@dave

What do you mean when you say "Photos submitted must be your own creation without significant digital alteration.?"

What is "without significant digital alteration?"

Thanks!

You can read up on what that is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Thanks!

dave said:You can read up on what that is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

For the record, and on a much broader note, it IS A CRIME to photoshop out clavicle freckles.

I applaud this rule - for the contest specifically...and in a general, overall, encompassing way, too.

Yeah, we sure wouldn't want anyone photoshopping out the freckles on an orchid or a tiger lily and getting arrested!

Asa, before I clicked on the Wikipedia link, I really was wondering about the clavicle freckles thing . . .

How will we tell if there has been significant digital alteration, though? Is blurring out the background clutter seen as 'significant' ? Sharpening the edges? Adding smart blur? Enhancing colors, brightness, contrast? These are all things even I know how to do and I'm no photo geek.

@dave ? Is there a way to tell other than when it's really obvious?

If it's not really obvious then it's probably not been significantly altered. Ideally on the honor system here nobody is going to cheat.

Notice the word "significantly". Some cameras may make an image a bit too dark so an edit of brightness or a bit of the contrast may be needed. It's nothing that would be "significantly" noticeable but it does improve the shot just as a good cropping does.

Calif_Sue said:Notice the word "significantly". Some camera may make an image a bit too dark so an edit of brightness or a bit of the contrast may be needed. It's nothing that would be noticeable "significantly" but it does improve the shot just as a good cropping does.

Thanks Sue. I wasn't sure if even cropping was allowed, but in my cluttered gardens it's nearly always a necessity!