submitting digital pictures to contests

Hi yall

This is my first post to this forum, and I hope I am in the right section.

I just recently started taking underwater pictures and I yet have to complete my equipment. One of the things I am dearly missing is an underwater strobe, so all the pictures I am taking right now are with natural light.

My camera allows for manual white balance and this helps quite a bit, but to get some of the colors back I rely on post-processing my pictures (manually adjusting the color channels). In my opinion I am doing basically the same thing as the Kodak Sea Processing (for film) or when working with RAW files.

Encouraged by some friends I wanted to submit some of my pictures to a local scuba show to participate in a contest. When I read their rules, I was surprised to find out that they wouldn't allow any changes to digital pictures (except croping) "after the shutter is pressed". I wrote an email to them and explained how I adjust my pictures (I surely do NOT change the content) and - in the lights of the above mentioned techniques - if they would still be eligible to participate.

I got a very clear NO - with no real explanation why Kodak Sea Processing and digital RAW was allowed and mine weren't (they said something about industry standard, but this can hardly count for RAW and I know that the film labs have a great influence on how underwater pictrures come out).

That said, my question is, whether this is standard procedure and every contest imposes these (IMHO silly) rules or if this is rather an expection and you are generally allowed to optimize your pictures (again - I am not talking about changing the content or overall composition) before submitting them?

Thanks for any comments,

Eric

Hi and welcome to Wetpixel!

Each contest that I have entered has had different rules.

Since it is clearly a "digital contest" I assume that "anything goes" as long as it is not specifically prohibited in the rules.

Then again, I don't ever change the content of my photo, unless it is labelled as an "artistic" category. For instance, if there is a "digital" contest and a "digital creative" contest, then I will enter a shot in the former that does not have anything added or taken away, while for the latter, I may use artistic filters, add flying pink pigs, etc...:-)

By "change the content" of the photo, I mean I will adjust color, exposure, contrast, sharpness, etc - anything that a film shooter can do in a darkroom. But I won't add or remove anything from the photo.

I'm not sure where backscatter fits into the above though...

Cheers

James

We're definitely in a transition time where both digital and film are competing, often against each other. Kodak sponsored at least two major photo contests in 2003, where the rules dictated film only. The National Park Service has an annual photo contest. Digital is allowed, but no alteration whatsover is allowed - your entry must be the image file that was written to memory a moment after the shutter was released. Not surprisingly, the major sponsor of the contest is Kodak, which is trying to hold back the incoming tide of digital.

Kodak will fail and they will be swept away by the tide. Digital is here and it's not going away. I expect that in the next year or so, most contest sponsors (other than film companies, if there are still any of them around) will acknowledge that cropping, adjusting contrast and brightness, and adjusting other items are simply a normal part of the processing work flow.

IMHO

Jim

Thanks for your input - it is just somewhat frustrating to see how restrictions occor that are obviously unjust and - as said - dictated by sponsor interests.

Guess I have to select future contests and their rules with some care and wait a little while until digital pictures and their "darkroom" techniques become more accepted.

Eric

Eric,

I am guessing you are thinking abou the SEAS expo in Raleigh. If not they have the same rules and I was thinking the exact same things as you. If you can do whatever you want in a dark room (increase contrast, modify colors) and you can do the Kodak sea processting thingy why don't they let us touch the picture and modify the contrast.

On a second thought ... how will they check it? EXIF info? You can modify those very easy.

Let me know if you find more about this because I was planning in submiting some pix my self.

Thank you

Vlad