Competition Submission Guidelines

Members may enter a maximum of two images into each monthly salon competition.

Requirements for Preparing Digital Images

Computer adjustments to the image must comply with the rules of the Photographic Society of America (PSA):

No techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove pictorial elements except by cropping are permitted.
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.
Photographs of human created hybrid plants, cultivated (crop) plants, domestic animals, or mounted specimens are ineligible, as is any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the photographic statement. (Note: PSA does not allow Feral animals, but MNNPC allows them.)
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.
Color images can be converted to grey-scale monochrome.
Infrared images, either direct-captures or derivations, are not allowed.
All allowed adjustments must appear natural.

File requirements:

JPEG file format (.jpg)
Image size should be a maximum of 1920 pixels along the longest dimension with total image size limited to 1000 KB
- Note: we do not allow larger images so that images can be submitted to the TCACCC interclub competition without special handling, to limit storage space requirements, and for consistency
Color space should be sRGB since that is how the images will be displayed during the salon and viewed by the judge(s).

File Name Requirements:

The image number (1 for the first image and a 2 for the second),
your personal 3-digit salon identification number*
a space
the image name (up to 35 characters, please see further details below),
a space
the Category designation:
- Wildlife (W) or (w) for images that contain as their main subject any aspect of wildlife (mammals, birds, fish or other marine subjects, insects, arthropods, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans and not domesticated animals such as pets or farm animals) AND the subjects are free-living, unrestrained, non-captive, non-rehab, non-zoo, and non-game farm subjects. Scientific bands, scientific tags or radio collars on wild animals are permissible.
- Zoology (Z) or (z) for same subject types as wildlife except the subject is not roaming free,
- Botanical (B) or (b) for images that contain as their main subject plants or fungus (excluding human created hybrid plants),
- General (G) or (g) for images that contain as the main subject landscapes, geology, weather, and patterns in nature.

The member is responsible for choosing the appropriate category they would like the image to be judged under.

Please do not type “.jpeg” in the name as that should be added automatically when you process the image.

Examples:

1903 Swans in Morning Light (W).jpg – First image for member 903
2903 Marsh Marigold (b).jpg – Second image for member 903

To allow the images to be included in the salon slideshow and on the MNPC website with minimal special handling, please capitalize the appropriate words in the image name AND use spaces between words. For example:

Bald Eagle catching Fish rather than baldeaglecatchingfish

Submitting Digital Images

Email your salon entries to salon.minnesotanaturephoto@gmail.com before 6:00 p.m. the Wednesday before the meeting.

You may send your entries in advance of the due date. If you are sending images for a future salon beyond the next meeting, be sure to include the salon month in the subject line.

Attach the image files to the email.

Please do not embed the image(s) in the email or zip the files before attaching. This requires a lot of extra handling and time!

The email subject line should note that the email contains salon images – something like “Salon images” or “Images for October salon”.

When your images are entered in the salon, you will receive an email confirmation.

If you do not receive the email within approximately 36 hours of the submission deadline, please send a follow-up email to: dmhedina@gmail.com.

Salon submissions which do not comply with the above requirements could be rejected or delayed entry to a salon until requirements are met.

Questions:

If you have questions about these requirements or require help to comply with them, please email your name and phone number to salon.minnesotanaturephoto@gmail.com and a board or other club member will contact you.

*If you would like to be assigned a three-digit identification number you must be an active member with dues paid for the current year.