In the case of Reshade, blurred backgrounds are considered unedited, as it is not edited and it's what your game looks like in game. We've had numerous discussions about this and decided to leave it unedited as it's just a mod.

Therefore, some people blur unedited backgrounds and some people don't. Editing has more taken on the highly edited horse and rider aspects - huge atmospheric changes, editing the horses texture, mane, eyes, riders attire, lighting, etc.

What is Reshade? Haven't heard from it before.

Based on your description most of my edited pictures might fit in the unedited category too because I mostly clean up pics, blur and smudge the mane slightly.

Is there an "official" note on this anywhere? Like what things count as unedited?

Sorry for making trouble but I'm confused and I like things with clear rulesets.

I suppose I was a bit too "vague" in my edited description. Really, the only aspect of ""editing"" (which for most people, it is a mod doing it cause it's in game) that is allowed in unedited categories is background blurring - at least, across the site. Some show hosters will make notes to not allow blurred backgrounds in unedited, some (the majority) do not mind, as blurring a background or not blurring a background shouldn't mmake the difference between winning and losing.

Edited is anything else. Manes, tails, touch-ups, fixes, atmospheric edits, etc. Not everyone does all of those in editing (my edited pictures are usually just me playing around w/ mane and tail), but it's still classed as edited.

It was a big issue a few weeks ago, and it was decided by the admin and a few of us forum mods that simple Reshade elements and background blurring could be put into the unedited category, while anything past that (lighting, manes tails, stuff I've said), belongs in edited.

It was mmore a decision based off of fair judging - people thought background blurring was offering a boost in scores (when, truly, it was not), but it's about how judges shouldn't be judging based off of "oh, their background is blurred, they win" and more their basics and how their image is set up - realism, following the rules, rule of thirds, lighting, etc

Heres an example, same horses, same poses etc. (The funky color changes is purely due to my settings, not anything else.) The blurring effect was done with reshade which is free and widely available to everyone unlike the skills required to actually edit things, lol. Took me under a minute once i figured out how to turn it on. (Which actually editing a picture takes quite a bit longer I'll assume.) Different people will have different levels of blurring due to whatever they prefer to have their settings at, mine is very discreet. All it really does is blur the background so when you look at the picture your drawn to the foreground instead of seeing all the little details in the back. Which is really good for me because I'm using a small world and my lots are close together, so its inevitable sometimes theres background clutter. The horses themselves do not change at all, they were not edited in the least and that should be what judges are looking at like Ana said. 



With blur




Without Blur