Sony World Photography Award 2017 - For All

Sony World Photography Award 2017-18 is the world’s largest and one of the most respected photography awards for free today. The annual awards gala ceremony takes place in London followed by an exhibition of the winners and shortlisted, comprising of hundreds of photographs expertly curated inside the historic London landmark, Somerset House. This page provides all the details regarding the Sony World Photography Award. The Sony World Photography Awards give a golden chance to the photographers at all the stages of their career and make them known amongst the industry leaders all across the world

Categories of Sony Photography Competitions

• Professionals
• Youth
• Open
• Student Focus
• National Award’

Top 10 Photography Contest

Analysis: During the year 2015 over 173,000 entries were received from 171 countries and winners were announced on April 23.  Not only the cash prizes based on the overall Professional and Open Photographers of the Year were given but also category winners were selected and were given the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony and Sony Mobile. By entering the Open competition you are automatically entered into the National Awards competition

Sony World Photography Awards - Category for Open Competition

• Open Competition has been divided into three categories, namely:
  • Arts & Culture
  • Architecture
  • Enhanced
  • Low Light
  • Nature and Wildlife
  • Panoramic
  • People
  • Smile
  • Split Second
  • Travel
• The Competition is free to enter.
• The Youth Award Competition is open to all members of the public/ Photographers of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels. 
• Candidates have to submit the entries by 13:00 GMT on 4 January 2018. 
• The images must have been taken in the year 2017 and should be based on the above-mentioned categories.

Kindly Note: If you have entered in this competition you will not be able to enter the Youth or Professional Competitions.

Exposure and Benefits to Participants and winner of Sony Photography Competitions

Meritorious photographers can also get a chance to give their top tips on shooting in low light on Instagram, to give an interview which will be seen by millions on the WPO website or tweets about a photographer’s latest show on Twitter. Recognised and shortlisted photographers can avail the below-mentioned exposure and benefits:

• Participate in the Exhibition held at Somerset House, London
• Likely to get a chance to be a participant in international exhibitions
• Inclusion in the Sony World Photography Awards book
• Ability to work with Sony on a variety of digital imaging projects

All winning and shortlisted photographers will be offered a chance to be part of a global press campaign, which will be displayed at WPO website and exhibited at Somerset House, London in April 2018.  

Winner of the Sony Photograph Youth Contest

• Title of “Sony World Photography Awards Open photographer of the Year”
• Cash Prize of $5000
• The image of the winner will be showcased in the London exhibition and the winners book 
• Winner will get International exposure on the WPO website
• Global media coverage
• Flights to London, 2 nights accommodation in a hotel and VIP tickets to attend the Sony World Photography Awards gala ceremony, April 2018
• Digital SLR camera equipment from Sony

Individual Category Winners will receive

• Title of “Sony World Photography Awards category name Winner"
• The image of the winner will be showcased in the London exhibition and the winners book 
• International exposure on the WPO website
• Global media coverage
• Digital SLR camera equipment from Sony

Additional Prizes

• Open Photographer of the Year: The selected Open Photographer of the Year will receive a cash Prize of $5000 + Flights and accommodation facility for award ceremony in London
• Category winners; Category winners will receive Sony product,  Publication in winners’ book and Exhibition
• Shortlist: All the shortlisted candidates will be given a chance to visit the Digital exhibition and their work will be published in winners’ book

Candidates have to upload the image/images on the official website by following the on-screen instructions carefully.

Photograph Specification Required for Sony Photograph Contest

Images must be taken in 2017 and entries should be based on the Categories outlined, information. The requirement of size, format, model and resolution is given below.

• Size: The image should neither be smaller than 800KB nor larger than 5MB
• Format: The image should either be in JPEG or TIFF Format
• Model: All images must be saved in the RGB colour model
• Resolution: Candidates have to submit the high-resolution image suitable for printing in exhibitions.

Sony Photography Contest - Important Points

• Candidates themselves are the sole owner and author of each Entry
• Candidates have the right to make their entry available to the Competition
• The entries submitted by the candidate should not have any personally identifiable information either about the person who is participating or any other person.
• The submitted entry should not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content.
• Make sure that the entry does not possess any material that could constitute or encourage conduct which is considered a criminal offence, might give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law.
• The entry submitted should not include
  • trademarks owned by third parties
  • copyrighted materials owned by third parties 
  • Names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead
  • Entries containing screen credits 
• The image information, including image name and description, can be shared with Event partners and media.

Kindly Note: No animals should have been harmed or manipulated in the making of the image.

The selection of the winner among the participants will be done by the jury members. All the entries will go through various selection rounds. Each participant can submit up to three images for free and the judges will select the winner on the basis of single image and not the series of images. The more important details about the same are given below.

• All Entries will go through various selection rounds, conducted by the official Pre-Selection Committee. The photographs will be judged from 9 January 2018 and 31 January 2018. 
• They will shortlist 100 images which further will be judged by the 2018 Honorary Judging Committee.
• The 10 shortlisted images of each category will be announced at the Gala Ceremony which has been scheduled to be held in April 2018.
• The 10 Category Winners will be announced at the Gala Ceremony which has been scheduled to be held in April 2018.
• The overall winner will be selected from the 10 Category Winners by the 2018 Honorary Judging Committee.
• The same shall be announced as Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of The Year at the Sony World Photography Awards 2018 gala ceremony.

Sony World Photography Awards by the Judges

• 1 winner
• Up to 10 shortlisted photographers
• Up to 40 commended photographers