Judge Portal & Rehearsal Competitions

Inviting a remote judge, running pre-scoring and live judging, and rehearsing a whole competition night safely

Prism - September 2026 - For club committee and competition organisers

The short version

The Judge Portal lets you invite a judge - local or remote - and give them access to only the classes they are judging, nothing else in Prism. They can pre-score at their own pace on their own screen, or follow the competition live on the night. Rehearsal Competitions let you duplicate an upcoming, closed or judged competition into a fully isolated snapshot copy and run the entire workflow, including the Judge Portal, as many times as you like before it matters - with zero effect on your real results, standings or member records.

Judge Portal - inviting a judge

From a competition's Judges tab, enter the judge's email address and choose which classes they are assigned - for example just Advanced, or every class in the competition. You can assign each class in one of two modes:

Pre-score - the judge reviews and scores entries in advance, in their own time.
Live view - the judge follows the competition night remotely as it happens, without pre-scoring.

Send the invitation by email, or use the copy-link button to hand the judge a link directly (useful if email delivery is uncertain, or the judge is in the room with you). The judge accepts the invitation once; after that they sign in and return through prismphoto.club/judge like any other login.

What the judge can see

A judge's access is limited to exactly the classes assigned to them, in that one competition. They cannot see other competitions, other clubs, member details, member votes, or any other part of Prism. Member votes are recorded privately, without names, and are never shown to the judge.

The invitation link itself is single-use. Once the judge has redeemed it, their access is tied to their own sign-in, so they can return through prismphoto.club/judge as often as they like without needing the link again, and the link cannot be reused by anyone else.

Pre-scoring workflow

A judge assigned in pre-score mode reviews one photograph at a time, at full quality, on their own calibrated screen - not compressed for a projector or a phone. They can:

Move backward and forward through the class freely, in any order.
Score using the mouse, on-screen buttons, or the keyboard.
Use half scores where the competition allows them.
Hold an entry for reconsideration and add a private note, where supported.
Revise a score as many times as they like before marking the class complete - nothing is final until they choose to finish.

Every score autosaves as soon as it is set. A judge can close the tab, come back an hour or a week later through /judge, and continue exactly where they left off - a progress indicator shows how many photographs are scored.

Completing and locking a class

When the judge is satisfied, they mark the class complete. Prism checks every entry has a score first and lists anything missing. Once complete, your chosen organiser is notified by email, and the class shows as Awaiting lock in your Judges tab.

The judge can still reopen a complete class themselves to make further changes, right up until an administrator locks it. Locking is a deliberate administrator action taken close to competition night, and is what protects the judge's scores from any further editing - by the judge or anyone else - for event-night integrity.

Status	What it means
Draft	The judge is still working through the class. Scores autosave as they go.
Complete	The judge has finished and every entry has a score. The judge can still reopen it themselves.
Awaiting lock	Complete, and waiting for an administrator to lock it before the night.
Locked	An administrator has locked the class. The judge can no longer edit it.

Using locked pre-scores on competition night

Prism's runner is prepared for controlled event-night use of a locked pre-score: once member voting is closed on the current photograph, an administrator can reveal the judge's prepared score for that image, one photograph at a time, for use in the final result alongside any audience vote. This is a deliberate action the administrator takes for each photograph in turn, not an automatic background process. We recommend rehearsing this sequence at least once (see Rehearsal Competitions below) before relying on it during a real event.

Remote live judging

A judge assigned in live view mode does not pre-score. Instead, once you start running the competition, their screen automatically shows the same photograph the runner is currently displaying, updating as you advance - so they can follow along and comment in real time without being in the room.

This is designed to be paired with a separate phone or video call (Zoom or similar) for spoken critique. Prism does not provide video calling itself - it keeps the judge's screen in sync with the room, and your club supplies the voice or video connection you already use.

If something goes wrong with a judge's access

Invitation link already used or expired - from the Judges tab, reissue the invitation. This clears the old link and creates a fresh one to send, and does not affect any scores the judge has already saved.
Invitation email never arrived - use the copy-link button next to the invitation instead of relying on email, and ask the judge to check junk/spam or any organisation-level email filtering.
You need to withdraw access - revoke the invitation from the Judges tab at any time. Saved scores are preserved; reissuing a fresh invitation lets the same judge (or a replacement) continue from where the scores were left.
The judge closed their browser or their device restarted - nothing is lost. They sign back in and return through /judge, and pick up exactly where they left off.

Rehearsal Competitions

Before trusting the Judge Portal, remote judging, or QR voting with a real event, duplicate an upcoming, closed or judged competition containing submitted photographs into a rehearsal from the competition's admin page. The rehearsal is a snapshot of the competition as it exists at the moment you create it. The rehearsal:

Gets its own separate voting session and QR code - a fresh, working code every time, never a real competition's code - and its own judge invitations, scores and results, all kept apart from the real competition's.
Carries over the photographs and classes eligible at the moment you create it, for realistic testing, without adding anything to any member's personal image library or increasing anyone's image counts - the rehearsal references the existing photographs rather than copying the files.
Does not update automatically - photographs submitted to the real competition afterwards, and later changes to its settings or ordering, do not appear in the rehearsal. Delete and recreate the rehearsal if you need a newer snapshot.
Is clearly labelled REHEARSAL throughout the admin screens, the runner and the Judge Portal, so it can never be mistaken for the real thing.
Is hidden from your ordinary competition and season lists, and only appears in the dedicated Rehearsal competitions section of your competitions page.
Never affects real results, season standings, awards, member statistics, image banks, public results pages, or your club's embedded website widget.
Leaves the original competition completely untouched.

Inside a rehearsal you can exercise the entire workflow safely: invite a rehearsal judge and test pre-scoring or live judging, run the competition night runner, open and close QR voting, lock and reveal pre-scores, and finalise and publish - all in a space that never counts.

Resetting, rerunning and deleting

Reset a rehearsal at any time to clear all voting, scores, holds, judge invitations and pre-scores while keeping the same photographs, classes and configuration - ready to run again from the start as many times as you like. When you no longer need it, delete it. Deleting a rehearsal never affects the original competition, its entries, or its photographs.

Recommendation

Run a full rehearsal before any competition night where you are using the Judge Portal, remote judging, or QR voting for the first time, or after a significant gap since you last used them. It takes a few minutes and removes any uncertainty about how the night will actually go.

Quick reference

Question	Answer
Can a judge score from home?	Yes - pre-scoring is designed for the judge's own screen, in their own time, before the night.
Can the judge change a score after saving it?	Yes, any time before the class is locked by an administrator.
What happens if the judge closes their browser?	Nothing is lost. Scores autosave continuously; they return through /judge and continue.
How do I resend a lost invitation without losing scores?	Reissue the invitation from the Judges tab. Saved scores are unaffected.
Can a remote judge follow the live competition?	Yes - assign them in live view mode instead of pre-score mode.
Can the judge see how members voted?	No. Votes are recorded privately without names; the judge sees only the classes assigned to them.
Does the judge need the invitation link every time?	No - it is single-use. After redeeming it, they sign in and return through /judge.
Can I mix a locked pre-score with audience voting?	Yes - the weighting is configurable, including a straight 50/50 blend, and the pre-score is revealed one photograph at a time once voting on it is closed.
How do I test all of this without affecting real results?	Duplicate an upcoming, closed or judged competition as a rehearsal from its admin page.
Where do I find my rehearsals?	The Rehearsal competitions section on your competitions page.