title, which will be displayed to the judge and audience, then click "Add this entry",
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say whether you are happy for the club to use the image for publicity or not,
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click "Choose JPEG",
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pick the image to add from your computer/phone/tablet library of images, then click "Open" (Windows) or "Choose" (Mac) or whatever,
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click "Upload image",
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check for errors and warnings; use the recycle/reload icon to upload a different image or the pencil&paper icon to change the title. If there is a green OK or an amber warning then the image is in the competition; if there is a red error then it isn't
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Click "Show all my entries" to review your entries for this competition.
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Click on an image to view a large version of it in a new tab in your browser.
After the competition, you can come back to this page and see the judged results. Past competitions will be available here for a few years, so you can come back and see what you've entered before and how they did.
There is a section on frequently asked questions on PhotoEntry's website too.
Note: If you are or have been in another camera club that also uses PhotoEntry then you will have one account per club: each account will have different usernames and may have different passwords. You'll have to keep track of which username is for whcih club and also which password to use for each account.
The step by step guide
When your account on PhotoEntry is created, you will get an e-mail from PhotoEntry address wcpf-bridport@photoentry.uk and a subject of "Bridport Camera Club PhotoEntry System". This e-mail will contain your username, an initial password and a link to PhotoEntry's website. It will look something like this:
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The link will take you to a login page like this:
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When you login, you will be forced to choose a new password, and enter it twice to make sure that it is correct. If you ever forget you password then there is a link on the left of the login page to get a new password sent out to you. If you ever forget your username then contact the club.
Once you are in, there isn't much on the page. The left hand side has some navigation. The "Competition Rules" link is to the club's rules page. In the main body of the page there will be a link for each club season.
This will now show you a list of competitions that have been set up for the season.
You'll only be able to add images to competitions that are "Open".
The other status are things like "Future" for competitions that are planned but that you can't add images to just yet, "Closed" when the deadline has passsed and images can no longer be added, "Judged" when the results are available .
Click on a competition that is open to add images to it. This will show any images already added, and there will be an "Add new entry" button to add more.
Give the new entry a title. If the option is given then decide whether you want your image to be put on the club website if it does well. Most people are delighted to have their images used to help recruit new members, then click "Add this entry". You get to upload the image in a moment.
​This is where you get to upload the image for this entry, click "Choose JPEG"
Now find the image you want to add on your computer. The example below shows what it looks like on Microsoft Windows, on a Mac or a phone/tablet it will look slightly different.
Next you have to click "Upload image" to actually do the upload. It may take a few seconds to process the image.
This will now show you a small version of the image, the title, the image size etc. There are also some options here, to edit the title, to replace the image with a different one, to delete the entry. You can come back and make changes with these buttons at any time right up until the competition deadline and the competition is Closed.
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The green OK under the title says that the image uploaded was already the right size and format for the competition. If there is an amber warning then the warning says that something wasn't exactly right, but that the system has tried to fix it for you. What gets displayed on competition night might not be exactly as you expected it to be, but it will be pretty close.
If all went well, the screen will look something like the above.
There are a few things that can go wrong. Here are the main ones:
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The image must be JPEG/JPG. It won't let you uplaod anything else (eg PNG is not allowed) and it will tell you what's wrong.
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The image should be no bigger than the club size. If your image is bigger, then PhotoEntry will warn you, but it will re-size it for you. This doesn't often cause any problems, but you might prefer to export the image again with the correct size so you know what it will look like for the judge. If your image is very very small then PhotoEntry will reject it. If you image is smaller than it could be, but not tiny, then it will be accepted as it is and not resized. It will look small on the judge's screen though.
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The image should be in the sRGB colour space; if it is not the image will still be accepted with a warning but it may not display correctly during the competition. Most software will create JPEG/JPG images as sRGB, or have a fairly obvious option for a quick export to JPEG/JPG in sRGB. Other colour spaces that are common include "Adobe RGB", "Pro Photo" and "Diplay P3". Photos taken on modern phones and tablets and processed with Apple software might be Dispay P3. These other colour spaces promise richer colours, but these richer colours get lost in the conversion to sRGB ... and the competitions are run in sRGB. To be sure that the image that is judged is accurate, the one uploaded should be sRGB.
If you click "Show all my entries" then it will show all the entries for this competition. You can then use the up and down arrows in order to change the order of your images if you want to.
