Each year, the Photographic Society of America (PSA) organizes Interclub Competitions, which are open to all member clubs. Individual members of those clubs do not have to be PSA members, just the club. Each division of the PSA organizes it's own competition.

Each competition consists of a number of rounds, plus an End of Year competition to select the years best images. Awards are given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places plus a number of Honorable Mentions (HM's) for each round. Those award winners are then automatically entered into the End of Year round, where again, awards are given. All the competitions are done using digital images with the obvious exception of the Pictorial Print competition.

Please read each divisions entry carefully, especially the image requirements paragraph, as they all differ slightly. For information on preparing your images, see the related topics at the bottom of this page.

Pictorial Print Division

This competition is known as the "Inter Club Print Competition" (ICPC). There are 4 rounds per year held in October, December, February, and April, plus an End Of Year (EOY) round in June. Each round has 5 categories, Small mono, Small Color, Large Mono, Large Color, and Creative Altered Reality (CAR).

In each of those 5 categories, 4 prints are needed, for a total of 20 prints per round. Each member can have a maximum of 1 print in each of the 5 categories.

All prints entered must have the authors name, and the title of the print, on the back.

Small Mono

Maximum entry: 4 prints per round, 1 print per author.

Maximum print size: 8.5 × 12 inches.

Mono prints may be toned, or enhanced by the use of a single color (in keeping with accepted PSA practice). Prints with 2 or more colors must be entrered as a color print.

Small Color

Maximum entry: 4 prints per round, 1 print per author.

Maximum print size: 8.5 × 12 inches.

Large Mono

Maximum entry: 4 prints per round, 1 print per author.

Maximum print size: 16 × 20 inches. (Must be larger than Small Prints)

Mono prints may be toned, or enhanced by the use of a single color (in keeping with accepted PSA practice). Prints with 2 or more colors must be entrered as a color print.

Large Color

Maximum entry: 4 prints per round, 1 print per author.

Maximum print size: 16 × 20 inches. (Must be larger than Small Prints)

Creative Altered Reality

Maximum entry: 4 prints per round, 1 print per author.

Maximum print size: 16 × 20 inches.

Can be a mix of large and small, color and mono. Anything goes!

Creative altered Reality includes the use of Photoshop filters, montages, blended images etc.

Color Projected Image

The Color Projected Image Division's competition is known as the "Inter Club Image Competition" (ICIC). There are 4 rounds per year held in October, December, February, and April, plus a 'Best of the Best round in June. Each round has 1 category, General, which includes alterations.

A total of 6 images are needed for each round. Each member can have a maximum of 2 images per round.

Image requirements:

Color Projected Image - Creative

(While this competition is run by the Color Projected Image Divsion, it is a wholly separate competition, held in it's own right.)

The Color Projected Image Division's Creative competition is known as the "Inter Club Creative Competition" (ICCC). There are 3 rounds per year held in November, February, and May, plus a 'Best of the Best round in June.

A total of 6 images are needed for each round. Each member can have a maximum of 2 images per round.

Image requirements:

The CPI division's definition states - "The original image must be made by the entrant on photographic emulsion or acquired digitally. All images must be original and may not incorporate elements produced by anyone else. Images may be altered by the maker, and artwork or computer graphics created by the entrant may be incorporated, if the photographic content predominates. Images may not be constructed entirely within a computer. . Remember the core image of the photo should be identifiable. Non-creative images are not eligible for this competition. Any subject matter is acceptable as long as the Altered Reality, guideline is apparent in the image"

Electronic Imaging Division

The Electronic Imaging Division's competition is known as the "Interclub Digital Slide Competition" (IDSC). There are 4 rounds per year held in November, January, March, and May. Each round has 1 category, General, which includes alterations.

A total of 6 images are needed for each round. Each member can have a maximum of 1 image per round.

Image requirements:

Photo Journalism Division

The Photojournalism Division's competition is known as the "Photo Journalism Inter Club Competition" (PJICC). There are 4 rounds per year held in November, January, March, and May, plus an End Of Year (EOY) round in July. Each round has 1 category, sub-divided into General Open and Human Interest.

A total of 6 images are needed for each round. Each member can have a maximum of 2 images per round. (However, in order to encourage as many participants as possible, please restrict your entry to 1 image per round.) Any Human Interest images are seperated out at the time of judging, and are eligible for their own awards.

Image requirements:

The PSA states "Photojournalism images 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 in photojournalism. Human interest images depict a person or persons in an interactive, emotional or unusual situation, excluding sports action."

Photo Travel Division

This competition is known as the "Photo Travel Interclub Digital Competition" (PTIDC). There are 3 rounds per year held in November, February, May. Each round has 1 category, General, which includes alterations.

A total of 6 images are needed for each round. Each member can have a maximum of 1 image per round.

Image requirements:

All images must conform to the Photo Travel Divisions definition:
"A Photo Travel image must express the feeling of a time and place, portray a land, its people, or a culture in its natural state, and has no geographical limitations. Ultra close-ups which lose their identity, studio-type model shots, or photographic manipulations that misrepresent the true situation or alter the content of the image are unacceptable in Photo Travel competition.
No pictorial elements may be moved, cloned, added, deleted, rearranged or combined. No manipulation or modification is permitted except resizing, cropping, selective lightening or darkening, sharpening, and restoration of original color to the scene. Any adjustments must appear natural."

Nature Division

This competition is known as the "Nature Digital Interclub Competition" (NDIC). There are 3 rounds per year held in November, February, May.

A total of 6 images are needed for each round. There should be at least 4 authors for those 6 images, although it is preferred that each member should have a maximum of 1 image per round.

Image requirements:

The Nature division has stringent rules as to what is eligible for their competitions. Please read the following statement carefully, to ensure your image is eligible

"Nature photography is restricted to the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history, except anthropology and archeology, 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 a 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."

All images must be considered "Digital Realism", where a photographer may perform any enhancements and modifications that improve the presentation of the image to make it more closely represent the original scene photographed but that does not change the truth of the original nature story. Cropping and horizontal flipping (equivalent to reversing a slide) are acceptable modifications. Removing spots due to dust on your sensors is allowed. Removing rounded slide mount corners on scanned images is allowed. Adding elements to your images, removing pictorial elements from your image other than by cropping, combining separate images or rearranging and/or cloning and/or copying elements in your image are not still acceptable and can lead to disqualification of your image in the competition. Since HDR techniques and Helicon Focus techniques are techniques that enhance the presentation without changing the pictorial content, they are now considered allowable techniques. Please note that all adjustments must still look natural. Just because a technique is legitimate does not guarantee the image it was used on will get a good score.

Please note that "pictorial quality" is not the same a technical quality. Technical quality is still an important criteria for evaluation and judging of images.

Images are not required to meet the requirements of the PSA Definition of Wildlife. Zoo shots and Game Farm shots are eligible provided the artificial habitat is not apparent in the image. Since titles will be read, I recommend you do not advertise the fact something was taken at a zoo or other controlled situation as part of the title. For informational purposes only, here is the revised Wildlife Definition:
"Authentic wildlife is defined as one or more organisms, living free and unrestrained in a natural or adopted habitat. Therefore landscapes, photographs of zoo animals, game farm animals, or any living subject taken under controlled conditions are not eligible for Wildlife competitions"

Graeme Webb
Jan 2010

Many thanks to the competition leads who contributed to this article.

More detailed information can be found on the PSA website. Look under "Divisions", click on the division you want, and then click on "Inter Club Competitions"