Rules & Regulations

Eligibility for EP Qualification

To be eligible to apply for an EP Certificate the candidate:

• must earn a living as a maker of still images., either photochemical or digital. The EP Certificates are only available to those who are authors of the original images and they are not intended for photographic laboratory technicians or support staff.
• must be a member of a national professional photographers association on the day the results of the relevant judging session are published. The national association must be a member of the Federation of European Professional Photographers, unless otherwise agreed by the relevant FEP member associations. Application by non-members can be accepted providing they are professional photographers legally registered and resident in European countries where there are not FEP member national associations to represent them. If an application is received from a photographer who is not member of a FEP member association, they must be registered with the tax authorities as a professional photographer and they must show their VAT registration number or certificate of professional insurance which will be validated by the FEP.
• may be self-employed or an employee.
• must have operated as a professional photographer for at least one consecutive year.
• must fulfil the necessary requirements in technical skills and achieve an acknowledged standard (determined by the FEP) necessary to uphold a professional status.
• must satisfy the requirements for professional practice skill, which will be assessed by the FEP member national association.
• must accept the FEP European Code of Professional Conduct.

Submission of Work

• each candidate must submit online a panel of twelve images
• the panel must contain 12 images of a single photographic specialisation (commercial, portrait, wedding, etc.), or 6 images of a single photographic specialisation and 6 of any other. No names or additional identification marks may appear on any of the submitted work
• EP is a qualification exclusively for photographers. Therefore, photos created entirely (100 %) using AI - Artificial Intelligence are not admitted to the EP qualification.
• if AI is suspected in photos submitted for the EP qualification, then the photographer will be requested to submit all the raw files for verification and their panel will be judged at the next session if applicable. The EP Qualification chairman Johan Brouwers to have the final decision.
• images created 100% using AI - artificial intelligence are not admitted to the EP qualifications. Most (80%) of the surface of the image must have been formed using a camera
• the submission must be images, colour or monochrome or a mixture
• submission and judging will be entirely online; applications for entries are always open
• the submitted images must be 4000 pixels the longest side saved as jpg.
• the total pixel count of an image should not exceed 100 Megapixels (100 MP), otherwise the image will not be accepted by the system.
• the submitted images will be judged by 3 international judges. EP candidates need 2 VOTES OUT OF 3 to be deemed successful
• anonymity of the candidates will be respected at all times; however, a list of the names of the candidates will be forwarded to the national headquarters of the relevant FEP member association
• if the application is submitted by a photographer who is not member of a FEP member association (see above in ‘eligibility’ - paragraph ‘b’), he/she may be asked to submit, beyond the registration number as indicated above, some evidence of the professional status, perhaps a photo of premises, interior or exterior, and/or an example of a brochure, website address, or any further publicity material; the requested criteria are indicated in the digital application form.
• the appropriate application fee (50 euros) must be paid after the uploading of the images, through Stripe.
• successful EP photographers will receive the EP logo and a digital certificate (on web resolution). If a printed certificate is requested, a file with printing resolution will be sent to the related national association only.
• EP certificate holders may apply for a QEP qualification at the first available session. To apply for the QEP certificate they must be members of an FEP national association.
• unsuccessful candidates will receive from the FEP a constructive critique of their panel indicating why, on this occasion it has not been successful. This document with the comments of the jury must be kept confidential.
• unsuccessful candidates may repeat the application process once free of charge within the next 3 sessions. Failed candidates who reapply for free within the next 3 EP sessions have to send an e-mail to the secretariat informing about this new application.

Application Fee

An application fee of € 50,00 is due to cover the costs, such as venue charges, certification, jury expense, etc.

Candidates have to send their fees via Stripe (with credit card). The FEP secretariat will keep tracks of the membership of the candidate and of the payment of the entry fee.

The FEP does not refund entry fees for entries that were disqualified for not complying with the rules.

Judging

The Jury will be drawn from delegates nominated annually by the national organisations within their relevant QEP and Master QEP holders, and then selected by the EP Jury Chairman.

Copyright and Releases

The copyright of all images submitted remains with the copyright holder. However the FEP reserves the right to use any of the images submitted, without payment, for display and publicity purposes for this and future FEP awards or projects. It is vital that the candidate obtains the permission of the client and/or the copyright holder and any relevant model release forms, where appropriate before submitting the work.

Violation of the rules

Any violation of the FEP Qualifications rules will result in sanctions ranging from disqualification of the photographs submitted by the violator for the qualification session in question, to a suspension from participating in subsequent editions of the FEP Qualifications and FEP Awards competition for a period of 2 years.

Any disqualifications due to the participant not being the sole copyright holder of submitted entries, will automatically mean disqualification of all submitted entries and a two-year suspension from participation in the FEP qualifications and FEP competitions, as decided by the FEP's board on May 15, 2023.

A validation committee consisting of the Chairman of the FEP Qualifications, the FEP President and the FEP CEO will investigate the violations and decide on sanctions to be taken.

Secretariat and Organisation

All candidates will receive written notification of the result of their submission from the FEP Secretariat. A list of all successful candidates ONLY will be announced. The anonymity of all candidates will be respected at all times including during judging sessions.

The FEP Secretariat will not allow for judging any submitted pictures unless the following procedures have been adhered to if:

• the images submitted do not conform to these rules
• the submission fee has not been paid
• the membership of the candidates has not been confirmed by the relevant association

See also our FAQ page