(changes shown in red)

Mounts
All competitions that accept slides are for the 35mm format only. We require that your transparencies are mounted in standard plastic mounts and not card mounts, as card mounts can frequently jam in the projector, especially if old or damaged. Mounts with glass are optional, but be aware that slides need to be fully acclimatised before projection, or moisture marks may show.

If you mount your own transparencies, with Gepe or other mounts that have one side white and the other side grey or dark, it is best to use the mount so that the white side is towards the projector lamp, and the darker side towards the lens (so, when you view the slide by eye, the white side will be towards you). This is to ensure that any light scattered by the lens is absorbed by the mount, and not reflected back into the optical path, which reduces the image contrast.

Spotting
It is essential that your slides are correctly spotted so they can be loaded in the projector the right way round. The spot is best applied with a felt-tip pen. When viewing the slide by eye, the spot will be in the lower left-hand corner; in the projector the spot will be placed in the upper right-hand corner, as the lens inverts the image.

As viewed by eye		As loaded in the projector

Name and title
Best applied with a fine tipped felt-tip pen or other direct printing method, as labels may peel away and jam in the projector.

Cleaning
Do ensure that your slides are clean. Even the tiniest specks of dust can be quite visible and distracting when projected, and will not help you to a high score.

Mounting
We require all prints entered for competitions to be mounted, but this can be quite basic if you are not yet skilled in this area. A print can be mounted directly to a panel of card with a variety of paper adhesives.
An aperture mount, cut with a bevel-edge cutter, requires more skill, but it can be used for several different prints (of the same size), as the print is usually taped in place rather than glued, and can therefore be changed.

Protecting the print
It is worth adding some protection to the back of your print to minimise damage if the mounted print is dropped or knocked. A piece of packaging card is better than nothing. Or you can spray-mount your print to a piece of ticket board or other thin card, which also helps to hold the print flat.

Mount sizes
We no longer place a restriction on mount sizes or thicknesses, so you may enter a mounted print to any size you wish. However, unless you are producing to a particular size or shape for artistic effect, you may wish to follow these suggestions:

• A mount that measures 50cm x 40cm has many advantages. Firstly, it is easy to obtain carrying boxes and protective sleeves to this size. Secondly, prints of this size will fit directly into our frames for the annual exhibition. Thirdly, this is often a stipulation for external competitions.
• A very large mount may be prone to damage and may be difficult to display with other prints during a competition.
• A very small mount is unlikely to enhance your print, so do consider a mount up to 50cm x 40cm even for a small print - it can be quite effective.
• Double-layer aperture mounts can be a very effective enhancement to a print. However, they do make the mounted print quite heavy, which can sometimes cause problems if hung on Velcro tabs - the Velcro glue can fail or the Velcro fail to grip sufficiently.

Slides and prints do not now need to be notified in advance (simply brought in on the night), BUT digital images must be emailed to the Competition Secretary by the end of the Thursday before the competition night, so that they can be loaded onto a computer, a running order set up, and titles and authors logged. The email address you must use for your digital images is digital@windsor-photo-society.org.uk. The email address for your slide titles is entries@windsor-photo-society.org.uk.
Note that it is your responsibility to ensure that your entry details are received.

You must have your prints available for display and your slides available for loading into the projector by 7.45pm at the latest on the competition night. We have to be strict on this, as it is unfair to the other members, and discourteous to the judge, to delay the start because of a late arrival. Anticipate a queue, and please arrive well before 7.45pm to ensure a smooth start to the evening.
If you are unable to attend on the night, your prints and/or slides can be brought by another member if you have made personal arrangements, but remember that they are acting as your agent, not the Club's.

As of November 2006, it is no longer necessary to complete a print entry form to accompany your prints. On the night (by 7.45pm please!) simply place your prints on the marked stack according to whether you are an Intermediate or an Advanced member. Be sure to get this right - if your prints end up on the wrong stack we will be unable to allocate points or placings to them. It is vital that your prints are marked with your name. Any prints not showing a title will be announced as "Untitled".

After the print section (normally during the break), you will be required to mark your name next to your print entries in the running list. Note that this is the only way we can allocate your points and placings in the league table, so it is vital that you do this.

After the competition, the winning prints are marked with the stickers for winners and placings. We then like to take them for scanning, so that we can add them to the WPS Winners' Gallery on the club's web site (if you are able, you may prefer to email the image to the Webmaster). Your digital images will have also been received by the Webmaster when you submitted them for the competition, so there is no further action required to get the winners to the web site. The prints and slides are usually returned the following week. The slides will then normally be returned to you, but we like to display some of the prints in the display cabinet on the Arts Centre stairs, until replaced with the winners of the following competition.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you get your prints and slides back. It's unfair to expect the Competition Secretary to bring them in every week and find you to return them. The Club cannot take responsibility for uncollected prints and slides.