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Top Photo Awards is an online contest platform that offers monetary rewards and exclusive merchandise to talented photographers. It serves as a gateway to recognition and publicity, providing photographers with opportunities to showcase their work, gain exposure, and connect with a global community of creatives.
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The number of photos you can submit to a contest depends on your subscription plan:
- FREE package: Up to 2 photos
- BASIC package: Up to 4 photos
- PLUS package: Up to 6 photos
- PRO package: Up to 8 photos
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You can absolutely participate in multiple contests with the same photos. Doing so increases your chances of earning awards and gaining more recognition for your work.
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You will see all winning photos and the names of the winning participants once the contest is officially released. All non-winning entries will remain hidden.
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Our contests are open to photographers worldwide, including professionals, hobbyists, and students. Each contest may have specific eligibility requirements, so be sure to read the rules for each competition.
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To submit your photos, create an account, log in, and follow the submission process on the contest page. Upload your images, fill out the required details, and pay any applicable entry fees.
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Images must be submitted in JPEG or PNG format, with a recommended resolution of around 2000×3000 px (minimum 500×500 px), sRGB or Adobe RGB color space, and a file size under 10 MB — no frames, text, logos, or watermarks allowed.
We recommend a 3:2 or 2:3 aspect ratio and 72 dpi for web display; submissions not meeting these guidelines may be disqualified, so always check specific contest requirements. -
Prizes vary by contest and may include cash awards, photography equipment, online features, certificates, and opportunities for exhibitions. Each contest page lists the specific prizes.
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All contests are free to enter, except for a few that are limited to specific regions or available only to certain types of accounts. Please check the contest details for eligibility.
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Absolutely! All featured images will include proper credit to the photographer. Please ensure your profile and submission details are accurate.
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Yes, photo editing is allowed unless explicitly stated otherwise in the contest rules. However, we encourage participants to maintain the integrity of their original images.
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The “Expert Choice” award is a special recognition given by the contest’s judging team. It highlights a photo that may not have placed in the top official rankings but stood out for its creativity, emotional impact, or technical excellence. This award reflects the personal appreciation of our jury team—who saw something exceptional in the work. It’s a way to honor artistic merit beyond the standard judging criteria and to celebrate unique talent and vision.
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TopPhotoAwards.com may delete any image from the website and disqualify it from current or future contests whenever, in our sole judgment, it fails to meet our technical, aesthetic, or ethical standards. Without limiting that right, the following kinds of photographs are routinely refused or removed:
- Technically deficient files – Images that are extremely low-resolution, heavily blurred, badly compressed, or otherwise of poor quality without a clear artistic purpose.
- Military or violent content – Photographs that depict warfare, weapons, armed forces, or glorify violence in any form.
- Pornographic or explicit sexual content – Images showing genitals or sexual acts, or that cross the line from artistic nude to pornography.
- Lack of artistic or documentary intent – Random snapshots or files uploaded without any evident creative vision, storytelling aim, or thematic relevance to the contest brief.
- Religious or nationalist propaganda – Images whose primary purpose is to promote or advocate a specific religion, belief system, or nationalist ideology.
- Branding & over-processing – Photos containing visible logos, watermarks, borders/frames, collages, or excessive digital manipulation not permitted.
- Unauthored work – Content not photographed by the submitting account holder or for which the submitter lacks full authorship and usage rights.
- Duplicated content – Identical or near-identical images already submitted by the same or another user, or multiple minimally altered versions intended to spam or game the platform.
This list is illustrative, not exhaustive. We reserve the right to remove any photograph that, in our sole discretion, does not align with the creative vision, technical standards, or pacifist values of TopPhotoAwards.com.
