Today’s Question: Would the adjustments demonstrated in this tutorial [“Advanced Color Adjustments”] hold up for most image contests or will it cause image to be rejected?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In my experience applying advanced color adjustments, such as refining the appearance of individual colors in an image would not cause an image to be disqualified from most photo contests, as long as the color of an object was not completely changed from the original color.
More Detail: While the rules for individual photo contests can vary widely, limitations are generally focused on ensuring the veracity of the contents of an image. For example, there are often limitations on completely removing objects from an image or changing key details about an object such as the overall color.
In my recent presentation on “Advanced Color Adjustments” as part of the GreyLearning Ultimate Live Learning series, I shared presentations that enable you to fine-tune the color in a targeted way, based on either the underlying color or tonality of areas of a photo. For example, you can shift the color of the sky to make it appear a little more cobalt blue rather than cyan.
In my experience these types of more sophisticated color adjustments do not violate the rules of most photo contests, as long as the adjustments are refining the colors rather than completely changing the colors of an object in the photo. I’m sure, however, that there are some exceptions with some photo contests. And, of course, there are also photo contests that take more of an “anything goes” approach, although these tend to be in a creative category where, for example, even a composite image might meet the rules of the contest.
The key, of course, is to make sure you’re familiar with the rules of a photo contest before submitting an image, to ensure you remove adjustments that might violate the rules. But again, in most cases the rules for photo contests forbid completely removing or replacing an object in the image, and are generally less strict about more general targeted adjustments that refine (rather than completely change) the appearance of colors in a photo.
