L&CPU

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The L&CPU – the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union was formed on the 9 October 1905, and at the time was the largest organisation of photographic societies in the world. Today there are 96 Societies in the Union with a total membership of just under 4,000 photographers.

L&CPU Inter Club Competitions

Competitions are open to all L&CPU Federated Clubs.

Annual Print and PDI

Clubs compete for three main prizes, usually around April:

Print Club of the Year
Projected Digital Image Club of the Year
Overall Club of the Year

Format

3 print sections - Open, Mono, and Nature. 8 images entered in each.
2 Projected Digital Images (PDI's) sections - Open (combined colour and mono) - 16 images and Nature - 8 images.

Therefore clubs can enter up to a total of 24 prints and 24 PDI's. None of these images must not have been entered previously in the L&CPU annual competition. Each section has to have images from at least 5 separate photographers, no more than 2 per person (4 in Open PDI's).

There are three judges, each of whom score the image from 2 - 5 points.

4 represents a pass at CPAGB standard,
2 is a fail
3 is a maybe
5 is well … sought after
Consequently 12 is a score to be really proud of and anything above is brilliant.

Reports on recent competitions are available below.

Digital Projected Image Knock Out

This is held usually around November. Unlike most other competitions this is only for new images (to L&CPU) competitions.
Format

New work only from current club members, i.e. no previous entry to any L&CPU competition with no more than 2 images from any photographer. The first four images have to be from different photographers.
Club’s entry consists of 8 PDI images. The first 7 images are the formal entry, with the 8th held in reserve in case a tie break is needed to determine the winning club.
The actual number of images used in competition will depend on the number of Clubs that have entered, the more clubs the fewer the images. In 2019, our first 5 images were used, in 2020 and 2021 only the first 4 were used.
Images are eliminated after each round, with those eliminated in Round 1 scoring 1, Round 2 scoring 2 etc. The judge determines how many rounds there are.
The winning club is the one with the most points i.e. their images having lasted the most rounds. There is a prize for the best image.

Reports on recent competitions are available below.