Australasia's Top Emerging Photographers 2025 - Terms And Conditions

ELIGIBILITY

1. Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers is open to emerging photographers only. For the purposes of this competition, an emerging photographer is defined as someone who has less than four years of full-time experience working as a professional photographer. Entrants with no professional experience also qualify to enter the competition under this definition.

2. Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers is open to citizens and residents of Australia and New Zealand. In order to receive a prize, winners must supply an Australian or New Zealand mailing address. For the purposes of this competition, a resident is defined as a person who has lived in Australia or New Zealand for at least six months at the time of entering this competition.

3. Images must have been created on or after 1 June 2022. Any elements included in an image must also have been created on or after 1 July 2022. If EXIF data indicates an image was captured before 1 June 2022 it may be disqualified, unless the entrant verifies the EXIF data is incorrect.

4. Images entered in Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers in previous years may not be entered into the 2025 competition.

5. An entrant may enter multiple times in one or more categories.

6. An image, or similar version of that image, that has been a winner or runner-up in any of the following Yaffa Media photo competitions – The Landscape Awards, Photographer of the Year, The Mono Awards, Wilderness Photographer of the Year, The Capture Awards – will not be eligible to be a Winner or Runner-Up in Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers.

7. Category winners of Australasia's Top Emerging Photographers 2024 are not eligible to enter Australasia's Top Emerging Photographers 2025.

8. All elements must have been photographed by the entrant and images submitted must be 100% photographic in origin including textures, backgrounds, skies, borders, etc. The use of stock images or clip art is forbidden.

9. An image created wholly or in part with the assistance of artificial intelligence, 3D, or illustration software may not be entered (see section 15). 

10. Employees of Yaffa Media Pty Ltd (the competition organiser) and the sponsors of Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers are not permitted to enter the competition.

11. Freelance writers and photographers who have been paid to contribute to Capture since 1 January 2024 are not permitted to enter the competition.

COPYRIGHT

12. Entrants retain copyright of their images. The entrant provides Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers and Capture a limited-use authorisation to display, publish and distribute their photographs for the sole purpose of promoting Australasia's Top Emerging Photographers. Images will be credited with the name of the photographer if used by Australasia's Top Emerging Photographers or Capture.

13. The entrant must be the creator and copyright owner of all elements in their submitted entry. The entrant is responsible for obtaining model releases if required.

14. All post-production and editing must be the work of the entrant.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

15. Images created wholly or in part with the assistance of artificial intelligence, 3D, or illustration processes may not be entered.

This is a photography competition and, as such, any entered images must have been entirely captured with a camera (digital or film) by the entrant. Images created or edited with artificial intelligence using image-creation programs (such as, but not limited to, MidJourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, etc) may not be entered. Images edited using Generative AI in programs such as Photoshop, Topaz Photo AI, etc, where pixels are added that did not exist in the original photo, may not be entered. The competition organisers reserve the right to request original image files (this may include RAW files and images taken before or after the entered image) to verify the photographic integrity of a submitted entry. Failure to produce original image files may result in disqualification. Competition organisers reserve the right to disqualify an image if the photographic integrity of a submitted entry cannot be verified.

PORTFOLIO CATEGORIES

16. Entrants must submit a portfolio of three images in the following categorie: Animals, Architecture, Art, Black & White, Landscape, People, and Travel. Entries will be judged as a portfolio of three images, not as individual images. Images should complement each other visually, thematically or narratively. 

17. Entrants must submit a portfolio of five images in the Documentary category. Entries will be judged as a portfolio of five images, not as individual images. Images should complement each other visually, thematically or narratively.  

SINGLE SHOT CATEGORY

18. Entrants must submit one image in the Single Shot category. Images in the Single Shot category are judged individually.

CATEGORY DEFINITIONS AND IMAGE EDITING REQUIREMENTS 

19. ANIMALS Animals may be domestic, farm, zoo/captive, or wild. An animal (or animals) should be the main subject of the image.
Photo editing: Images may be single capture or composites. 

20. ARCHITECTURE Built structures and spaces should be the main subject of the image. 
Photo editing: Images must be single capture with the following limited exceptions. Stitched panoramas, focus stacking, and HDR may be used only if all exposures are captured from the same location within an eight-hour period. With the exception of the previously mentioned techniques, adding or removing pixels is not permitted, other than to crop and/or remove dust spots. Adjustments may be made to noise, sharpness, colour, tone, and contrast, including dodging and burning, and black-and-white conversions. Digital lens corrections may also be made. 

21. ART The art category is open to a wide range of possible interpretations, themes and subjects.
Photo editing: Images may be single capture or composite. There is a wider scope for image editing in the art category, including cloning and composites. All elements in the image must have been photographed by the entrant and images including textures, backgrounds, skies, borders, etc. Stock images and clip art may not be used.

22. DOCUMENTARY Images must show actual events that have not been staged in any way by the photographer or any of their associates.
Photo editing: Images must be single capture. Composite images are not eligible. Adding or changing pixels through the use of cloning or other means is not permitted, other than to remove dust spots. Minor tone, noise, and sharpness changes are permitted, with the proviso that these changes do not fundamentally alter the narrative of the event being captured. Composite techniques such as focus-stacking, multiple exposure, panoramic stitching, and HDR are prohibited. 

23. LANDSCAPE: Landscape or seascape images of the natural or built environment should be the main subject of the image. 
Photo editing: Images must be single capture with the following limited exceptions. Stitched panoramas, focus stacking, and HDR may be used only if all exposures are captured from the same location within an eight-hour period. With the exception of the previously mentioned techniques, adding or removing pixels is not permitted, other than to crop and/or remove dust spots. Adjustments may be made to noise, sharpness, colour, tone, and contrast, including dodging and burning, and black-and-white conversions. Digital lens corrections may also be made. 

24. PEOPLE: Images should include one or more people as the main subject of the image.
Photo editing: Images may be single capture or composites. Portraits of animals should be entered in the ‘Animals’ category.

25. BLACK & WHITE: Images may be shot in black & white, or captured in colour and converted to black & white in post-production. Monochrome images composed of the values of one colour, such as sepia or cyanotype, are also permitted.
Photo editing: Images may be single capture or composites. 

26. TRAVEL: Images should try to convey a sense of a place or places, and may include images of landscape, people, food, clothing, architecture or other subject matter.
Photo editing: Images must be single capture with the following limited exceptions. Stitched panoramas, focus stacking, and HDR may be used only if all exposures are captured from the same location within an eight-hour period. With the exception of the previously mentioned techniques, adding or removing pixels is not permitted, other than to crop and/or remove dust spots. Adjustments may be made to noise, sharpness, colour, tone, and contrast, including dodging and burning, and black-and-white conversions. Digital lens corrections may also be made. 

27. SINGLE SHOT: This is an open-theme category.
Photo editing: Images submitted may be single capture or composite. 15. The competition organisers reserve the right to request RAW files or series of original JPEGS with Metadata to confirm the authenticity of images.

IMAGE REQUIREMENTS

28. Image format: Images should be in JPEG (.jpg) format

29. Image dimensions: Images should be at least 2,500 pixels on the longest edge.

30. Image file size: Each image should be no larher than 5MB.

31. Images must not include watermarks or other branding. Images with watermarks or added text will not be considered.

CLOSING DATE

32. Closing date for entries is Sunday 23 March 2025 at 11:59pm (AEDT). 

JUDGING

33. Entries will be shortlisted by the staff of Capture.

34. A panel of leading photographers and industry experts will judge the shortlisted entries.

35. In the event of a tie for first or second place, the relevant images will be returned to the judges for an additional round of voting. The overall winner and overall runner-up will be chosen from one of the portfolio categories (includes all categories except Single Shot).

36. The judges' decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

WINNERS' ANNOUNCEMENT

37. Winners and Runners-Up will be announced at www.capturemag.com.au in June 2025. Winners, Runners-Up and top finalists in each category will also be published in Capture magazine (Winter 2025 edition) in June 2025.

38. Prize winners will also be notified by email.

CERTIFICATES

39. Certificates will be emailed in June 2025 to entrants who receive Winner, Runner-Up, Top 10, Top 20, Top 30, Highly Commended and Commended Awards.

PRODUCT PRIZES

40. Prizes are subject to availability and are not transferable or exchangeable, and cannot be taken as cash. If a prize is unavailable, the competition organiser reserves the right to substitute a prize of similar value.

41. Prize values are supplied by sponsors. Retail prices in stores and online may vary.

42. The competition organiser takes no responsibility for prizes damaged or lost in transit.

GENERAL

43. Entry fees are non-refundable.

44. It is the responsibility of the entrant to ensure images are captured safely, and in compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

45. When photographing in wilderness and natural areas habitat disturbance must be kept to a minimum. Entrants should minimise any impact their presence has on surrounding flora and fauna and ensure they comply with local conservation guidance and requirements. Live baiting is not allowed and the use of any other means of attracting wild animals is strongly discouraged. If an attractant is used to attract wildlife it must be declared in the entry information.

46. An entrant may be disqualified at any stage if it is found they have engaged in unethical practices in the capture and creation of their entry.

47. No responsibility is accepted for late, lost, delayed, or misdirected entries.

48. Entry fees are non-refundable.

49. The entrant indemnifies Yaffa Media Pty Ltd (ABN 54 002 699 354) against any claim, legal or otherwise, that may arise out of publication of the images.

50. Yaffa Media Pty Ltd reserves the right to disqualify any entry deemed to be in breach of the Terms and Conditions.

51. By entering this competition, the entrant guarantees to Yaffa Media Pty. Ltd. that all of the above Terms and Conditions have been met. Any entry found to breach the Terms and Conditions will be disqualified and all prize money and product prizes must be returned to Yaffa Media Pty Ltd.

Our terms and conditions have been approved by the Photowatchdog, and rated . Photowatchdog is the advocate for fair photo competitions in Australia.