RULES
VISUAL FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY CIRCUIT 2024
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
VISUAL FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY CIRCUIT 2024 exhibition is with the patronage of the and conducted under the approved rules of the Photographic Society of America (PSA 2024-1410) and WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY UNION(WPU[2024]180)，All awards and acceptances obtained in this salon, except for those in the China Section, will be taken into account for the Worldwide PSA Who’s Who in Photography and credited for PSA and WPU Distinctions.
The Circuit is open to photographers all over the world. This is a digital image Circuit.
CORRESPONDENCE & ENQUIRIES TO:
ORGANIZER：
Happy Photography Club
Exhibition Chairman: Ms. Li Chen
7-302# Xiangzhou Sunshine Community, Century Avenue,
Jishou City, Hunan Province, China (416000)
Chairman Email: 732710600@qq.com
Exhibition Email: 9835147@qq.com
Phone number: 13574336633
Salon Secretary : Lianqing Tian
Salon Treasurer : Mei Yu
Rules & Submission: http://cipa.sychina.net/photo5/
The software provider： Hunan Jingchen Photography Co., Ltd
Software provider Email： 497930342@qq.com
SECTIONS:
A. Color Open (Only Color) (PIDC)
B. Monochrome Open (Only Monochrome) (PIDM)
C. Nature (Color/Greyscale Monochrome) (ND)
D. Photojournalism (Color/Greyscale Monochrome) (PJD)
E. Photo Travel (Color/Greyscale Monochrome) (PTD)
F. China (Color/Monochrome) (Not recognised by PSA)
ENTRY FEES:
1 Section USD $ 12.00 (85 CNY)
2 Section USD $ 19.00 (135 CNY)
3 Section USD $ 26.00 (185 CNY)
4 Section USD $ 33.00 (235 CNY)
5 Section USD $ 40.00 (285 CNY)
6 Section USD $ 47.00 (335 CNY)
Group Entries - Discount Rates (% of Total Fee):
More than 5 Entrants: 5 %
More than 10 Entrants: 10 %
More than 20 Entrants: 20 %
Entry fee is mandatory for every participant. Entry fee can be paid with PayPal through our web site. PayPal: 497930342@qq.com
Chinese photographers please directly scan the QR code of WeChat or Alipay to pay in CNY.
NON-PAYMENT OF FEES
Entries for which no fee is received will not be judged.
CALENDAR:
Closing Date: 2024 / 11 / 17
Judging Start date: 2024 / 11 / 27
Judging Deadline: 2024 / 12 / 02
Notification emails sent: 2024 / 12 / 09
Latest Date for Filing EDAS Reports: 2025 / 01 / 01
On-line gallery: 2025 / 01 / 31
Catalogues & awards sent: 2025 / 01 / 31
JURY:（The jury will score all sections）
Salon 1
Jui-Ching Tai (PPSA, MWPU/g) (Taiwan)
Qinghai Ding (GCWPU/1, HNPA, CIPA) (China)
Tong Xian (GCWPU/1, XXPA, CIPA) (China)
Salon 2
Xianquan Hou (PPSA, GCWPU/2, CIPA) (China)
Yuanmeng Chen (QPSA, GCWPU/1) (China)
Wensheng Long (GCWPU/1, HNPA, CIPA) (China)
Salon 3
Feng Gao (MPSA, GCWPU/2, CPA) (China)
Mingxing Tian (GCWPU/1, CPA) (China)
Xuebing Liao (GCWPU/1, HNPA, CIPA) (China)
AWARDS: 180+
The awards will be adjusted in proportion to the total number of participating images. New images are encouraged to enter. All awards and Acceptance in PSA-recognised SECTIONS count towards PSA Star Ratings. E-certificates will not be shipped. Entrants are responsible for downloading and printing their e-certificates.
CATALOGUE:
Online PDF Catalog (Downloadable)
After the results of the Circuit are announced, all contestants are asked to log on to the website to download the E-Cert. The E-Cert is only kept on the website for one year.
Any photographer who is banned by PSA and WPU is not allowed to submit to this salon or the SECTIONS banned. If any uploaded images are found, they will be deleted and the registration fee will be confiscated.
EXHIBITION REQUIREMENTS:
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 ES-COE. Membership in any photographic organization is not required. Entries will not be accepted from any entrant who is on the PSA Penalties List for Ethics Violation. Entry fees are not refundable in these circumstances.
Image and creation and ownership
In all sections of the exhibition, images must originate as photographs made by the entrant. They may not incorporate identifiable images produced by anyone else (for example: clip art, replacement skies, or stock images). Images created in whole or in part by image creation software (frequently called ‘AI’ images) are not allowed. Editing or alteration of images is permitted within the limits specified in the relevant section definitions that are available here https://psa-photo.org/page/division-definitions
Any person submitting or attempting to submit a totally AI generated image that does not begin with a light capture from the maker, from any Photographic Society of America exhibition, social media, event, or publication, other than for editorial purposes, shall be prohibited from PSA for a period of from 3 years to life.
PSA Star Ratings: To receive proper Star ratings credit from PSA, entrants must provide their names and country exactly the same way in each exhibition. Aliases are not permitted. Please contact PSA in the event of name changes or relocating to another country. Using one’s name differently in different exhibition exposes the entrant to the risk that many of their acceptances may not be recognized by PSA Star Ratings.
Reproduction: 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. The Photographic Society of America (PSA) may request specific permission from entrants to reproduce entered images in its educational materials. The terms of that permission will be mutually agreed between the entrant and PSA except in the circumstances where the entered image is found to breach the PSA Ethics Policy. In those circumstances the image may be reproduced by PSA, without the entrant’s further permission, for educational purposes to illustrate serious exhibition rule violations. For those reproductions, the entrant’s name will be withheld.
Entries will not be accepted from entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced in materials related to the exhibition. The exhibition assumes no liability of any misuse of copyright
Re-use of accepted images: Any image that has been accepted in this exhibition, past or present, may not be entered again in the same Division Star Ratings Class in any future instances of this exhibition. It may, of course, be entered in any other PSA recognised exhibitions but must always have the same title. Re-titling in another language is not allowed.
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. Entrants may not enter identical or similar images into the same section or different sections of the same exhibition. Similar is defined as almost identical in subject, composition, props, lighting or technique so that a reasonable person viewing the entries together would decide the entrant has duplicated the previous image except for minor changes.
Titles: Each image must have a unique title that relates to the content of the image. 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 entrant. Titles may not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames such as IMG 471). Titles may not consist of personal identifiers possibly augmented by a number; or include words such as “untitled” or “no title”. Titles may not consist solely of numbers unless those numbers are prominently contained within the image, such as a contestant number in a race.
Color and Monochrome:
Color 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.
DIGITAL ENTRIES:
File: Maximum 1920 pixels on the horizontal side, Vertical size maximum 1080 pixels, Maximum 2 Mb, JPEG, RGB/sRGB, Resolution: 72-300 dpi.
An image may be entered in only one section.
Each entrant may submit a maximum of four images in each of the 6 sections.
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. At no stage will a judge be able to view all the entrant’s images together.
JUDGING METHOD:
The selection of accepted images will be conducted online through the competition website "http://cipa.sychina.net/photo5/ " Judges will judge on line using color-calibrated TV and computer monitors. The computer monitors are capable of displaying images at 100% of the image resolution and images will be displayed at exactly 100% of their resolution (that is, that the images will not be enlarged beyond their native resolution). Also photos will be published in http://cipa.sychina.net/photo5/ .
Target Acceptance Range will not exceed 30%.
DATA PROTECTION:
By entering this exhibition, you are explicitly consenting to the personal details you have supplied, including physical addresses, 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, agree and accept that by entering this exhibition, your participation status which includes your first and last name, name of the country used during registration at the exhibition, number of sections entered and number of photos entered in those sections will be made public in a published status list and that the results of your entry shall be made public in exhibition gallery, exhibition catalog. You also agree and accept the policy regarding noncompliance to the rules of PSA.
SUBJECT MATTER AND SECTION DEFINITIONS:
Statement on Subject Matter - applicable to all sections
The fundamental rule that must be observed at all times and applies to all sections offered in exhibitions with PSA recognition is that the welfare of living creatures is more important than any photograph. This means that practices such as baiting of subjects with a living creature and removal of birds from nests, for the purpose of obtaining a photograph, are highly unethical, and such photographs are not allowed in any exhibition with PSA recognition. Under no circumstances may a living creature be placed in a situation where it will be killed, injured or stressed for the purpose of obtaining a photograph. Images that show live creatures being fed to captive animals, birds or reptiles are not permitted under any circumstances.
There are also concerns about the use of aerial photography, drones, helicopters, low flying aircraft. These should not cause any interference with other individuals or animals which causes a disturbance in their normal activity or disrupt the way any individuals or animals interact with their environment. Entrants in PSA recognized exhibitions should comply with all relevant laws and regulations, associated with aerial photography, in the country in which the image was taken.
Entry into PSA recognized exhibitions is conditional on accepting these policies. The content of images must comply with the General Conditions and with the Division and Section definitions listed in these conditions. Images that - in the sole opinion of the judges- do not comply, will be disqualified so the entrant may be aware of the problem when considering entry into other exhibitions with PSA recognition.
PSA MONOCHROME DEFINITION:
An image is considered to be Monochrome only if it gives the impression of having no color (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 color across the entire image. (For example by Sepia, red, gold, etc.) A greyscale or multi-colored image modified or giving the impression of having been modified by partial toning, multi-toning or by the inclusion of spot coloring does not meet the definition of monochrome and shall be classified as a Color Work.
Greyscale Monochrome images may be entered for Nature, Photojournalism and Photo Travel but toned images are not permitted for these sections.
Monochrome images may not be entered in color sections of PPD or PID.
EDITING GUIDELINES FOR NATURE, PHOTOJOURNALISM
AND PHOTO TRAVEL
These sections require images to be truthful records, so there are limits on the amount of manipulation allowed. PSA statement of subject matter applies to all sections.
Editing Guidelines
Processing or editing must be limited to making the image look as close to the original scene as possible, except that conversion to grayscale monochrome is allowed.
Allowed editing techniques:
• Cropping, straightening and perspective correction.
• Removal or correction of elements added by the camera or lens, such as dust spots, noise, chromatic aberration and lens distortion.
• Global and selective adjustments such as brightness, hue, saturation and contrast to restore the appearance of the original scene.
• Complete conversion of color images to grayscale monochrome.
• Blending of multiple images of the same subject and combining them in camera or with software (exposure blending or focus stacking);
• Image stitching – combining multiple images with overlapping fields of view that are taken consecutively (panoramas);
Editing techniques that are not allowed:
• Removing, adding to, moving or changing any part of an image, except for cropping and straightening.
• Adding a vignette during processing.
• Blurring parts of the image during processing to hide elements in the original scene.
• Darkening parts of the image during processing to hide elements in the original scene.
• All conversions other than to complete grayscale monochrome.
• Conversion of parts of an image to monochrome, or partial toning, desaturation or over-saturation of color
PSA NATURE DEFINITION: (ND)
ND Content Guidelines
• Nature photography records all branches of natural history except anthropology and archaeology. This includes all aspects of the physical world, both animate and inanimate, that have not been made or modified by humans.
• Nature images must convey the truth of the scene that was photographed. A well-informed person should be able to identify the subject of the image and be satisfied that it has been presented honestly and that no unethical practices have been used to control the subject or capture the image. Images that directly or indirectly show any human activity that threatens the life or welfare of a living organism are not allowed.
• The most important part of a Nature image is the nature story it tells. High technical standards are expected and the image must look natural.
• Objects created by humans, and evidence of human activity, are allowed in Nature images only when they are a necessary part of the Nature story.
• Photographs of human-created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domesticated animals, human-created hybrid animals and mounted or preserved zoological specimens are not allowed.
• Images taken with subjects under controlled conditions, such as zoos, are allowed.
• Controlling live subjects by chilling, anesthetic or any other method of restricting natural movement for the purpose of a photograph is not allowed.
PSA PHOTOJOURNALISM DEFINITION: (PJD)
PJ Content Guidelines
Photojournalism entries are:
• images with informative content and emotional impact,
• reflecting the human presence in our world.
• The journalistic (story-telling) value of the image should receive priority over pictorial quality.
• Images that misrepresent the truth, such as those from events or activities arranged specifically for photography, or of subjects directed or hired for photography, are not eligible.
PSA PHOTO TRAVEL DEFINITION: (PTD)
A Photo Travel image is a portrayal of the real world we live in, as it is found naturally. There are no geographic limitations.
PT Content guidance:
1. If the image is predominantly or exclusively a land-, sea- or cityscape, these “scapes” must include characteristic, distinctive and recognizable physical features, although it is not necessary that the image identify the exact location;
2. Images that predominantly or exclusively depict people and their activities must illustrate a distinctive culture of a country, region, or continent;
3. Images that predominately or exclusively depict animal populations are allowed, if the animals are in their native environment and are characteristic of that country, region, or continent;
4. Portraits or other close-ups of people or objects, in addition to meeting the above paragraphs as applicable, must include elements depicting some of the surrounding environment to make it obvious that the image was not taken in a studio setting;
5. Images from events or activities arranged for photography, or of subjects directed or hired for photography, are NOT allowed.
6. Time exposures are allowed, if they do not dominate the image as a special effect (star trails, for example, are a dominating effect).
7. Highly distorted images such as those produced by fish eye lenses are NOT allowed.
China Definition (This section is not recognized by PSA)
There are no restrictions on photography themes, techniques, and expression mediums, but they must be sourced from China. The content of images must comply with Chinese laws and regulations. Image submissions that reflect racial discrimination, violence, fraud, pornography, crime, and violations of human customs and morals are prohibited. There must be no logos, watermarks or borders that identify the entrant.
The above category, section or class is not recognized by the Photographic Society of America and any acceptances will not count toward PSA Star Ratings, Who’s Who, Distinctions, etc.
PSA RULES
NON-COMPLIANCE:
See the PSA Ethics Policy at https://psa-photo.org/page/ethical-practices.
See the PSA statement on Subject Matter at https://psa-photo.org/page/division-definitions
If, in the discretion of the exhibition organizer or the judges, an entrant has submitted that may fail to comply with these Conditions of Entry, they are allowed to request unedited or raw files of the submitted image.
For composite images all files are required.
Exhibition organizers may verify that:
a) the images are the original work of the entrant
b) the images comply with the rules and definitions as set out in these ES-COE
Such entries may be referred to PSA for further investigation of possible ethics violations.
PSA retains the right to investigate all complaints, impose penalties 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.
If another party is processing and/or submitting images on the entrant’s behalf, the entrant will still be held responsible for adhering to the entry rules and will be subject to penalties for any violations to these Conditions of Entry or to PSA’s Statement of Ethics.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
"Any person submitting or attempting to submit a totally AI generated image that does not begin with a light capture from the maker,
from any Photographic Society of America exhibition, social media, event, or publication, other than for editorial purposes, shall be
prohibited from PSA for a period of from 3 years to life".
NOTICE:
When entrants fills in the Entry Form to submit an entry they will see the following feature to affirm they have read these Conditions of Entry “I hereby confirm that I have read and understood and agree to the Conditions of Entry of this exhibition. I have read and understood the PSA document to be found at https://psaphoto.org/resource/resmgr/pdf/exhibitions_/exhibition-entrants-agreemen.pdf . I am aware that PSA may apply penalties for non-compliance to these Conditions of Entry”
Failure to agree will mean that the application will not proceed.