Rugby Photographer of the Year 2024

The world’s only dedicated rugby photography competition, covering the game from grassroots to the elite, Rugby Photography of the Year is now in its fifth year. Open to amateur and professional photographers, you can enter imagery into six categories: Young (aged 17 and under), Portrait, Action, Spirit of Rugby, Landscape and Portfolio. Winning entries from each category will then be considered for the Grand Prix award.

Categories

• You can enter imagery into six categories:
  • Young Photographer of the Year
  • Portrait Photographer of the Year
  • Action Photographer of the Year
  • Spirit of Rugby Photographer of the Year
  • Landscape Photographer of the Year
  • Portfolio Photographer of the Year

Prize Information

• Every shortlisted entry will feature in an exhibition at the World Rugby Museum, at the home of English rugby, the Allianz Stadium.
• A first prize will also be awarded to the Grand Prix winner, with trophies given to the individual category winners, as well as appearing in a special winners edition of the Rugby Journal.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over on the Closing Date except individuals (and their partners and family) involved in its organisation or judging or employees of the Owners or any official partners, supporters, or sponsors of the Competition.
• The Young Photographer category is open to anyone aged 17 or under on the Closing Date except individuals (and their partners and family) involved in its organisation or judging or employees of the Owners or any official partners, supporters, or sponsors of the Competition.
• By entering the Competition, the entrant agrees to maintain the highest standards in all matters relating to the Competition and not to do or say anything that does or might damage the reputation of the Owners, the Competition, the other entrants, or the official partners, supporters, or sponsors of the Competition, or the Exhibition.
• The entrant acknowledges that entry into the Competition does not grant any rights in any intellectual property rights of the Competition and/or the Owners, and agrees not to use any names, logos or other intellectual property rights of any of them or to make any public statement regarding any of them without the prior written consent of the Owners.
• It is the responsibility of each entrant into the Competition to ensure that they have read and will abide by these Rules. By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees to the Rules, that their entry complies with the Rules, and that they will be liable to the Owners and their licensees in respect of any damages or losses incurred as a breach of the Rules by the entrant.
• Entrants are not permitted to submit images that:
  • Have been awarded any prize, recommendation or other award in any international competition.

Application Requirements

• Submission:
  • Each entrant is allowed a total of 5 entries into the Competition, with an entry submitted to Rugby Portfolio counting as one entry.
  • Entrants to the Rugby Portfolio category may submit up to ten (10) images.
• Ethics:
  • Any breach of the Competition’s Ethics below will constitute a breach of the Rules.
  • Caption information supplied must be complete, true and accurate.
  • Entrants – including those using drones – are responsible for ensuring full compliance with any applicable national or international legislation and for securing any relevant permits that may be required (which, in the case of human portraits, will include the subject’s permission) and which must be made available on request by the Owners.
• Image Specifications:
  • Submissions must be in digital format but the original entry does not need to have been taken on a digital camera. High quality scans of transparencies or negatives are also acceptable.
  • For all categories, digital files 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. No borders, watermarks or signatures should be included.
  • Entrants whose work has been shortlisted will be required to provide the following:
    • RAW files (eg .CR2, .NEF, .ORF, .PEF etc), original untouched JPEGs, and original transparencies or negatives, will be required for authentication. DNG files are only permitted if this is the native RAW format of the camera;
    • High resolution files (preferably TIFF) required for printing should be 8-bit, Adobe RGB (1998) at full resolution, and match the colour and cropping of the JPEG submitted at entry. Please do not upscale. Files must not exceed 100MB.
  • Any entry that cannot be authenticated or is not of an acceptable quality will be disqualified.
  • The Owners reserve the right to ask any entrant to supply a range of ‘before’ and ‘after’ original files for any image that requires further authentication.
  • Digital adjustments including tone and contrast, burning, dodging, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction, minor cleaning work (e.g. removal of sensor dust or scratches on transparencies/scans, Removal of chromatic aberration), HDR, stitched panoramas, focus stacking and in-camera multiple exposure taken at the same location at the same time (as a continuous sequence – seconds or minutes apart) are permitted.
  • The following digital adjustments – but not limited to these – are not allowed: adding, moving or removing objects, people etc; the removal of dirt, highlights, backscatter, bubbles, debris and similar; composites, painting the foreground/painting out the background.
  • Caption information must be complete, true and accurate, and provide the following:
    • Description (name of club, ground, person or persons featured (if appropriate); background story (if relevant); exact location).
    • Entrants should not include their name in the caption or on the image itself. EXIF details should be kept intact (eg camera, lens, exposure etc).

For more information, visit Rugby journal.