Rules and Guidelines for Special Contests
The themes for the PPC's annual Special Contests are Nature, Portraits, Photojournalism, and Cell Phone.
These contests are outside of the annual competition. No points will be awarded. Awards will be presented to the first three places in each contest.
All competition levels will be judged together. There will be no judge's critique.
You may enter all four special contests, but you may only submit a single image for each.
The maximum dimensions for electronic images submitted to the contest website are 4096 x 2160 pixels.
NOTE: You must be a Plano Photography Club member to submit an image to a competition.
Guidelines
The information below (particularly for the Nature and Photojournalism topics) has been taken from the Gulf States Camera Club Council website. It should be used for guidance when entering photos in the Special Contests.
Nature
Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archaeology, in such a fashion that a well-informed person will be able to identify the subject material and to certify as to its honest presentation.
The story-telling value of a photograph must be weighed more than the pictorial quality while maintaining high technical quality. Human elements shall not be present, except where those human elements enhance the nature story. The presence of scientific bands, scientific tags, or radio collars on wild animals is permissible.
Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, or obviously set arrangements, are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. No techniques that add to, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted.
Techniques that enhance the presentation of the photograph without changing the nature story or the pictorial content are permitted. All adjustments must appear natural. Color images can be converted to grayscale monochrome. Infrared images are not allowed.
Portraits
Images must be of people – no pets or other animals. They can be color or monochrome.
Photojournalism
Photojournalism entries shall consist of images with informative content and emotional impact, reflecting the human presence in our world.
The journalistic (story-telling) value of the image shall receive priority over pictorial quality. In the interest of credibility, images that misrepresent the truth, such as those from events or activities specifically arranged for photography or of subjects directed or hired for photography, are not eligible.
Techniques that add, relocate, replace or remove any element of the original image, except by cropping, are not permitted. The only allowable modifications are removal of dust, scratches, or digital noise, restoration of the existing appearance of the original scene, sharpening that is not obvious, and conversion to grayscale monochrome. Derivations, including infrared, are not eligible.
Cell Phone
Entries to this contest must have been captured using a cell phone. Photos captured with tablets are not eligible, even if the tablet acts as a phone.
Images must be in JPEG format and the file name must be Windows-compatible (i.e., the file name may not contain any of the characters \ : / * ? " [ ]| ).
Photos may be of any subject and they may be edited on any device using any software.