Help

Photo Salon is a comprehensive photo competition management system designed for camera clubs and photography organizations. This guide will help you get started and make the most of all available features.

Creating Your Club

1. Sign up for a Photo Salon account
2. From your dashboard, click "Create Club"
3. Enter your club name and details
4. You'll automatically be assigned the Club Admin role

Inviting Members

As a Club Admin, you can invite members to join your club:

1. Navigate to your club's Members page
2. Click "Send Invite"
3. Enter the member's email address and assign roles
4. The member will receive an email invitation

Creating a Competition

1. Go to your club's Competitions page
2. Click "Create Competition"
3. Fill in competition details:
   • Competition name and description
   • Entry deadline
   • Maximum entries per member
   • Maximum images per entry
   • Image size limits
   • Scoring scheme (if applicable)
4. Set the competition status to "Open" when ready to accept entries

Competition Statuses

• Future: Competition is created but not yet open for entries
• Open: Members can submit entries
• Closed: Entry deadline has passed, no new entries accepted
• Judged: Judging is complete, results are available
• Archived: Competition is archived and hidden from regular members. Archived competitions don't count toward storage costs.

Archiving Competitions

Club Admins and Competition Secretaries can archive competitions to reduce storage usage:

• Archived competitions are hidden from regular club members
• Archived competitions don't count toward your storage costs
• This can help reduce your subscription cost or return to the free tier
• You can archive competitions from the competition card or subscription management page

How to Submit

1. Navigate to the competition you want to enter
2. Click "Submit Entry"
3. Enter a title and optional description for your entry
4. Drag and drop images or click to select files
5. Images are automatically processed (resized, watermarked if configured)
6. Click "Save Entry" when complete

Image Requirements

• Check the competition details for specific size and format requirements
• Images are automatically resized to meet competition constraints
• EXIF data is stripped by default for privacy (can be configured)
• Watermarks can be applied automatically if configured by the club

Editing Entries

You can edit your entries until the competition closes. After the deadline, entries are locked and cannot be modified.

Setting Up Judges

Judges are determined by the JUDGE role assigned to club members. To enable judging for a competition:

1. Go to your club's Members page
2. Edit a member and assign them the JUDGE role
3. Any member with the JUDGE role can judge any competition in your club
4. When a judge accesses the judging interface for a competition, a judge record is automatically created
5. Judges can access the judging interface once a competition status is "Closed" or "Judged"

Judging Interface

Judges can score entries using the dedicated judging interface:

• View all entries in the competition
• Score each entry based on the competition's scoring scheme
• Add comments for each entry
• Scores are saved automatically as you work
• You can return to edit scores until the competition is marked as "Judged"

Scoring Schemes

Competitions can use different scoring schemes:

• Simple Scoring: Single score per entry (e.g., 1-10)
• Multi-Criteria: Score across multiple criteria (e.g., Composition, Technical, Creativity)
• Scores are automatically aggregated and results calculated

Setting Up Live Voting

Live voting allows members or audiences to vote on entries in real-time during club meetings:

1. Go to the competition's Live Voting page
2. Click "Start New Session"
3. A join code and QR code will be generated
4. Share the join code or QR code with voters
5. Use the projection view to display entries during voting

Voting Types

• Numeric: Voters assign a score (e.g., 1-10)
• Favourite: Voters select their favourite entry
• Yes/No: Voters approve or reject entries
• Ranking: Voters rank entries in order of preference

Projection Mode

Use projection mode to display entries on a large screen during voting:

• Full-screen display optimized for projection
• Keyboard navigation: Arrow keys to navigate, Space to advance
• Press 'H' to toggle overlay controls
• Press 'F' to toggle fullscreen mode
• Live scoreboard shows real-time vote counts

Results Pages

Once a competition is marked as "Judged", results become available:

• View overall rankings and scores
• See individual judge scores and comments
• Filter by class or category
• Export results as CSV or JSON

Available Roles

• Club Admin: Full control over club settings, members, and competitions
• Competition Secretary: Can create and manage competitions
• Judge: Can score entries in assigned competitions
• Projectionist: Can control projection mode during live voting
• Member: Can submit entries and participate in competitions
• Audience Voter: Can vote in live voting sessions (if enabled)

Managing Roles

Club Admins can assign roles to members:

1. Go to the Members page
2. Click on a member to edit
3. Assign or remove roles as needed
4. Members can have multiple roles

Configuring Your Club

Club Admins can configure various settings:

• Club name and description
• Default image processing settings
• Watermark text (if desired)
• EXIF data handling preferences

Free Tier

Photo Salon offers a generous free tier that covers most clubs' needs:

• £1/year of S3 storage included - approximately 3.6 GB of storage
• Unlimited club members
• Unlimited competitions
• All core features including judging, scoring, and live voting

Usage-Based Pricing

If your club's storage usage exceeds the free tier (£1/year), you'll need to subscribe to a paid plan. Pricing is calculated based on your actual storage usage and rounded to the nearest £10/year:

• £10/year: Approximately 30-35 GB of storage
• £20/year: Approximately 60-70 GB of storage
• £30/year: Approximately 90-105 GB of storage
• Each additional £10/year provides approximately 30-35 GB more storage

Your subscription price is automatically calculated based on your current storage usage and will be updated if your usage changes.

Managing Your Subscription

You can view and manage your subscription from your club overview page:

1. Click on the "Active Subscription" badge on your club's overview page
2. View your current subscription details, payment history, and storage usage
3. See suggestions for reducing storage by archiving old competitions
4. Cancel your subscription if needed (remains active until period end, no refunds)

Reducing Storage Costs

If you want to reduce your subscription cost or return to the free tier:

• Archive competitions: Archive old competitions to free up storage. Archived competitions don't count toward your storage costs.
• Automatic price updates: When you archive competitions, your subscription price is automatically recalculated and updated for the next billing period.
• Smart suggestions: The subscription management page suggests which competitions to archive based on age and size.

Subscription Renewal

Subscriptions automatically renew annually. You'll be charged the current subscription price each year unless you cancel or your storage usage changes.

• If your storage increases, you'll be notified when creating new competitions and may need to upgrade
• If your storage decreases (by archiving competitions), your subscription price will be updated automatically
• You can cancel at any time - your subscription remains active until the end of the current period

• Set competition deadlines well in advance to give members time to prepare
• Assign multiple judges for important competitions to ensure fair scoring
• Use live voting for interactive club meetings and member engagement
• Review entries before marking a competition as "Judged" to ensure all scores are complete