The Photographic Society of America (PSA) is a worldwide organization providing a wide range of services that promote photography and benefits to its members. Individual members can participate in competitions, study groups and on-line education programs designed to advance photographic knowledge and skill. Competitions are also held for clubs, councils, federations and chapter members.
Each division conducts Interclub Competitions, under the supervision of appointed volunteer directors. Depending upon the division, the competitions are conducted 3 or 4 times a year. Divisions with large numbers of participating clubs, including those from various countries, are organized into groups of approximately 25 PSA clubs each. Host clubs volunteer to conduct each of the competitions, on a group-by-group basis, which includes providing a panel of 3 judges.
DSCC members regularly participate in PSA inter-club competitions in both the projected-image division and photojournalism division. For each competition, the clubs submit 6 digital images or prints from their entire membership, which may include non-PSA members. The combined scores of a club’s entry are used to determine their ranking within a competition. The combined scores are also totaled at the end of the year to determine overall rankings. In the case of competitions having multiple groups, the rankings will be used in forming the groups for the next year. All scores and rankings are posted on the website, as are galleries of the award-winning images.
PSA INTERCLUB COMPETITIONS
PSA Interclub Competitions provide a chance to participate as a club and be judged against other clubs. Currently the DSCC participates in the projected image division (PID) and photojournalism division (PJD) divisions.
The easiest way to participate is to provide four (4) files for each competition you wish to be included in by Sept 30th. Otherwise, submissions are needed one week before the round deadline. For each round, 6 images, max of 2 images per member will be submitted.
Projected Image Division (PID) Interclub Competition
ROUNDS END: November 1, January 1, March 1, May 1
The subject matter for PID entries is unrestricted or “open.”
Photojournalism (PJD) Interclub Competition
ROUNDS END: November 15, January 15, March 15, May 15
Definition of an Acceptable Photojournalism Image:
Photojournalism shall consist of pictures or sequences with informative content and emotional impact, including human interest, documentary, and spot news. The journalistic value of the photograph shall be considered over pictorial quality. In the interest of credibility, photographs which misrepresent the truth, such as manipulation to alter the subject matter, or situations which are set up for the purpose of photography, are unacceptable. The only editing that can be done includes cropping and color correction that could be done in a darkroom.
There are two classification that you may list a photo journalistic image under, General and Human Interest.
Human Interest must include one or more persons (not implied, actual persons). Sports action cannot be the main subject of the image (that would be considered “sports photography”). You may have person(s) in sports gear, but not actual sports action. Additionally, the images must show some type of interaction, emotion or unusual situation and the subject matter cannot be staged.
General classification can be almost anything, including Human Interest, but usually it involves non-human related events (man made or natural disasters are a good example).
Nature Division Interclub Competition
There was some discussion and questions about participating in the Nature Interclub competition as well. We would have to submit 6 images by a minimum 4 members for three rounds. As a club we have until October 8th to register to participate. If you are interested in submitting for Nature let Matt Moses know so he can determine whether we’ll have enough members to meet the requirements.
ROUNDS END: November 15, January 15, March 15
Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict 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 certify 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 are integral parts of the nature story such as nature subjects, like barn owls or storks, adapted to an environment modified by humans, or where those human elements are in situations depicting natural forces, like hurricanes or tidal waves. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible. Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement.
No techniques that add, 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, or without altering the content of the original scene, are permitted including HDR, focus stacking and dodging/burning. Techniques that remove elements added by the camera, such as dust spots, digital noise, and film scratches, are allowed. Stitched images are not permitted. All allowed adjustments must appear natural. Color images can be converted to grey-scale monochrome. Infrared images, either direct-captures or derivations, are not allowed.
