NATURE DEFINITION CHECKLIST

When the new Nature definition comes into operation, some competitions will have both a Nature and a Wildlife section (as is currently the case with many PSA approved competitions). While it is permissible to enter Wildlife images in the Nature section, the reverse is not true. When deciding whether or not a particular image meets the requirements of the Nature and/or Wildlife definitions you need to consider the following factors. 

GENERAL SUBJECT MATTER

	ALLOWED	NOT ALLOWED
NATURE	Anything to do with natural history (the study and description of organisms and natural objects), except anthropology or archaeology.	Anything that is classified as anthropology (the study of humans) or archaeology (the study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures).
WILDLIFE	Same as Nature	Same as Nature

SPECIFIC SUBJECT MATTER

	ALLOWED	NOT ALLOWED
NATURE	All extant (not extinct) organisms (plants, animals, etc); landscapes, geological formations, and weather phenomena.	Human created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domestic animals, mounted specimens of plants and animals.
WILDLIFE	Animals, birds, insects that are free and unrestrained in a natural or adopted environment. Carcasses of extant species.	Landscapes and geological formations. Animals, birds, insects, etc that are in captivity or under controlled conditions. Botanical species under controlled conditions (such as plants growing in a hothouse).

HUMAN ELEMENTS

	ALLOWED	NOT ALLOWED
NATURE	Human elements that are an integral part of the nature story (such as birds nesting on a man-made structure). Scientific bands, tags or collars.	Human elements (such as buildings) that are not part of the nature story being told by the image.
WILDLIFE	As for Nature.	As for Nature.

IMAGE ADJUSTMENTS AND MODIFICATIONS

	ALLOWED	NOT ALLOWED
NATURE	Cropping. Techniques (such as contrast adjustment) that enhance the image without changing the nature story, or altering the pictorial content of the original scene. HDR techniques. Focus stacking. Removal of dust spots, digital noise or scratches on film.	Anything (such as cloning) that alters the content of the original scene by adding, moving or removing image elements. Adjustments that change the nature story, such as turning a daylight scene into a night scene. Stitching together multiple images (e.g. to create a panorama).
WILDLIFE	As for Nature.	As for Nature.

MONOCHROME

	ALLOWED	NOT ALLOWED
NATURE	Grey-scale monochrome images.	Toned monochrome images. Infrared images.
WILDLIFE	As for Nature.	As for Nature.

ADDITIONAL GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1. The subject matter must be identifiable by a "well-informed person'. 
2. The subject matter must be presented 'honestly' - your image must 'tell the truth'.
3. All images should be of a high technical standard, but the story telling value of the image must be given more weight than its pictorial quality.
4.  Any adjustments to an image (such as contrast, saturation or sharpening adjustments) must leave the image looking 'natural'.

The information given above is a summary of my personal interpretation of the new Nature definition. A more detailed explanation is given in my Nature Photography tutorial.