It is the responsibility of individual entrants to ensure that they have read and abided by the rules before they pay the entry fee and submit their photographs. No refunds or allowances will be made for instances where this is not the case. Any entry found not to comply with the competition rules will be excluded from the judging.
- The Owners of the competition are BBC Worldwide Limited and the Natural History Museum Trading Company Limited (the Owners). The annual competition is open to anyone except those involved in its organisation and employees of BBC Worldwide Limited or the Natural History Museum and sponsors.
Entrants to the Adult competition must be aged 18 or over on the closing date. - How to enter Register and upload your images online at www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto
- Entries must be digital images or scans of transparencies (any format). Transparencies and prints are NOT permitted. Each entrant may submit up to a total of 20 different pictures, with no more than three images per category (except the Eric Hosking and Wildlife Photojournalism awards). Only one picture from a series is allowed per category (except in the Wildlife Photojournalism award). No image may be entered into more than one category. Black and white images are only permitted in Nature in Black and White, Creative Visions of Nature and Wildlife Photojournalism awards. Pictures must have been taken within the five years immediately prior to the closing date. No allowance will be made for poor quality scans.
- Digital guidelines
Format Images should be submitted as JPEGs, with no interpolation applied. Save JPEGs at the highest possible quality setting (eg 12 in Photoshop).
File size requirements for all entries For the initial submission, images must be 1400 pixels on the longest dimension. Digital images must have been taken on a sufficiently high resolution camera - at least ten (10) million pixels, on the highest setting.
Calibration and colour Images must be colour profiled/corrected using a calibrated monitor and utilising Adobe RGB 98 colour space before submission. Allowances will NOT be made for poorly colour managed/corrected images. Please ensure your images are not over saturated and faithfully represent the subject matter.
Adjusting your image The faithful representation of what was captured at the time of the shot being taken must be maintained. Digital adjustments are only acceptable if limited to minor cleaning work (removing dust spots), levels, curves, colour, saturation and contrast work. Sharpening and minimal cropping is allowed. Stitched images are permitted in the Wild Places category only.
Compositing, multiple exposures, sandwich shots and double exposures are not permitted. Adding or removing animals, parts of animals, plants, distractions, people etc into/from the image is not allowed. Pictures that have been digitally manipulated outside of rule 4 are not eligible. - Labelling images Full caption details must be supplied in the IPTC field (File>File Info in Photoshop) (species, exact location, when and how the picture was taken). Full technical details are also required (camera, lens, exposure, speed and other equipment used).
- Black and white images are only permitted in Nature in Black and White, Creative Visions of Nature and the Wildlife Photojournalism award. Digital files or scans of transparencies and negative film, can be submitted. Dodging, burning and toning is allowed. Please refer to rule 4 for all other rules on digital submissions.
- Eric Hosking Award You must supply a portfolio of 10 images. Images must be supplied as per rule 4.
- Subjects and Ethics Only pictures of wild animals and plants and landscapes are eligible subjects. Images of domestic animals (cats, dogs, farm animals, etc) and cultivated plants (species or hybrids grown in a cultivated setting) do not count as wildlife. Pictures of captive animals (animals that do not live a free and wild existence) or involving baiting using live bait are not eligible, and any other baiting must be declared. Pictures of animal models or any other animals being exploited for profit may not be entered. Images of animals being restrained in any way are only accepted in the One Earth and Wildlife Photojournalism categories when illustrating an issue. The competition asks photographers to put the welfare of animals first and to safeguard their environment and that they do not do anything to injure or distress animals or destroy the environment in their attempt to get the shot. If the Owners or the Judges suspect that a picture was taken using cruel or unethical practices, the entry will be disqualified.
- Declaration of truth
All photographers will be asked to declare that the images they are submitting comply with the competition rules and that the picture information they provide is complete, true and accurate.
If an image reaches the final round of judging you must supply the following:- RAW file (eg *.NEF, *.CR2, *.CRW), DNG files are only permitted if DNG is the native RAW format of the camera. Or original transparency or black and white negative for scan entrants.
- High Res file (TIFF) for reproduction in the exhibition and book. This file must be a minimum of 30MB.
- We will contact you by email to request these in early May 2010 from wildphoto@nhm.ac.uk or nhm@nhm.pmailuk.com The organisers cannot be held responsible for emails that do not arrive due to the entrant’s email security settings or restrictions placed by their Internet service provider.
- Judges These will be appointed by the Owners to choose the winners. The Owners’ decision on all matters relating to the competition is final, and no correspondence will be entered into concerning the competition’s judging and organisation. Should the quality of entries fall below the standard required, the Owners reserve the right not to award prizes.
- Notification Winners and commended photographers will be notified by 30 June 2010.The results will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London in October. The winning images will be published on the competition website, in a portfolio supplement to the November issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine and in a portfolio book.
- Copyright & Reproduction You must be the sole author and owner of the copyright for all images entered. You will retain copyright of your entries at all times and always be credited alongside your picture. By entering your images into the competition, you grant permission to the Natural History Museum for a non-exclusive licence to reproduce the images in connection with the competition for the following purposes:
- judging the competition
- display at the exhibition of the winning entries held at the Natural History Museum and within the UK and subsequent international tours
- inclusion within the exhibition interactive elements (now known or hereafter created)
- inclusion within the Portfolio 20 book and magazine or similar
- inclusion within promotion of the competition and exhibition organised by BBC Wildlife Magazine
- inclusion (if selected as one of the promotional images) within the Natural History Museum’s marketing and promotional materials (including press packs) for the exhibition or touring exhibition
Generally images are only used in connection with the competition for a period of 18 months from the winners’ announcements.
Media will be allowed to publish up to five images free of charge for this purpose. Media may use more than this if they agree payment with each photographer. When used in whatever medium by the competition organisers all images are credited to the photographer and we insist that the press do so too. Under the competition’s terms & conditions of image use, failure to include the credit makes the author liable to a fee imposed by the photographer. - Liability All entries are sent at the photographer’s risk. The Owners regret that they cannot accept liability for any loss or damage of any images entered in the competition (howsoever caused) nor for any other loss or damage resulting there from. All non-winning digital images which are entered into the competition will be deleted after the winners are announced in October.
- Legal issues It is the photographer's responsibility to be aware of and comply with the national or international legislation (eg in the case of protected species) governing the country their images are taken in. Pictures must be accompanied by copies of the relevant permits and these should be scanned and emailed, or posted to the Competition Office with the entrant's full name and entry code and information on which picture it relates to.
- Other competitions A picture that has won a prize (winner, runner-up or commended) in another competition, which receives more than 500 images at the time of entering, is not eligible.
- Entry fee payment A valid credit or debit is required when you register to enter online.
- Closing date for entry is 8 March 2010 (09.00 GMT).
Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010
Rules 1, 2, 4, 5, 8-15 and 17 of the Adult competition apply as well as the following:
- This part of the competition is open to anyone aged 17 or under on the closing date. Entry to the Young competition is free. During registration a parent or guardian will need to be present to confirm their consent.
- Entries must be digital images, or scans of transparencies of any wild animal, plant or landscape, taken within the 5 years immediately prior to the closing date. Colour and black and white pictures are allowed. No slides or prints may be submitted.
- RAW files or original transparencies will be requested, if an image reaches the final round of competition judging. Please read adult rule 4 for full guidelines on how to submit digital images.
- You can enter a range of up to 10 pictures in your age group category.