Up to four images can be entered in the annual District Competition, which is judged in June.  

Images receive a non-numeric merit/non-merit judgment from votes by the panel of 5 judges.

The competition can be live streamed online from the PPA website. You should receive an email one hour before each image is judged, (thought this does not always work) so you can watch your image being judged and can hear if the judges discuss your image and highlight the things they liked or did not like, to justify their vote.

In addition, the judge's votes are recorded against your entries in your MyPPA account, so you can see how many judges voted for merit/non-merit.

Note: for those working on their PPA Degrees, this merit is recorded as a "Seal" at the district level.

The image must be entered in the IPC for the seal to be converted into a merit.

For a borderline merit image at the district level (e.g. a close vote of 2:3 for and against), the image can be be re-processed and uploaded for re-judging at IPC. Or, a new image can be substituted as one of the four IPC entries.

Feeling Lucky? Spot an improvement to make? Break the seal

Merit images from the district level receive a seal, which guarantees a merit when re-entered in the IPC without being re-judged. However, if you think the image can be improved, the seal can be "broken", the district merit discarded, and the updated image uploaded and entered as a replacement image in the IPC. It will be judged again, by a different panel of judges, and runs the risk of not receiving a merit, but it may also improve chances to be added to the PPA Imaging Excellence Collection.

An image which receives a merit at IPC gets one merit point towards a PPA degree, but an Image Excellence Collection image receives two merit points, so the gamble to update and re-enter may be worth it.

Too late for Districts? You can still enter the IPC directly

Note: it is not necessary to enter district competitions to get a merit. Images can be entered directly into the IPC, but it does give a valuable opportunity to see how the images get judged. Images that get a seal are safe, images that are borderline can be re-processed, and images that are judged poorly and not likely to get a merit at IPC can be replaced with different images that may be judged merit-worthy.

This is why PPSCV Image Competition is an ideal opportunity to have qualified, experienced judges critique the quality your work and give feedback before you submit images to the PPA competitions.

2021 District Competition Registration:

District Judging Dates: May 9-14

District Early Registration: March 2 to April 14, 5 pm ET

District Late Registration: April 14, 5 pm ET to April 29, 5 pm ET

Click here to register for PPA competitions.

Up to four images can be entered in the annual International Photographic Competition, which is judged in August (see below for IPC changes in 2020).

The IPC is also live streamed, so you can watch and hear the judges at work discussing the latest entries from your peers.

Images receive a merit/non-merit judgment.

An image with an unbroken seal from the district level competition is not re-judged, the seal is automatically converted to a merit at the IPC.

IPC merit images and converted district seal images are then automatically considered for selection in the annual PPA Imaging Excellence Collection PPA Imaging Excellence Collection (formerly Loan Collection)

The panel for Imaging Excellence images can be made up of 7 or more judges who select the best of the submitted work.

All Imaging Excellence images are then judged for the Grand Imaging Awards - the highest level awards.

Here are examples of the results from PPA District and IPC competitions - you can see the sealed images become accepted as a general merit, and the not-sealed image is replaced for IPC.

International Photographic Competition (IPC) Registration:

IPC Judging Dates: September 12-17

IPC Early Registration: July 6 to August 17, 5 pm ET

IPC Late Registration will be August 17, 5 pm ET to August 31, 5 pm ET

Check for the latest news on IPC here

Not a PPA member yet? Click here to join.

It is also possible when you enter the district competition or the IPC to pay for a critique, where for each of your image submissions a judge will record a 3-5 minute video describing their thought process on judging your image. Critiques can also be ordered for up to one week after the end of the competition

Here are downloadable examples of critiques for the above images.

[Critique Example 1, Critique Example 2, Critique Example 3. Critique Example 3)

Order and review the critiques from your MyPPA Events > My Photo Competitions page on your PPA account.

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS OF AMERICA·TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

An Action Team was formed to explore the concept of judging District and IPC with a system that would not utilize numeric scores. There were several reasons to research a change:

• Current system is confusing
• Current system does not focus on the value of the merit
• Current system needs congruency between judging at Districts and IPC
• Transparency and consistency needs to be established for how category winners and GIA’s are chosen

Following research and deliberation, the Board of Directors is very excited to announce the following changes, that will go into effect for the 2020 PPA Image Competitions:

• At District and IPC Judging we will utilize two different outcomes for entries: “Merit” and “Not a Merit”
• At District Judging Category Award winners will be decided in a “head to head” judging from all merit images.
• At IPC ALL merited images will be judged for the Loan Collection.
• After IPC, GIA award winners will be decided using “head to head” judging from all Loan Images.
• Entrants will now be able to see each individual judge’s decision during live streaming. These individual results will be stored in the members “My PPA” account. Judge’s names will not be attached to the results.
• Normally entrants are able to order critiques before the competition & up to 1 week after the competition ends to enhance their education.
• For 2020 Image Critiques Are Now Open to All PPA Members!
• This year, we have made them available to all members for only $10/image!

In Conclusion, moving the evaluation process away from numeric scores to the merit / no merit at districts and merit / no merit – loan / no loan at IPC is a much simpler system to understand for our members. These realignments shift the focus back to what is the heart of PPA Image Competition- the PPA Merit and PPA Master’s Degrees. This new system will better aim to create consistency and transparency across the competitions for both scores and awards and will be more succinct and easier to explain to members, especially new members/entrants. This new system will be beneficial to the judges by allowing them to focus on the image itself and always keep the merit at the heart of judging process.

Thank you, we are looking forward to a great 2020 Image Competition Season,

Your friends at PPA.