Wedding Photojournalist Association

I am a member of the Wedding Photojournalist Association or the WPJA.com for short. There is a certain ethos that goes into being a photojournalist and also being in the WPJA. In short, the WPJA only accepts 15% of their applicants. They are not a fee based advertising site. Every three months the members of the site have a contest, and this establishes the order the photographers appear on the site.

Why do I mention this. Because there are rules to being in the WPJA. The rules are -

Images manipulated through the use of toning, increased saturation or desaturation, selective sharpening and/or blurring, dodging and burning, cloning, blemish removal, correcting or reducing distortions, or adding film grain/noise are not eligible for entry. However, cropping and color to black & white conversions are acceptable as well as slight adjustments to levels/curves.

In other words, minor adjusments are acceptable but the photo needs to be "As Is". This really makes a photographer be more of a "Photographer" than just a Photoshop junkie.





Granted, these are the contest rules and knowing an extensive amount of Photoshop techniques is very important for every photographer. I know my fair share of PS tricks. Many times I just want my photograph to be a photo instead of a piece of graphic art.