Rules and Regulations

Montage 2017 Photographic Competition will hereafter be referred to as “Competition”.

In this section, the Organiser is defined as The Photographic Society of the National University of Singapore (NUSPS).

1.1 ELIGIBILITY

• No submission fees are applicable.
• Members of the NUSPS 48th Management Committee and Montage 2017 Organising Committee are not eligible to participate.
• Each participant is only allowed to submit photographs in EITHER the Open OR YIP HOI KEE STUDENT sub-category.

MONTAGE 2017 – OPEN CATEGORY COMPETITION

• All  persons residing in Singapore during the duration of Montage 2016 (15th March 2017 to 11th June 2017) are eligible to participate in the MONTAGE 2017-OPEN CATEGORY COMPETITION.

MONTAGE 2017 – YIP HOI KEE STUDENT CATEGORY COMPETITION

• All  persons residing in Singapore during the duration of Montage 2017, currently enrolled in a Singapore registered primary, secondary, post-secondary, pre-university and tertiary institutions, and below 25 years of age (as of 1st January 2017) are eligible to participate in the MONTAGE 2017-YIP HOI KEE STUDENT CATEGORY COMPETITION.

MONTAGE 2017 YIP HOI KEE SCHOOL CHALLENGE

• All participants’ schools under Singapore registered primary, secondary, post-secondary, pre-university and tertiary institutions are automatically qualified for the Yip Hoi Kee School Challenge.
• To allow one’s school to enter the Yip Hoi Kee School Challenge, one must enter the STUDENT category and register the school name in the submission page.

1.2 SUBMISSION PERIOD

• Submissions for the Competition will be accepted from 15th March 2017 till 28th May 2016 31st May 2017 at 2359hrs (Singapore Time).
• All entries made after that time will not be accepted and late submissions will be disqualified.
• All images will be considered submitted and final after submission with no further changes allowed.
• NUSPS will not be liable for any errors or failures occurred during the submission of photos.  

1.3 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

• Each participant may submit a maximum of 3 entries for each category.
• Submission of entry will be through the official site, http://2017.montage.sg/.
• Only the first 3 entries will be accepted for participants who submitted more than 3 entries
• Should participants wish to withdraw or replace previous entries, it is the participant’s responsibility to notify and obtain approval from the organiser.
• Images submitted must contain at least 2400 pixels on the longer side and of at least 5 megapixels.
• The maximum file size of each image should not be more than 2MB.
• All images must be submitted as 8-bit JPEG files with minimal compression.

1.4 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Images must not have been used for commercial purposes, published previously or won prizes in other competitions, locally or abroad.
• Both colour and monochrome images are allowed
• Excessive digital manipulations that distort the reality of the image are not allowed. Only basic enhancements such as sharpening, contrast adjustments or slight cropping will be allowed.
• Photograph manipulation of the image is only restricted to the following:

• Tonal corrections and colour corrections  (no dodging/burning allowed);
• Moderate sharpening (with the exception of blurring of backgrounds or adjustment of saturation allowed);
• Image repair (Removing or repairing dirt and lint from scanned negatives or noise and faulty pixel and damage from digital images);
• Moderate cropping of the original image is allowed. (Submissions that have obviously been heavily cropped will be disqualified.)

• Adding or removing key elements of the composition is discouraged and may not be accepted for judging.
• To inspire participants with the opportunity to discover, explore and express their creativity and imagination, the Organiser permits participants to experiment with the following photography techniques:

• Multiple Exposure
• Moderate HDR

• Failure to comply with the rules will result in disqualification.
• Participants can use any type of camera and/or film.
• Only online submission of digital images is accepted. For images captured on film, it is the responsibility of the participant to scan the film negatives/slides into digital JPEG format. Participants are entirely responsible for all entry-related costs.
• Each submission can only contain unique images. Images that have been previously included in another or the same category cannot be resubmitted.
• In order to uphold the fairness of the judging, there should be no watermark or any other form of addition that may seemingly expose the identity of the photographer.
• The Organiser reserves the right to reject entries with incomplete details.
• Each participant must be the original author and sole copyright owner of each image submitted for Montage 2017.
• By entering the Contest, entrant represents, acknowledges, and warrants that the submitted image is an original work created solely by the entrant, that the image does not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, moral rights, rights of privacy/publicity or intellectual property rights of any person or entity, and that no other party has any right, title, claim, or interest in the image.
• The image must not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Organiser, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content.
• All images submitted will be considered final after submission. Further changes will not be entertained.
• In the event that an entry is shortlisted, the original file, negative or slide (with no manipulations) of winning entries may be requested for verification upon notification. Failing which, the entries will be disqualified.

1.5 JUDGING AND AWARDS

MONTAGE 2017 COMPETITION (INDIVIDUAL)

Entries will be judged based on the following:

• Title will be taken into consideration during judging.
• Judging will be done on an anonymous basis.
• The decisions of the judges are final and no correspondence will be entertained.  NUSPS and judges will not enter into any disputes regarding the result.
• The judging panel reserves the right not to award the prizes if the submitted images do not meet the requirements stated in this page.
• Results of the competition will be announced across all MONTAGE 2017 Publicity Platform.
  10 Shortlisted participants will be contacted through email and the Top 3 winning entries together with the merit prize winners will be announced during the Prize Presentation.

MONTAGE 2017 YIP HOI KEE SCHOOL CHALLENGE

Primary schools, Secondary schools, Junior Colleges as wells as Arts and Tertiary Institutions in Singapore are automatically eligible to run for the Montage 2017 School Challenge provided that they are aged 25 years old and younger (as of 1st January 2017)

The school with the greatest points wins. The point system (subject to prize availability) is listed below:

• For each entry submitted for the Montage 2017 Student Competition, the corresponding school will earn points as indicated above.
• In the event of a tie, the school with the higher number of awardees (top 3, merit and shortlisted) will be the winning school.
• The Montage Organising Committee will have the final say in determining the winner.

1.6 TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Shortlisted participants will be cordially invited and are expected to be present for the Montage 2017 awards ceremony on 11th June 2017 during which the results of the competition will be announced and Prize Presentation will be held.
• Should the shortlisted participant be unable to attend the Prize Presentation, a representative validated by an authorization letter, can be appointed. NUSPS must however be notified 3 days in advance. A stand-in prize will be given to the representative on stage while the real prize will be handed after the event upon verification by NUSPS.
• NUSPS reserves the rights to disqualify any entries at the discretion of the competition committee if the content is deemed inappropriate and/or the photographs fail to satisfy the Rules and Regulations of Montage 2017 and the law of Singapore.
• NUSPS will not be liable for technical, hardware, or software failures of any kind or lost or unavailable network connections, which may limit or prohibit an eligible entrant's ability to participate in the competition.
• For multiple winning entries from the same participant, only the higher/highest award will be given.
• Shortlisted participants may be called for interview(s) with the media and/or NUSPS Management Committee and Montage 2017 Prize Presentation.
• All prizes are as per stated in the website. In the event should the original prize be unavailable, another prize of equivalent value will be given as a substitute.
• By submitting their images, the participants are deemed to have

• (a) understood and accepted the Official Rules and Regulations as stated by NUSPS;
• (b) agree that decisions of the Judges are final on all matters pertaining to the Competition;
• (c) if he/she wins that the Organiser, Official as well as Supporting Partners may use the winning images, winner’s name as publicity in relation to the Competition without compensation or approval; and
• (d)grant the Organiser and Official & Supporting Partners rights to publish the entries to congratulate winners without having to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection to all digital and printed media for the purposes of publicity and marketing during and after Montage 2017.

1.7 ORGANISER’S RIGHTS

The Organiser:

• Reserve exhibition and publication rights to the winning and selected entries in print, broadcast and electronic media on our Official and Supporting Media Partner’s as well as Supporter’s platforms without requiring permission from the participant and without any fee payable
• Are granted the rights to publish the entries to congratulate winners in recognition of their talents without having to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection to all digital and printed media for the purposes of publicity and marketing during and after Montage 2017.
• Have the right to use the participants’ names for promotional purposes without compensation to the participant;
• Have the right to exhibit, edit the entries’ titles and use the winning entries for publicity and marketing purposes before, during and after the competition. Winning entries will be exhibited at venues which will be released at a further notice on this website.
• Reserves the right to use/reproduce/display the images submitted for any artistic or non-commercial purposes, without payment of any fee. Photographers will however, retain their rights to their photos and will be credited should their photos be used.
• Will be discharged and held harmless from any claims, losses and damages arising out of the entrant’s participation in the Competition and the acceptance and use, misuse of possession of any prize awarded hereunder.
• Have the right to disqualify any entry submitted which is non-compliant to the rules and regulations or copyright infringements and also if the contents are deemed pornographic or against public interest.
• Will not be held legally liable for any copyright infringement on the part of the participants; and
• Reserve the right to modify the competition prizes and its rules and regulations as and when necessary, without prior notice. Any amendments will be published on montage media platforms (official website and facebook) and it is the participants’ responsibility to check the website for any amendments prior submission. The NUSPS assumes no liability whatsoever for any outcome as a result of such action.

1.8 COPYRIGHTS

• Participants must own the sole copyright of entries. The Organiser reserves the right to disqualify any prize winners who do not own the copyrights to their entries and to recover the prizes that have been awarded to them.
• All participants must be the owner of the photograph (and all the intellectual property and other proprietary rights in the photograph submitted). The participant shall indemnify the Organiser against all intellectual property infringement and other proprietary claims including any costs, charges and expenses in respect thereof.

ACCEPTANCE OF RULES & REGULATIONS

Submission of entries signifies acceptance of the rules and regulations of the competition.

Any breach of the rules and regulations by a participant will void his/her submission.