General Competition Rules - 2026

All images must have been created with commercial intent.

This includes:

• Paid commissions
• Self-initiated work intended for sale, licensing, promotion, exhibition, competition, or portfolio use

Purely casual, personal, or test images with no commercial or professional intent are not eligible.

Unless a category states otherwise, each entry is a single image.

• All categories are single-image entries except Multi-image Story Telling, which accepts a small series of images submitted together as one entry (see category rules for the permitted number of images).
• This applies regardless of subject matter — a set of images that would otherwise fit any other category must be entered individually, or as a series under Multi-image Story Telling.
• Diptychs, triptychs, and grids – a single file containing two or more distinct photographs presented side by side or in a grid is treated as multiple images, not one. These must be entered under Multi-image Story Telling; they are not eligible as single-image entries in any other category.

All entries are assessed against three defined tiers of adjustment. Category-specific pages state which tiers are permitted for that category – where a category is silent on a tier, the default below applies.

Minor adjustments (always permitted, all categories): Crop, straighten/rotate, dodge & burn, colour and black-and-white conversion, noise reduction, sharpening, and removal of sensor dust or chromatic aberration.

Advanced retouching (permitted unless a category says otherwise): Cloning, healing, patching, content-aware fill, liquify or similar tools — using only pixels that exist within the entrant’s own image(s). This does not extend to adding, generating, or sourcing content from elsewhere.

Compositing (not permitted by default – only where a category explicitly allows it): Combining multiple photographic elements, frames, or exposures into a single image. Where a category permits compositing, every element used must be the entrant’s own captured material – never stock, third-party, or AI-generated content.

Not considered as compositing: focus stacking, panorama/photo stitching, and multiple exposures captured at the same time and in the same place, all using only the entrant’s own frames. These are addressed separately, category by category, since not every category permits them (e.g. Landscape & Cityscape and Natural World allow them; Photojournalism & Street and Music & Sports do not).

• Generative AI is not permitted in any category
• AI-assisted tools are allowed only when working from the entrant’s own source imagery – for example, content-aware fill drawing on the same image, or non-generative noise reduction/upscaling.
• Not permitted, in any category: generative fill from external datasets; AI-created skies, people, objects, textures or environments; any element sourced from a stock image.

• The Digital Creation category is expressly intended to accommodate images with heavy compositing and manipulation of component elements.
• Compositing of multiple image elements is not allowed unless explicitly permitted within category-specific rules. The permitted specifics can and do vary for each category.

The BIPP reserves the right to request:

• • Raw/ original files.
  • Additional frames from the same shoot.
  • Metadata or capture details, and an explanation of the circumstances of capture.

Failure to provide requested files will result in disqualification.

Images created while:

• Attending instructor-led workshops.
• Participating in mentored shoots, portfolio builder events, etc..
• Leading or assisting workshops.

are not eligible in any category.

• All images must be captured legally.
• Required permissions, releases, and access rights must be in place.
• Wildlife and vulnerable subjects must not be harmed or distressed.

• 27th July 2026 – page header.
• 23rd July 2026 – Clarify single/ multi-image rules.
• 22nd July 2026 – Introduced defined adjustment tiers (Minor adjustments / Advanced retouching / Compositing) as the canonical reference for category-specific rules; clarified that focus stacking, panorama stitching, and same-time-same-place multiple exposures are not treated as compositing.
• 18th July 2026 – link to IPM26
• 12th January 2026 – Initial publication