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.