Port Sunlight Photographer of the Year – Enter the 2024 competition

Entries must be submitted as JPEGs, saved at a high-quality setting of at least 8 in Photoshop, Adobe RGB (1998), and at 1920 pixels along the longest dimension. Please do not include borders, watermarks or signatures.

If your image is selected for the Final Round of judging you will need to provide a RAW file, original untouched JPEG (with a range of ‘before’ and ‘after’ original untouched JPEG files), original transparency or negative so the judges can check any adjustments comply with the rules. If you cannot supply these, your entry will be withdrawn from the competition.

Submitted photographs must carry basic caption information, who, what, where, when in the metadata of the JPEG file. It should also carry the camera original digital metadata (IPTC). This will confirm the date the picture was taken for the judges.

You will also need to supply a high-resolution file suited to printing in all media. A TIFF file is preferred.

This should be 8-bit, Adobe RGB (1998) at full resolution. Please do not upscale.

Acceptable digital adjustments

A limited number of digital adjustments to photos are permitted providing they comply with the competition’s principles of authenticity and so do not misrepresent reality. These include:

• tone adjustments
• contrast adjustments
• burning
• dodging
• cropping
• sharpening
• noise reduction
• minor cleaning work (such as the removal of sensor dust or scratches on transparencies/scans, or the removal of chromatic aberration, lens distortion and vignetting).
• HDR
• stitched panoramas
• stacking – photograph stacking and combined for the purposes of; focus stacking, exposure blending, noise reduction or lengthening exposure if taken at the same location at approximately the same time (as a continuous sequence) or within the Natural Artistry category only as multiple exposures in-camera

The following digital adjustments are not allowed:

• adding, moving or removing objects, animals or parts of animals, plants, people, etc.
• the removal of dirt, highlights, backscatter, bubbles, debris and similar composites
• painting the foreground or painting out the background
• AI generated photographs or images.
• Post-processing methods that add new image content to the photograph via AI algorithms or by manual intervention.

Images must not be altered in any way that alters the integrity of the original photograph. No element should be digitally added to or subtracted from any photograph. Only retouching by the use of the cloning tool or similar to eliminate dust and scratches is acceptable. HDR photography is not acceptable. PSVT reserves the right to ask potential finalists for their original file to ensure these rules are adhered to.

Paul is a staff photographer for international news agency, Agence France-Presse. He covers news and sport, predominantly in the north of England but can often be found on assignment around the world.

His career, spanning almost 30 years, includes work for national and international titles as a freelance after working for regional newspapers and news agencies as a photographer and picture editor. His 18 years at AFP have seen him cover world championship events in football, rugby, cricket, golf, tennis and many other sports. In news he has covered royal weddings, funerals, papal visits, state openings, political events, general elections and the more recently the coronation of King Charles III.
He is past president of the Liverpool Press Club, recently was the chair of The British Press Photographers’ Association and is currently chair of the jury of photography in the Sport Journalists Association Awards.

Born in Hull, East Yorkshire, he studied photojournalism in Sheffield before moving to the north west. He has lived on the Wirral with his family for nearly 20 years.

Bruce is a staff photographer for Britain’s biggest selling newspaper the Daily Mail. He covers news, features, royal tours, exclusive celebrity/political interviews and all other subject matter except sport. He works mainly in the North of England but can often be found on assignment around the world. His career, spanning more than 30 years, includes work for national and international titles. Beginning as a staff photographer at a local newspaper on the south coast of England, he freelanced in London working for several national newspapers before working as a staff photographer and picture editor for the Daily Mail in Scotland.

His 25 years for Associated Newspapers have seen him cover the 2003 US and allied invasion of Iraq, earthquakes, royal weddings, funerals and foreign tours, papal visits, civil disturbances, celebrity interviews, political conferences, general elections and more recently the coronation of King Charles III.

He is currently on the Board of The British Press Photographers’ Association.

Born in Surrey, he studied photojournalism in Sheffield before returning to Bournemouth where he was raised then moved to London and later Glasgow. He has lived in Manchester with his family for the past 24 years.