The Final Round Judging Process
The final round of judging is conducted by a panel of 15 judges from around the world. The judging of the final round is completed before any category results are published so the judges are unaware of the placings or identities of the finalists.
Each image is scored by all 15 judges and the total of the 15 scores is averaged to produce a final score. The image with the highest final score is deemed the winner of the final judging round. View the profiles of Finalist Judges.

The Category Judging Process
The Integrity of the competition is of paramount importance to us and strict measures have been put in place to protect the integrity and security of the competition. A series of checks are performed by the system each time a judge requests an image.

These checks include ;

  • Blind Judging All images are judged blind. This means that no names, locations or identifying elements are shown during the judging process. Judges do not know who submitted the image they are judging.

  • Geographic Exclusions The system prevents judges from judging any images submitted from their country or region.

  • Relationship Crossmatching Prior to judging relationship checks are made to ensure judges can not judge images from a personal or proffesional relationship.

  • Randomisation After all of the checks have been performed the system has a series of images that the judge can score. From this group, an image is selected at random and then presented for judging. This randomisation ensures that no 2 judges will ever score the same images in the same order.

  • Judges in the competition Judges are permitted to enter the competition. Due to the strict control the system has over who can judge the images, the system eliminates the possibility that a judge could score their own submittions.

  • Final Round Judging The judging of the final round is conducted by a selection of judges that can not enter the competition.


Overview
  • Entries will be judged by nominated judges.
  • Each image will be scored by 5 separate judges.
  • The 5 scores will be averaged to produce a final score.
  • The highest final score within each category will be deemed the category winner
  • In the case of a category tie the 5 individual scores will be added together to produce a score tie calculation. The image with the highest score tie calculation will be deemed the winner.
  • The top 5 placing Images from each category will be selected and announced from the 1st of November 2008
  • The overall winner of the International Aperture Awards 2008 will be announced on-line 8th December 2008


Final Round Major Prize Judging
The top 5 Images from each category will go into the final round and be re-judged by a panel of elite international judges. The winning Image selected from this judging process will then be awarded USD$25,000.00

Final Round Selection
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th placings from each category will go through to the final judging round and be eligible for the $25,000.00 Grand Prize and Peoples Choice Award.

Categories People and Portrait
Sport
Landscape
Science and Nature
Commercial/Advertising
Abstract/Illustrative
Photo Journalism/Press
Wedding


Category Prizes 1st $1,000.00, 2nd $500.00, 3rd $250.00, 4th $150.00, 5th $100.00

All category winners will be posted on the website as the results are completed.

Peoples Choice Award
Peoples choice award voting from 1st December to the 8th December 2008

Peoples Choice Award judged from the 40 final round images by a public on-line vote in December.

Merit Awards
Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze merit awards will be will be awarded based on the averaged 5 voting scores as follows
Platinum Award scored 95-100
Gold Award scored 88-94
Silver award scored 82-87
Bronze award scored 75-81
The platinum, gold, silver and bronze awards are recognized by the judges as high quality images and worthy of recognition in the competition.