Rules & Regulations

Aims

The aim of this competition is to help promote the photographic profession and to raise the level of professional standards. It is intended to give just recognition to those who work in this sector according to the highest levels of quality and professionalism. The competition is a non-profit event and all fees collected will be used to promote the FEP and the FEP member associations.

Introduction

The competition is totally Web based; the registration, hosting and judging are all carried out online. All entries will remain offline until the competition will end and they will be visible online only after the closure of the judging session.

Categories

There are 9 categories in the competition:

• Wedding
• Potrait
• Commercial
• Fashion
• Reportage/Photojournalism *
• Sports *
• Landscape *
• Wildlife *
• Illustration, Digital Art & Fine Art

(*) Note for Reportage/Photojournalism, Sports, Landscape and Wildlife: The content of the image must not be altered. Only retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed. Only single-frame images will be accepted. Composite and multiple exposure images will not be accepted.

There is also one special section:

Students and Young Photographers, open to the students of recognized schools of photography and to photographers and assistants under 25 year of age.

Images submitted for the special section will be judged according to the same criteria as the nine main categories. 

The jury is the ultimate arbiter.

Awards

The following awards will be issued:

• FEP European Wedding Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Portrait Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Commercial Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Fashion Golden Camera Awarrd
• FEP European Sports Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Reportage/Photojournalism Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Landscape Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Wildlife Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Illustrative and Fine Art Golden Camera Award
• FEP European Students & Young Photographers Golden Camera Award

And the overall winner

• FEP European Professional Photographer of the Year 2016

Criteria

The FEP European Professional Photographer of the Year Awards are open to all professional photographers who are registered and resident in a European country (as defined by the Council of Europe), with no discrimination of sex, race, religion, nationality or ethnicity. A special section is also open for European Young Photographers (up to 25 years old), Assistants and Students.

How to Enter

To enter one or more categories, photographers should complete the entry form online
Entrants will log into the system using their europeanphotographers.eu usernames and passwords. Details of previous entries can be checked and amended. Users will only ever enter their personal details once.
The photographers may enter as many images into as many categories as they like. However, a minimum set of 3 images in the same category is required. Unlimited additional pictures may be submitted, but only the top 3 scored pictures in the same category will be considered for the allocation of awards.
Each category will be charged an entry fee that allows entry of a certain number of images.
Each additional image after this number will be charged an additional fee
FEP members, EPs, QEPs or MQEPs and students, they are entitled to get discounts or free entries.
Students & Young Photographers may enter only their special sections.
Entrants who are members of a FEP member association will have to indicate the national association of which they are members.
Students must indicate their relevant photographic institute.
Assistants must indicate the name of the photographic studio where they are employed.
Submitted images must not have entered other FEP Competitions or previous editions of this FEP Competition.
Submitted images must not have WON other international competitions.

Technical Specifications

Each submitted image must be larger than 4000 pixels on the longest side, and under 8mb in size. Submitted images must be standard RGB, saved in JPG.

Entrants have to certify that the entire process of production and post-production of any photographs submitted has been carried out by the entrant or under his/her direction. It is not possible to submit two images of the same subject, unless the process of post-production results in two completely different images. Images not considered admissible may be disqualified at the discretion of the jury.

The images must be anonymous and in the case of images pertinent to advertising campaigns, they must not contain any text or graphic elements, which were not part of the original exposure. Images containing text will be immediately disqualified.

Timelines and Schedules

• The competition 2016 opens August 1st, 2015
• Closing date for receipt of entries is December 31st, 2015.
• Judging will take place immediately after, and the first results will be announced 30 days later.

Entry Fees

For photographers who are not members of an FEP member association an entry fee of 30,00 Euros for a first set of 3 images on each category is mandatory. They can enter all the 9 categories.

For photographers who are members of an FEP member association, an entry fee of 20,00 Euros for a first set of 3 images in 1 category is mandatory. They can enter all the 9 categories.

EP, QEP and MASTER QEP holders can enter a first set of 3 images in 1 category for free. They can enter all the 9 categories.
For Young Photographers, assistants and students an entry fee of 10,00 Euros for a first set of 3 images in their special section is mandatory.

Students may enter only their special section.

For all entrants, any additional submitted image, other than the first set of 3 images in one category, a fee of 10,00 Euros per picture will be charged.

Entrants are required to pay all entry fees to the FEP through PayPal or equivalent system for credit cards. Multiple entries are allowed until the competition will be closed.

Prizes

For Single Images

All images entered will be assessed by an international FEP jury with an online voting system and awarded points out of 100.
The image achieving a score between 77/100 and 84/100 will be presented with a Merit Award Certificate.
Those obtaining a score between 85/100 and 90/100 will be presented with a Distinction Award Certificate.
Finally, those obtaining a score of at least 91/100 will be presented with an Excellence Award Certificate by the FEP.
The images and the photographers’ names of the award winning pictures will be published on the FEP website.

For the Entrants :

All participants will receive the official results by e-mail.

Finalists

The top 10 photographers in each category and in the special sections will be presented as finalists.

The classification will be determined by adding the scores achieved by the first, second and third highest score images submitted by a photographer in each category (score compiled by computed results)

All the finalists will receive a “finalist” certificate. The top 3 finalists will become the Golden, Silver and Bronze Cameras (so at the end the finalists in each category will be 7)

Category Winners

The photographers who achieved the first highest score in each category will be presented as FEP GOLDEN CAMERAS for the relevant category. The photographers who obtained the second and third highest scores in each category will be announced as “FEP Silver Camera” for 2nd place and “FEP Bronze Camera” for 3rd place. All the authors winners/second and third in each category will receive a trophy. They will be presented with their trophies at a special FEP ceremony.

Overall Winner

From the 9 category winners (Golden Cameras) the jury will then select an Overall Winner, and the author who achieves the highest number of votes by the full judging panel will be presented as the “FEP European Professional Photographer of the Year”. He/she will receive a certificate and a special trophy.

In the event of a draw, there will be a re-vote by the jury and an overall winner will be chosen between the two or more authors. In case of a second draw, the Chairman will have the casting vote.

The overall winner will receive the certificate and the trophy at the annual award ceremony.
The images and name of the winners will be published on the official FEP website.

Presentation of the Awards

Awards will be presented at a special ceremony. The presentations will consist of certificates and trophies. Winners who cannot personally come or being represented to the ceremony to withdraw their trophies and certificates may ask to receive them by post, but, in this case, the expenses of the shipment will be in charge to the photographers.
The images and names of all successful candidates and finalists will be published on the official FEP website.
Prints may be made of the top 3 authors per each category, as well as the special sections, for inclusion in the official exhibition at the annual award ceremony.

Jury Composition

The judging panel(s) will include a non–voting Chairman and a minimum of 5 members, of different nationalities, selected among, Master QEP photographers and other photographic experts nominated by the FEP associations. The Chairman of the Jury may choose to use more than one panel of judges. Each panel of Judges will then judge one or more Categories. All Judges will be asked to vote to elect the Overall Winner. The sponsors of this competition may be asked to nominate a judge for inclusion in the Jury. Judging will take place on- line. The names of the judges will be published on the FEP web site after the judging session is over .

Jury Functions

The Chairman of the jury, in cooperation with the FEP CEO, will monitor the voting procedure. The Chairman may also call the jury to re-examine an image or a set of pictures should he/she feel necessary or if there is great discrepancy in the scores awarded.
Should a judge know who created an entered image, the judge should refrain from judging the specific image. When in doubt, the Judge should consult the Chairman of the Jury. Judges cannot enter the Competition.
The FEP CEO assists the Chairman, records the scores and signs the official jury report, which is also signed by the Chairman.

Judging Criteria

The Jury will assess the images for visual impact, composition, originality, technique, creativity, the ability to communicate a message, a feeling, or an emotion…

Rights and Responsibilities

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 works.
FEP cannot be held responsible for lack of doing so by an entrant photographer.
FEP cannot be held responsible for third parties misuse of images.
FEP and the official sponsors of the competition may ask the winners for permission to use the photographs for promotional purposes (other than the above mentioned) for one year, publishing the name of the author and the event together with the winning images.
By completing the entry form, the entrants agree that they accept in full the competition’s rules. The organizers of the competition and the Chairman of the judging commission will interpret the correct application of these rules and will arbitrate on any situations not expressly covered by them. The decision of the jury is final; however, constructive criticism, suggestions and comments are welcome.
The participants’ personal information will be for internal organizational use only, in respect of national and international privacy laws.