Editing

I think Woo is doing a more than excellent job of running the Photo Competition which takes a lot of time and effort. Not only that but he has thought through the rules for the competition several times, long and hard, trying to ensure that there is a level playing field for everyone from the outright beginner to the expert. Of course, there is a lot of truth that
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”

but I think most people will agree that the rules of the competition try to take in the opinions of the majority of the competition in order to maintain that level playing field.

I shoot in RAW + Jpeg and don't just convert the RAW image to Jpeg without editing it in some form. So should I adjust the contrast, brightness, saturation, warmth, crop it or add sharpening to any degree then my image would not be eligible. If I wanted to enter the competition I have the choice of just converting the RAW to Jpeg without editing, or using the Jpeg originally presented by the camera software, doing the first would give an identical image to the camera's Jpeg.
Woo took note of members comments over time and decided on the present rules format. He then discussed it with the rest of Admin and a consensus was agreed that his rules were fair and assured everyone that there was that level playing field.

 

Format change is not editing in that context, "M", what is being focused on is where any image of any format is deliberately changed before being offered for entry into the competition. But, changing RAW format to Jpeg without doing any editing just gives you the camera's interpretation of what it would have given should you have shot just in Jpeg.

 

Well, you can't print or post in RAW format without a special app, "M", but because it contains so much data it does allow you to change things within the image. But, as I said earlier, changing the image format from RAW to Jpeg, without editing, will only result in exactly the same image as if you had shot in Jpeg,

 

Agreed, Jack, you're merely adjusting the camera software to your preferences before you take the Jpeg image, rather than the preset factory software preferences that the Manufacturer of the camera thinks you will like.

 

Well, having been, almost, lost through all this I seem to have come to the conclusion that we are supposed to post our competition entries just as the camera has presented it to us - with the exception of directly converting from Raw to jpeg (because it can't be posted in Raw), and it can have a frame or border around it and can be presented in black and white or colour.

That's what I thought the rules always were but the Mods may remember that I had asked for an explanation of other technical words that were used in the rules (I can't remember what they were ).

The only question I have is about the 'black and white' rule as it doesn't seem black and white to me . Does it just mean we can enter a photo taken in black and white mode or can change it from colour to black and white (as Zigs appears to have done - but the grass still seems to have a greenish tinge ) before entering?

The first seems to be the way it should be.

I just point, shoot and post.

I like the posts from @Steve R and @clueless1 for the technical content and their genuine pros and cons of photos. I also like everyone else's posts for giving points of view and I especially like @wiseowl's time and effort in running the competition.

I wasn't aware that the 'technical' competiton had fallen by the wayside as I used to be too confused by it to continue looking at it.

I see our current competition to be a point and shoot type one where the members make their votes and award their points in a totally, to me, random way of just how they feel about the entries. There's no weighting of points for technical ability, subject or interpretation. It's a 'do I like it?' decision. To be honest, I sometimes wonder how someone could say that a particular photo is the best when I think it's rubbish - but that's what I like about the competition.

A final apology from me for not having entered the Feb comp but illness and too many things happening got in the way.

 

There is this one, SM,