Terms of Entry
Please read these carefully and ensure your entry complies with them. Doing so is your best chance of winning. Good luck!
1. Information
1.1 By entering the British Photography Awards Competition (the “Competition”), each of the entrant (the “Entrant”), BPA (as defined below) and the Admin (as defined below) agrees to be bound by these terms (the “BPA Terms and Conditions”).
1.2 It is the Entrant’s responsibility to have read the BPA Terms and Conditions prior to or at the time of entry into the Competition, and entry into the Competition is will be treated as acceptance of these BPA Terms and Conditions.
1.3 THE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS LIMITED (Company Number: 10115882), trading as British Photography Awards (the “British Photography Awards” or “BPA”), is the full operator of the Competition, and its team (the “Admin”) Administers all of the proceedings relating to the Competition.
1.4 The Competition is not open to any persons (including employees, staff members, consultants, sponsors, judges and event hosts) who are employed by, party to any contract with or who are otherwise involved with BPA.
1.5 Each image entered into the Competition (an “Entry” or “Image”, as appropriate) must be submitted electronically through www.britishphotographyawards.org.
1.6 All enquiries from Entrants regarding the Competition or the BPA Terms and Conditions must be made through office@britishphotographyawards.org.
1.7 The Closing Date of the Competition (the “Closing Date”) will be included on the “Timetable” navigation tab on the BPA website. Any changes made to the Closing Date at any stage will appear on this page.
2. Conditions of Entry
2.1 All Entrants into the Competition must be a full time resident of the United Kingdom or hold a valid United Kingdom Passport.
2.2 Each Entry must be made by the individual whose details are presented with the entrance submission.
2.3 Each Entry must be received by the deadline as specified in the BPA timetable, which shall be published from time to time on the BPA website and which may change.
2.4 The Entrant acknowledges entry into the Competition does not grant the Entrant any intellectual property rights in or over BPA, Samsung, or the Competition itself.
2.5 The Entrant agrees and undertakes not to use any names, logos or any other intellectual property, or to make any public statement, in each case regarding either BPA, Samsung or the Competition, without gaining prior written consent from the Admin.
2.6 All Entrants agree not to bring the Competition or the Admin into disrepute. Behaviour that causes damage to the reputation of the Competition, other Entrants, partners, charities, supporters, sponsors or associated parties may lead to the Entrant being disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions, a lifetime ban for that Entrant and further legal action depending on the scale of the infraction.
3. Image Rights
3.1 All Images must be in the sole and exclusive ownership of the Entrant and must not infringe on the copyright of any other party.
3.2 The copyright in respect of each Image will remain with the copyright owner before and after submission to the Competition and will not be transferred to the Admin, Samsung or BPA.
3.3 The owner of the copyright will be credited in any instance of publication in any media form using their name as provided by that Entrant in their submission(s).
3.4 The Admin may add to the credit text a web pathway or ‘hyperlink’ for the photographic website of the copyright owner. Such web pathways or hyperlinks will be the same as those entered on the Entry submission and the Admin is under no obligation to update such information at any time. It is the responsibility of the Entrant to inform the Admin of an updated web pathway or hyperlink.
3.5 The owner of the copyright agrees to grant Samsung and the Admin a non-exclusive Licence (the “Licence”) to reproduce, publish and exhibit the copyright owner’s Images upon entering the Competition.
3.6 Subject to these BPA Terms and Conditions, the Licence applies only to instances that directly or indirectly involve the Competition, including, but not limited to, displaying of the photographs at public events, usage by the Admin on the BPA website, for publicity, in email transmission, in print media, and Admin operated social media.
3.7 The Licence will also extend to instances where the Admin requires the transmission of copyrighted material for the printing of publicity posters, banners or leaflets and guides as well as associated publicity.
3.8 Unless specified above, no merchandising will be undertaken by Samsung, the Admin or BPA without seeking separate agreement from the Entrant.
3.9 The Entrant gives permission for the Admin to send the copyright owner’s Entry (image files and Captions) to the Competition’s Judges (as defined below) to facilitate the judging process.
3.10 In cases of inadvertent unaccredited disclosure to the public of any material neither the Admin nor Samsung can take any responsibility. The Admin will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the Licence is not breached by accidental disclosure of Images to the public.
4. File Upload Specifications
4.1 All Entries must be submitted in digital format, using our website
4.2 All Entries submitted to each category of the Competition should be at least 1920 pixels at the longest dimension with no file size limits./p>
4.3 It is the responsibility of the Entrant to ensure that each Entry meets with the requirements this section of the BPA Terms and Conditions by saving the files with no watermarks, stencil, borders or signatures on the Image file itself./p>
4.4 Failure to adhere to this section 3 of the BPA Terms and Conditions may lead to immediate disqualification of the infringing Entries with no further notice or reasoning given, in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions./p>
4.5 Entries deemed by the Admin in its sole discretion to have been entered into an incorrect category may be moved to an appropriate category without giving notice to the Entrant./p>
4.6 Images entered into the Competition do not have to have been taken in the Competition year, and can be from any time in the past.
5. Image Manipulation and Authenticity Assurance
5.1 Save as otherwise permitted in these BPA Terms and Conditions, image manipulation of digital files that include, HDR, focus stacking, cropping, noise reduction, dodging, burning, dust spot removal, sharpening, contrast, tone, and multiple exposure layering (provided that the Images were all taken in the same session in the same location) are permitted. This list is exhaustive.
5.2 Except for the removal of dust spots in accordance with section 5.1, Images submitted to the Competition must not distort reality and may not have any items or objects, or parts of objects added or removed from the main Image.
5.3 Image-wide contrast and brightness adjustments, saturation, exposure lens profiling and colour temperature tweaking are exempt from necessary mention in the caption submission and should be considered as commonplace tweaking, and are permitted.
5.4 All EXIF data should be kept intact on the files submitted.
5.5 All Images that the Admin suspects or determines (in its sole discretion) to have been tampered with, falsified or are found to be illegal or in breach of this section or the BPA Terms and Conditions generally, may be disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions.
5.6 All Images must be free from the addition of false or unrelated data that does not originate from the original photograph.
5.7 All Images must be a complete record of all that was in the Image at the time it was taken (with the exception of dust spot removal as permitted by section 5.1). This pertains to, without limitation, the removal of people, animals, items, objects or parts of objects.
5.8 Panoramic stitching is permitted, but must be referred to in the Caption submission if it is used.
5.9 The Admin may request original files to be uploaded as part of the image authenticity checks, including full metadata to help protect against Artificial Imagery or Procedurally Generated pictures.
5.10 Images suspected to be rendered or generated by Artificial Intelligence will be discounted from this competition.
6. Caption Submissions
6.1 A caption (the “Caption”) must be submitted with every Entry into the Competition.
6.2 Failure to submit a caption may result in the Entry’s disqualification in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions.
6.3 Captions must be in English where possible, except where permitted by the Admin.
6.4 Enquiries regarding the submission of Captions in languages other than English must be sent to the Admin via office@britishphotographyawards.org.
6.5 Captions must include background information about the Entry, such as any motivations the Entrant may have held for the Image and special circumstances surrounding the moment and/or Image.
6.6 Captions must also include as precise a location as possible for where the Image was captured. Should the Entrant’s camera have GPS, and this was enabled at the time of shooting, the file data relating to the Image should be left intact.
6.7 Captions must also make clear the photographic equipment used as well as the camera settings that were used at the time the Image was taken.
6.8 It is mandatory that the entrant tells us which device they captured the image on.
7. The Judging Process
7.1 The judging is performed by a panel of independent judges (the “Judges”). The Judges are selected by the Admin and are appointed to their role by the Admin.
7.2 Once the Admin has presented the vetted folders of Entries to the Judges, the Judges engage in a scoring exercise and decide (in their sole discretion) on the Entries that score highest in each category. These Entries are stored securely during the judging process.
7.3 After the numerical scores have been tallied, the top selection of Images are then opened to the public for voting. This process is strictly monitored. Any fraudulent or suspicious voting practices will be flagged for investigation by the Admin.
7.4 Each category will have its own awards. The category awards are the highest prize awarded in the Competition and no ultimate winner will be selected across all categories.
7.5 Judges may be placed under a non-disclosure agreement that lasts for the duration of the Competition and their association with the Admin. Under such an agreement, Judges are forbidden to discuss the Competition mechanics, internal image sharing systems, Administrative particulars or divulge private personal details of those involved with anyone (including Entrants, sponsors, persons relating to the press or media outlets) unless express written permission is obtained from the Admin ahead of time.
7.6 The identities of the Judges selected by the Admin will be publicly available on the Competition website.
7.7 Each Judge is independent of Samsung, BPA and the Admin and participates to adjudicate the Competition.
7.8 Notification to an Entrant that an Image submitted by that Entrant has been selected for an award is done in the strictest confidence. Entrants are forbidden to disclose any details of any winning Entries to any third party in any way until the Admin grants that Entrant written permission to do so, or until the Admin makes a public announcement that identifies that Entrant’s Entry as a winning Entry (if earlier).
7.9 The Admin retains the right to add or replace (at their sole discretion) any number of the Judges at any stage of the Competition.
8. Ethical Requirements
8.1 The Admin respects the rights of nature, and laws of the United Kingdom. As such, any and all breaches of the laws of the United Kingdom may be grounds for disqualification from the Competition in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions.
8.2 Entrants must be honest and genuine with their submissions to the Competition.
8.3 Each Entrant retains full responsibility for obtaining any permissions needed to display the content of their Image in the Competition, or on the BPA website. This includes abiding by national and international law, seeking permits and permissions for accessing the land on which the photograph was taken and the rights to any and all brands, faces or persons featured in the Entry being legally sought. The Admin accepts no responsibility for those Entrants that fail to comply with this section 9.3 and shall be held harmless by the Entrant for any liabilities associated with such infractions.
8.4 All Entrants must ensure their submissions have been ethically obtained. This includes respect for nature, habitat, animals, personal property and trespass laws. Any suspected destruction of habitat or personal property that is suspected in an attempt to capture an Image will not be tolerated and will result in the Entrant being disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions.
8.5 All content within the mandated associated Caption of any Entry must be truthful, complete and accurate, and must not mislead or omit details that may later be detrimental to the judging process.
8.6 The use of live bait to lure any animal, and the intentional torment of creatures is unacceptable and any suspected breach of this section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions will be taken extremely seriously. In such instances the Entrant will be disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions, and the correct authorities shall be informed.
8.7 All Entrants agree that the Images that they have submitted to the Competition have not involved the intentional torment or injury of any animal in order to capture the Image, or set up the events that led to them being able to capture the Image. Any suspected breach of this rule will not be tolerated and will result in the Entrant being disqualified from the Competition in accordance with section 9 of these BPA Terms and Conditions.
9. Disqualification
9.1 The Admin retains the right to disqualify (at its sole discretion) any Entrant, or Entry at any stage and for any reason. These reasons may include, but are not limited to, misuse or theft of intellectual property, antisocial, crude or abusive behaviour, dishonest representation, unethical treatment of animals, contravention of local/national laws and failure to abide by the rules laid out in the BPA Terms and Conditions.
9.2 In the event of disqualification from the Competition, the Entrant will be offered no prizes or compensation and the Admin reserves the right to deny any refund of the Entry Fees paid by the Entrant.
9.3 A decision of the Admin is final in all matters pertaining to the Competition and no negotiation will be entered into with any Entrant or associated parties.
9.4 The Admin reserves the right to waive a breach of the BPA Terms and Conditions at its sole discretion, after considering the case in question.
10. Data Protection
10.1 All personal data, as defined under the Data Protection Act 2018, collected by the Admin will be managed and protected in accordance of the Data Protection Acts of 1998 and 2018.
10.2 Personal data will be collected in a way pertinent to the facilitating of the Competition, and event as laid out on the electronic submission form.
10.3 The Entrant’s contact email addresses and name data will be stored and added to a mailing list that will solely involve the Competition itself and event activity.
10.4 The Entrant agrees to let Admin and Samsung contact them about issues pertaining to the competition.
10.5 Entrants may contact the Admin at any time to delete or update that Entrant’s details on the Admin’s record using office@britishphotographyawards.org.
10.6 If any Entrant wishes to unsubscribe from the mailing list, this facility will be made available to them and the Entrant should send this request to the Admin using office@britishphotographyawards.org.