Each competition year may herald changes from the previous year. These are detailed here.

S4C essentially follows definitions used by the Photographic Society of America (PSA) for its exhibitions, and updates its definitions as PSA's definitiions are modified. S4C, however, restricts or clarifies these definitions where necessary to avoid confusion. Entrants to S4C competitions are advised to read the definitions and other entry requirements carefully to ensure that entered images are in conformance and are not DQed (disqualified).

There are no changes planned for 2022-23, except that we will not be holding an Interclub competition.

For convenience we repeat the changes that were implemented in the competition  year 2021-2022:

Pictorial Individual/Arranged Color/Mono:

Because of the confusion that often arises between Pictorial Individual Color and Pictorial Arranged Color and, correspondingly, between Pictorial Individual Mono and Pictorial Arranged Mono, the Board has decided to ad the following wording and practices to all four categories:

"In the event of any doubt whether an image belongs in the Individual or the corresponding Arranged category, judges are instructed to give the benefit of the doubt to the maker of the image, and only to DQ the image if they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the image does not belong in the entered category. If an image is DQ in one category, the Competition Chair will make sure that it is not subsequently DQed in the other category for the same reason."

Photojournalism Human Interest: 

New wording intended to refine the definition of sports action:

"Human Interest images are Photojournalism images limited to those that depict a person or persons in an interactive, emotional or unusual situation excluding sports action, that is, exercise or physical activity requiring skill or physical prowess that is not just for the purposes of transportation or children's play."

Progressions:

In the past, Sequences - a loosely defined term - have not been allowed. However, particularly in the reality-based divisional, a sequence of images can help define the story. The Board has therefore introduced the notion of Progressions that will be allowed in future:

"An image may consist of 2, 3, or 4 separated images demonstrating a progression in time of a single event. Borders must follow division policies."

NOTE: Entrants in Nature and Photo Travel are strongly encourage to read the excellent documents posted on the PSA website for these categories. Click here for the Nature guide for judges; and here (scroll down to Educational Material) for excellent material on Photo Travel, particularly the first article "Photo Travel" by Roy Killen that does a fine job of clarifying the Photo Travel definition.