Are there any competitions that do not allow editing of photos?

December 12th, 2016 ( Updated 7 years ago )

We are often asked if there is a competition that does not allow any edits or post processing of photos. In theory this does sound like a good idea, as it would make the competition fairer for photographers who are against using many of the numerous software applications for enhancing photos. The problem with such a competition would be knowing and proving that a photo has been edited or if it is straight out of the camera. For example, a photographer might be using a lens filter which could produce a similar affect to a digital filter done in software. Such a competition could produce endless debates about what is and isn't allowed.

Here at I-SHOT-IT we employ independent judges to judge the competitions. Legally we can not tell them what type of photos they must choose. It is left completely up to them to judge the competitions and choose the best photos. Many professional photographers do use software to correct and adjust photos, so they probably don't have a problem with the use of some post-processing. This is a photo competition and not a photo editing competition, so it is probably less likely that the judges will choose photos that have been heavily edited with software.

Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to know if a lot of edits have been made to a photo after it came out of the camera. For this reason having a competition that does not allow editing would probably be impossible.