IPCS INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT 2023- Rules

Image and Entry Requirements: This exhibition is open to anyone; however, an entry may be rejected when the Sponsor or the Exhibition Organizers, in their reasonable discretion, believes the entry does not conform to exhibition rules and these Conditions of Entry. Membership in any photographic organization is not required.

Sanctions: Entries will not be accepted from any entrant who is currently sanctioned by PSA.

PSA Star Ratings: To receive proper Star ratings credit from PSA, entrants must provide their names and country exactly the same in each exhibition. Aliases are not permitted. Please contact PSA in the event of name changes or relocating to another country

Image Creation: Entries must originate as photographs (image-captures of objects via light sensitivity) made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or acquired digitally.

Certification: By virtue of submitting an image, the entrant certifies the work as his or her own (.Images may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else (for example: clip art, images or art by others downloaded from the Internet). Aliases are not allowed. The entrant permits the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. This may include low resolution posting on a website. Note: Entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced or used “will not be eligible for awards” or inclusion in audio-visuals of the exhibition “and could be subject to disqualification” by the exhibition sponsors. The exhibition assumes no liability of any misuse of copyright.

Alteration and Computer Generation Subject to Divisional restrictions (particularly Nature, Photo Travel, and Photojournalism) images may be altered, either electronically or otherwise, by the maker. Adjustments to enhance images or creatively modify images are allowed providing the underlying photograph is retained in a way that is obvious to the viewer. Images may not be constructed entirely with a computer, and must be the sole work of the author

Re-use of accepted images: Once an image has been accepted in a PSA Recognized exhibition, any identical image, or near identical image, may not, in future, be entered or re-entered in any section of the same Division Star Ratings class in that exhibition regardless of media, format, or title; may not be re-titled for entry into any other PSA Recognized exhibition, including translation into another language.

Entry: An Entry consists of, up to and including, four (4) images entered by a single Entrant into the same Section. An entrant may only enter a specific Section once.

Titles: Each image must have a unique title. That unique title must be used for entry of that image or of an Identical Image into any and all PSA-Recognized exhibitions. Titles must be 35 characters or fewer. No titles may be visible to the judges, and nothing in the image may identify the maker. Titles must not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames), or words such as “untitled” or “no title”. Titles may not consist solely of numbers.

Colour and Monochrome: Colour and Monochrome images from the same capture that share substantial pictorial content in common will be considered the same image and must be given the same title. However, PSA members working on Galaxy and Diamond Star Ratings are allowed to continue using different titles of monochrome versions and colour versions of the same capture that have already been accepted until the required number of acceptances for those titles has been completed.

All Exhibitions Accepting Digital Entries

Photos must be in JPG file format, Max. image width (horizontal) is 1920 pix. Max. image height (vertical) is 1080 pix. in 300 dpi. compression 7-12, max 2 Mb. No entrants would be eligible for acceptances and awards if their uploaded picture file is found wanting in exif / meta data.

Organisation

Imagix Photo Club of Santipur

Sutragarh Chunari Para Street, Santipur, Nadia, West Bengal 741404

Contact: info@ipcsclub.com

The Exhibition will be conducted in accordance with the rules of the PSA.

An entrant’s images will not be presented to the judges consecutively. An entrant’s four images will be distributed throughout four rounds of judging in that section. Distribution of images will be in the same round order as submitted by the entrant.

An image may be entered in only one section where acceptances of that image in multiple sections would be eligible for the same star path

Target range for acceptances        not exceed 35% in any section

Data Protection

By entering this exhibition, you are explicitly consenting to the personal details you have supplied, including email addresses, being held, processed and used by the exhibition organizers for purposes associated with this exhibition. You also explicitly consent to such information being sent to organizations that have accorded official recognition, patronage or accreditation to this exhibition. You acknowledge and accept that entering this exhibition means that the status and results of your entry may be made public.

Breaches of Rules

If, at any time, it is determined in the reasonable discretion of the exhibition organizer or the judges before, during, or after the judging of an exhibition that an entrant has submitted entries where one or more images may fail to comply with these Conditions of Entry, including the stated definitions, the exhibition organizers reserve the right to delete the entry from the exhibition and void any or all acceptances or awards in connection with the exhibition. Fees may be forfeited or refunded in these circumstances. The entrant acknowledges that the decision of the exhibition organizers or the judges is final.

In order to ensure that images comply with the Conditions of Entry and definitions, the exhibition organizers may carry out reasonable measures to verify that:

              A. The images are the original work of the entrant and

              B. The images comply with the rules and definitions as set out in these Conditions of Entry

These steps include, but are not limited to, questioning any entrant, requiring the submission of RAW files or other digital files representing the original capture of the submitted image(s), confronting the entrant with evidence that one or more submitted images fails to comply with the Conditions of Entry (also known as Entry Rules), and offering the entrant a reasonable opportunity to provide counter evidence to refute the exhibition organizer’s evidence by a set deadline. Such entries that are not cleared or are still questionable after the entrant has presented evidence may be considered in breach of these Conditions of Entry, and declined. Such entries may be referred to PSA for further investigation of possible ethics violations.

PSA retains the right to investigate in any way all complaints/suspicions of breaches of entry conditions, impose sanctions if deemed necessary, void the acceptances of any image found to violate the PSA rules, include the entrant’s name on the list of sanctions provided to Exhibitions, and share such investigations with FIAP. Entrants automatically agree to these terms by the act of entering the Exhibition and agree to cooperate with any investigation.

f another party is submitting images on the entrant’s behalf, the entrant will still be held responsible for adhering to these Conditions of Entry (Entry Rules) and will be subject to sanction for any violations to these Conditions of Entry and PSA’s Statement of Ethics that may result.

Notice: When an entrant fills in the Entry Form to submit an entry the entrant will see a feature to affirm, he or she has read these Conditions of Entry when he or she fills out the entry form. If the entrant does not so affirm the entry will not be submitted

PSA Statement on Subject Matter

There is one hard and fast rule, whose spirit must be observed at all times and applies to all sections offered in PSA recognised exhibitions.

The welfare of the subject is more important than the photograph.

The welfare of the subject is more important than the photograph. There is also a PSA policy on the use of aerial photography – aircraft, helicopters and drones. This policy can be found at https://psa-photo.org/index.php?psa-policies#drone.

The purpose of this policy is to prevent any interference with other individuals or animals which will or may cause a disturbance in their normal activity or disrupt the way any individuals or animals interact with their environment. Entry in this exhibition requires exhibitors to agree to this and other PSA policies.

The content of images must comply with these General Conditions and with the Division and Section definitions listed in these conditions. Images that – in the sole opinion of the judges or the Exhibition Organizers – do not comply are likely to be disqualified so the entrant may be aware of the problem when considering entry into other PSA recognized exhibitions.

PSA Monochrome Definition

An image is considered to be Monochrome only if it gives the impression of having no colour (i.e. contains only shades of grey which can include pure black and pure white) OR it gives the impression of being a greyscale image that has been toned in one colour across the entire image. (For example, by Sepia, red, gold, etc.) A greyscale or multi-coloured image modified or giving the impression of having been modified by partial toning, multi-toning or by the inclusion of spot colouring does not meet the definition of monochrome and shall be classified as a Colour Work.

Monochrome images may be entered in PID Colour sections but will only be eligible towards PID Colour Star Ratings if accepted.

PSA Nature Definition

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.

➢ Colour images can be converted to greyscale monochrome.

➢ Infrared images, either direct-captures or derivations, are not allowed.

➢ Images entered in Nature sections meeting the Nature Photography Definition above can have landscapes, geologic formations, weather phenomena, and extant organisms as the primary subject matter. This includes images taken with subjects in controlled conditions, such as zoos, game farms, botanical gardens, aquariums and any enclosure where the subjects are totally dependent on man for food.

Attention is drawn to the PSA Statement on Subject Matter which applies to all sections

PSA Photo Travel Definition

A Photo Travel image expresses the characteristic features or culture of a land as they are found naturally. There are no geographical limitations. Images from events or activities arranged specifically for photography, or of subjects directed or hired for photography are not permitted. Close up pictures of people or objects must include features that provide information about the location.

Techniques that add, relocate, replace or remove any element of the original image, except by cropping, are not permitted. The only allowable adjustments are removal of dust or digital noise, restoration of the appearance of the original scene, and complete conversion to greyscale monochrome. Other derivations, including infrared, are not permitted. All images must look natural.

Attention is drawn to the PSA Statement on Subject Matter which applies to all sections.

Links for awareness of the latest changes in PSA subject matter:

PSA Photo Travel staged images: https://psa-photo.org/index.php?staged-travel

Nature: https://psa-photo.org/useruploads/files/nature/Nature-Photography-Judges-Guide.pdf

PJ: https://psa-photo.org/useruploads/files/photojournalism_-_pjd/pj-illustrated-guide.pdf

PT: https://psa-photo.org/useruploads/files/ptd_-_photo_travel/guide-for-photo-travel-judges-and-chairs.pdf