Disqualifications (DQs)

Any image that does not meet the conditions of entry may be DQed (disqualified) by either the Section Chair prior to competition; by one or more judges during the judging; or by the Section or Competition Chair after the judging. For images submitted into competitions in advance of the submission deadline, Section Chairs will attempt, if time allows, to advise entrants of any potential problems so the entrant has time to make any corrections or to substitute images prior to the submission deadline.

If an image is DQed by a judge in the last competition month of the year, a discussion will be held among all judges to consider the matter. If the consensus is that the image should not be DQed, the DQing judge may reconsider his/her score.

Images may be disqualified for any of the following reasons:

• The image does not meet requirements of the Section Competition or of general competition requirements;

• The image does not meet entry submission requirements;

• The image violates Image Re-Entry limitations, such as if it has already won an HM or an Award in the same Division.

If an image submitted to any digital competition is DQed in any month except April, the Entrant is entitled to submit a make-up substitute image in any subsequent month for the same Competition Year in addition to any other makeups to which the Entrant may be entitled up to a limit of two extra makeups per month (see above). For this reason, there are occasions when the Entrant may find s/he is entitled to submit five or more images in any given month.

If a judge DQs an image, s/he will give the reason for the decision, and this reason will subsequently be communicated to the Entrant.

An image that is retroactively DQed by the Section or Competition Chair after the actual judging is termed a Revoked image. An image is normally only revoked because it is subsequently found to have violated the Re-Entry requirements.

Occasionally, new Sections and Section Competitions are started that may be launched during the Competition Year. This will, of course, mean that the number of allowed images may be fewer than 14 according of the month of launch.