THE CATEGORIES
PPC provides a diverse range of competition categories designed to refine your expertise or enhance your skills in specific areas. Each participate is encouraged to explore the listed categories and elevate your creativity and proficiency to new heights.
Portrait Categories
Children
This sub-category must contain a child or children from birth to age 16.
High School Senior
This sub-category portrays a male or female age 16 to 18.
General Portrait
This category includes groups of 3, couples, adults (18 and older), relationships, models, and fashion portraits, tastefully artistic nude/figure studies (discretion of the PPC Image Committee). In studio, outdoors or location portraits accepted.
Families/Groups
Large families, reunion groups, conference attendee groups, business/office groups, groups larger than 3 people will be accepted in this category.
Illustrative Categories
Landscape/Nature
This category shares joy and adventures while expressing a sense of place. Macro & close-up, flowers, seascapes, mountain scapes, city scapes, urban landscapes, and sunsets with or without people should be entered here.
General Illustrative
This category covers image content including abstract, intentional camera movement (ICM), non-definable image content or any other imagery that does not qualify for another or more appropriate category.
Commercial
This category is used when images are created for a commercial client to advertise a product and promote a brand or company. Includes residential, commercial interiors or exteriors or other commercial or industrial environment.
Drone/Ariel
This category contains any imagery created by a drone or taken from any airborne vehicle, (e. g. plane, helicopter, hot air balloon, etc. Not from an elevated location such as a building, rooftop or high landscape overlook.)
Animal Categories
Animal Portrait
This category would include animal(s) portraits using structured/controlled lighting in a studio, home, business or other controlled outdoor environment, where the owner or photographer controls the animal(s).
Wildlife
This category includes wild animals , zoo animals, farm animals, sea creatures, birds or other animals in the natural environment that they were originally captured in; as well as in an uncontrolled lighting scenario.
Wedding Categories
Wedding
Individual images that portray a subject or subjects from all aspects of a real wedding including traditional portraits, candid, or detail work.
Wedding Album
Multiple images combined into a digital album collection exclusively showcasing a specific wedding. Minimum 20 images (10 pages)
Artist Categories
These 2 categories must include thumbnails of each original image plus additional added images used to create the overall composite.
Artist Open
A conceptual image altered or manipulated from its original condition. Creations can be a subtle application using post-processing techniques, or a dramatic combination of details to suggest a larger story. The artist is responsible for the idea behind the image and the work done to create the finished art piece. *The use of stock imagery (not AI generated imagery) is permitted in this category.
Painterly
This category includes all painted imagery of any subject matter, painted to any extent
you desire. Must be created from one (1) capture, photograph, or file. You may replace a sky or
background but no other added components are allowed. Compositing from multiple images or
files is NOT allowed. A thumbnail of your original RAW or jpg file(s) must be displayed as a
reference guide on the entry itself.
Restoration
Digital photograph restoration uses image editing techniques to remove undesired visible features, such as dirt, scratches, or signs of aging. Must display the original image source and the finished restored version. Displayed original must be of similar size to finished image for judges comparison. *The use of stock imagery (not AI generated imagery) is permitted in this category.
Other Categories
Album
Consists of portrait and story-telling themes. Content may include weddings, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, birthday or anniversary parties, portrait sessions, high school seniors, collections of similar imagery (e. g. flowers, antiques, souvenirs, etc.) Minimum 20 images (10 pages).
Reportage/Photojournalism
Images that illustrate an actual public or non-public event, life, an area of human interest, telling news that have meaning on the context or record of events, high impact and/or lasting emotional response. Images that illustrate sporting events are included in this category. ONLY basic color and brightness adjustments, cropping, dodging, and burning in are allowed. Only single-capture images will be accepted. Composite and multiple exposure images will not be accepted. The original captured image, RAW or jpg, must be available if requested by the competition committee.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
While AI is quickly taking a hold on image making it does not fall under any of PPColorado or PPA’s image entry categories or rules. These are purely photograph based competitions. Even though sky replacement and object removal are AI based operations currently available in common software, such as Lightroom and Photoshop, this type of imagery is not considered to be AI generated content.
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This is an exhibition category ONLY. You may enter up to (2) purely AI generated image(s) and submit into the PPColorado competition. No scores will be given as this is purely an exhibition category. However, a 1st place designation will be honored.
FAQ'S
What size should my file be to upload for entry?
It should be sRGB color space, a jpg, and sized at 4000 pixels at the widest side of your image at 300DPI. On saving the file the compression should be at 10 to begin with. If your file is still above 3.5MB reduce the compression number to 9 or 8 …