The Inter-club Digital Print Competition

Twenty clubs entered the competition, judged by Mike McNamee. Mike cited Gerald Hallworth's Record print "The Ceiling, Church of St Cuthbert, Wells" as a darkroom example that couldn't be bettered by digital manipulation. But in a digital print competition, with full knowledge of the opportunities available to the digital worker, he expected the digital prints to demonstrate some extra edge over the straight darkroom print. Many of his comments, as he went through his mammoth task of judging 100 prints with only a short preview time, reflected this approach. "Would this monochrome print have been any the worse if directly produced in the darkroom" or " "No significant digital input as far as I can tell" were typical comments. Some of us newer entrants to the digital world noted that 'inappropriate perspective' let some prints down, whilst the use of 'diffuse glow' helped one portrait print to score full marks. Asked to nominate a Best Print for a prize Mike was loath to do so. Six prints had scored full marks and they all deserved to win, but given that there was only one prize (a £20 Jessops voucher) he nominated "The Four Horsemen" by Patrick Green of South Liverpool PS. Click here for the full competition results.

Bill Chadband