The Better Photography Magazine
Photographer of the Year 2024
Competition Rules
Please note your entry must have been photographed on or after 1 July 2019 - within the last 5 years (date unchanged from last year).
Entries close 7 May 2024 - (or 30 April 2024 to be eligible for each fifth entry to be free - see below).
To win a category only requires one entry, but to be eligible for the Photographer of the Year prize, you must enter at least four entries.
Announcement of winners is planned for 15 June 2024.
If you entered in the last four years, your login details are the same. If you did not enter in the last four years (i.e. you entered a few years ago or you have never entered), you will need to create a new account, which is easily done during the entry process.
1. The Better Photography Magazine Photographer of the Year 2024 Award is open to all non-professional photographers. A non-professional photographer does not work full time as a photographer and/or has earned less than AUS $10,000 in the past 12 months from photography. You can be a member of a professional photography organisation (e.g. NZIPP), as long as your earnings are under AUS $10,000/US $6,000 in the past 12 months.
2. By entering the Competition, You accept these Competition Rules and their Terms and Conditions.
The Competition
3. Closing Dates: Entries and the Entry Fee must be received by 7 May 2024 (or 30 April 2024 if you want each fifth entry free - see below).
4. The Entry Fee is AUS $20 per image (approx. US $15) and if you enter prior to 30 April 2024, every fifth entry is free. So, enter and pay for four images, get the fifth one free. Enter and pay for a further four entries and the tenth entry is free. There’s no limit to the number of images you can enter, but you cannot enter the same Entry multiple times into different categories and nor can you enter images you have entered into this competition in previous years.
5. Entries will be accepted after 30 April until 7 May 2024. For the final week of entries, the entry fee is still AUS $20 per image entry, but there are no free fifth entries. We recommend you enter early!
6. To enter, you must upload your Entry(s) via our website: www.betterphotographyphotocomp.com (the 'Website'), following the on-screen instructions carefully.
7. Each Entry must be entered into a Category. Entrants may enter all their Entries into one Category, or several Categories as they choose. However, to be eligible for the overall Photographer of the Year title, you need to enter at least four (4) entries. It doesn't matter which categories or how many categories. However, this is a minimum requirement. There is no maximum number of entries you can enter into the Awards.
8. The judges are looking for a professional standard of presentation and a highly creative approach or treatment.
9. The images presented for judging must be photographic in origin and any post-production must be the work of the entrant. Images must be from original exposures taken on or after 1 July 2019. Additional elements (e.g. skies, backgrounds, texture screens etc) can have been captured at any time, as long as the main or primary subject in a composite image was captured or created on or after 1 July 2019.
Images created with AI technology (e.g. MidJourney) are ineligible. Images which are edited using AI are acceptable as long as the AI technology is not changing the content or subject of the image. Winners may be asked for their raw files to substantiate the entries compliance with this rule. If in doubt, leave AI out!
10. Entrants must upload their Entries as digital files via www.betterphotographyphotocomp.com and comply with the following specifications:
AdobeRGB or sRGB colour space, 8-bit;
Measure 2500 to 3000 pixels on the longest side;
Be saved as a JPEG at a setting of 8 or 9 ( 80%) or higher.
11. A brief comment for every Entry will be supplied by the judges. This will be a generic comment but specifically designed to instruct entrants about an aspect of their Entry they could improve and work on. It is provided in good faith. Subscribers to Better Photography magazine can refer to articles in Issues #96 to #100 that provide extra information supporting these comments, or you can purchase the How To Win Photo Competitions package at www.betterphotographyeducation.com which includes comprehensive advice matched into the comment system we use.
Judging
12. Judging will be blind. No names or other indicators are allowed on the Entry that could indicate who is the author of the Entry.
13. Each Entry will be scored by 3 judges. The Organiser reserves the right to replace the nominated judges should the need arise.
14. The judging process is as follows:
Each judge will score each Entry out of 100
For each Entry, the Judges’ scores will be totalled, divided by 3 and presented to the Entrant as a percentage score (out of 100).
Only one entry is required to win a Category. However, to win the overall Photographer of the Year, an Entrant will need to have entered a minimum of four entries to make a ‘Portfolio’. A Portfolio comprises the four highest scoring entries by an Entrant, no matter how many entries an Entrant submitted, or in which category.
The 5 Portfolios with the highest aggregates will be judged separately. The judges will vote for the portfolio that best represents the Better Photography Magazine Photographer of the Year. This will be a process of consultation and discussion.
For each Category, the 5 entries with the highest score will be judged a second time to determine the Category winner. This will also be a process of consultation and discussion, and the Photographer of the Year is ineligible to win a category.
15. Winners will be published online at www.betterphotography.com and www.betterphotographyphotocomp.com. Winners may be published in the Organiser's associated magazines and publications, such as Better Photography Magazine, and by the sponsors to the extent it is in connection with the competition. Entries may also be published in various magazines and websites around the world in connection with publicity for the Award and the entrants.
The Prizes
16. There are four categories: Emotive Portraits, Classic Landscapes, Revealing Nature, Open (Your Choice).
17. The Winner of each category will receive AUS $750 cash.
18. The overall Winner of the Better Photography Magazine Photographer of the Year will receive AUS $2000 cash.
19. Additional non-financial Gold, Silver and Bronze Merit Awards will be awarded based on the averaged score as follows:
Gold for scores of 88 - 100
Silver for scores of 81 - 87
Bronze for scores of 75 - 80
20. Winning Entrants must agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of their name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.
21. The decision of the Organiser is final.
Legal
22. You agree and acknowledge that Pt78 Pty Ltd, the publisher of Better Photography Magazine and organiser of the Photographer of the Year Award (the 'Organiser') is permitted to receive Your registration data. All personal information will be used by the Organiser in accordance with its Privacy Policy.
23. The Organiser reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify and/or remove any Entry that does not comply with the Competition Rules, or move an Entry to a more appropriate Category, even after the Entry is submitted on the Website.
24. You warrant and represent, in respect of each Entry submitted by You, as follows:
You are the sole owner and author of each Entry;
You have the right to make Your Entry available to the Competition;
Your Entry(s) does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, profane or illegal content;
Each entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person's rights of privacy or publicity.
25. You agree to fully indemnify the Organiser in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.
26. The Organiser acknowledges that You, the Entrant, retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.
27. All Entrants agree that any Entry submitted to the competition may be used by the Organiser and its Event Partners for the purposes of judging the Competition, and marketing and promotional purposes of the Competition.
28. Winning entries will be used as follows and only with respect to promoting the competition.
- displaying the winning entries at public exhibitions promoting the Awards;
- inclusion within the Organiser's and Event partners' websites and magazines, an awards book, magazine or similar (in both paper and digital media);
- inclusion in future publications and websites promoting the Awards, such as a 10-year anniversary compendium of past winners;
- inclusion within any material promoting the Awards;
- sub-licensing winning Entries to the press and websites for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition;
- allowing viewers of the Awards website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone for their personal, non-commercial use only.
29. Non-winning entries may be used solely to promote the competition for a period not to exceed 5 years from the close of the competition.
30. Any photograph used by the Organiser shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such a credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as the Organiser uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure. Where any photograph is provided to third parties for use in promotion and publicity, they will be requested to carry a credit line, but the Organiser cannot be responsible for non-compliance.
31. You acknowledge that it is Your responsibility for protecting any Entry against image misuse by any third party. The Organiser and its Event Partners assume no responsibility and are not liable for any image misuse.
32. The Organiser assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and the Organiser assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. The Organiser assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to or alteration of Entries. The Organiser is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to the Organiser on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant's Entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorised intervention, fraud or technical failures, the Organiser assumes no responsibility. (Phew! Blame our lawyers for that one!)
33. In no event will the Organiser, its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any contestant's access to and use of the website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the website is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.
34. There are no alternative prizes available for prize winners.
35. To enter online, you will need to register and use your real name and a valid email address which will be used to contact prize winners. Competition winners may be asked to prove their non-professional status.
36. The judges will determine the winning entry in each category. If the Organiser cannot contact a winning entrant by email within a reasonable time, the judges may award the prize(s) to another entry.
37. Entry fees and prizes are quoted in Australian dollars. Prizes will be paid into the winner's Paypal account. The Organiser does not account for or have any liability for any participant's bank fees and charges that may be levied for currency conversion by the participating bank or institution. Prizes are paid in AUD. Currency conversions to local currency are at winners' discretion and expense at the time of conversion. Entrants are also responsible for any import duties or taxes for prizes that are shipped to them.
38. Entry receipts for the competition are stored in your account details. Your purchase receipt will be listed there.
39. The Organiser's decisions are final. Right of rejection and or right of refusal are at the discretion of the Event Organisers and can happen at any time.
40. All entries are subject to the laws of Australia and the state of New South Wales.
41. All terms and conditions subject to change without notice, with the exception of the copyright and licensing terms (Terms 26 and 27).
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