RULES

Art. 1. Organizer
Fotocontest.it di Pixelized.ch Sagl
via P. F. Mola 9
6900 Lugano
Switzerland

Art. 2. Eligibility requirements
The contest is open to all photographers (professionals and non-professionals) who have reached 18 years of age by the closing date of the contest, with no restrictions as to gender, nationality or place of residence.
Employees and collaborators of Pixelized.ch Sagl and of the sponsors, the members of the jury, as well as their relatives up to the second degree and their partners are excluded.

Art. 3. Duration of the contest
Details about the timing are indicated on the contest page.
The submission deadline may be extended. The voting and publication dates are indicative.

Art. 4. Prizes
Cash prize of €500 offered by Fotocontest.it: of which €300 to the 1st-place winner (1 winning photograph) and €50 each to the four (4) finalists (4 finalist photographs).
The cash prize will be sent to the winner by bank transfer. Any bank charges applied by the payment institutions or by the beneficiary’s bank are borne by the recipient.

Art. 5. Composition of the jury
The members of the jury are decided by the Organizer and are indicated on the contest page.
The vote cast by the jury is final and not subject to appeal.

Art. 6. Registration
Registration for the contest takes place exclusively online at www.photocontest.ch.
Participants must provide a valid e-mail address and fill in the form with their real personal data.
The Organizer may request at any time a copy of a valid identity document in order to verify the accuracy of the data. Entering incorrect or untruthful personal data at the time of registration on the site results in exclusion from the contest.
The account created on the site remains valid also for participation in future contests on www.photocontest.ch.

Art. 7. Contest entry fee
The entry fee must be paid by credit card through the site www.photocontest.ch.
The entry fee is not refunded if the participant withdraws or is not admitted to the contest.

Art. 8. Participation in the contest
Each registrant may participate with one or more individual photographs.
The theme, if any, is indicated on the contest page
Format of the images to be uploaded online at www.photocontest.ch:
- JPEG, saved at high quality
- color space: sRGB
- long side of at least 3500 pixels
- maximum size of 5 MB
It is not permitted to add the author’s name, watermarks, borders/frames or other elements on the image.
Upon the Organizer’s request, a higher-quality file must be provided promptly.
It is not permitted to include the name and/or the biography and/or other references to the author in the submitted texts.
Participants who reach the final stage will be required to submit the RAW files (e.g. .NEF, .CR2, .RAF, .ORF, .PEF, etc.), the original JPEGs produced directly by the camera, or the original slides or negatives, for authentication. DNG files are allowed only if this is the camera’s native RAW format.
The Organizer reserves the right to ask any participant to provide a series of original files of photographs taken before and after any image that requires further authentication.
At the participant’s request, after confirmation of participation, the photograph may be removed by contacting the Organizer’s technical team. This operation is equivalent to withdrawal by the participant. In order to submit a new photograph, the participant must pay the entry fee again in full.
Removal cannot be requested after the closing of the contest.

Art. 9. Admission
Some admission and non-admission criteria are listed below.
It is permitted to:
- enter multiple categories with the same project
- crop the images, provided the crop does not alter the actual situation photographed
- make digital adjustments such as: color adjustments, grayscale conversion, contrast, burn, dodge, sharpening, noise reduction that do not alter the content
- minor cleanup work: removal of sensor dust or of scratches on scans of slides or negatives, or removal of chromatic aberration
- multiple shots taken at the same location and at the same time (seconds or minutes apart) to create panoramas, focus stacking, HDR
It is not permitted to:
- deceive the viewer or attempt to disguise and/or misrepresent reality
- endanger or injure people and/or animals and/or damage habitats in the attempt to take an image
- add, move, rotate or mirror, distort or remove elements (people and/or animals and/or objects) from the image
- depict captive or restrained animals, animal models and/or any other animal exploited for profit, unless it concerns a specific issue regarding the treatment of animals by third parties
- use live bait to attract animals
- create images, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial intelligence systems
After confirmation of receipt of the entry fee, the Organizer will make a selection of the works, admitting and publishing only those that comply with these rules.
The Organizer reserves the right to refuse or exclude entries at its own discretion, even after having already accepted participation.
Admitted participants will be notified automatically by e-mail.

Art. 10. Selection – preliminary stage
Each member of the jury will assign a score from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) to each photograph admitted to the contest.
At the end of the preliminary stage, the 40 photographs with the highest score will be selected. During this stage, in the event of a tie, the date of confirmation of participation prevails.
The selected participants will be notified automatically by e-mail.

Art. 11. Selection – final stage
The jurors assign a second score (from 1 to 5) to the selected works, determining the finalists: the 5 photographs with the highest score. During this stage, in the event of a tie, the date of confirmation of participation prevails.
The finalists will be notified automatically by e-mail.

Art. 12. Selection – winner
The jurors assign a third score (from 1 to 5) to the selected works, determining the winner: the photograph with the highest score. During this stage, in the event of a tie, the date of confirmation of participation prevails.
The winner will be notified automatically by e-mail.

Art. 13. Copyright
The participant declares and warrants that they are the author and sole holder of all rights relating to the uploaded photographs, and that these do not infringe the rights of third parties, including but not limited to copyright, intellectual property rights, image rights, privacy rights or other personality rights.
The participant further declares that they hold, where required by law, the necessary authorizations and releases from the subjects portrayed or from any other rights holders.
The participant assumes all liability arising from the publication of the photographs and holds the Organizer harmless from any claim, request for compensation, action or dispute brought by third parties in relation to the submitted works.

Art. 14. Use of the images
The photographs will remain the exclusive property of the author, who authorizes the Organizer to use, reproduce and publish them by any means free of charge (excluding use for commercial purposes) and with no time limit; in particular, but not by way of limitation, on the Organizer’s websites, social networks, printed materials (flyers, posters, catalogs, books, ...), and so on.
Each author undertakes not to claim any financial compensation for the possible publication of the photographs in books, magazines, newspapers, websites and/or social networks.
The prints of the photographs, if an exhibition is organized and if they are printed at the Organizer’s expense, will remain the property of the Organizer.

Art. 15. Liability
Liability for the uploaded content rests with the authors of the content itself. The Organizer accepts no liability for the images uploaded by users or for any copyright infringements.
In any case, in general, the participating photographers undertake to hold the Organizer harmless and indemnified from any claim, demand, liability, and in general from any and all rights or claims of third parties concerning and attributable to the content.
The Organizer reserves the right not to publish images whose content is pornographic, violent, discriminatory, racist, classist, offensive or which incites hatred or intolerance; which is harmful to the privacy, image, reputation, honor or rights of third parties; which violates legal provisions or may in any way cause harm to minors; or which is otherwise deemed inappropriate or contrary to the purposes of the contest.
Even if already published, the images referred to in the previous point may be removed by the Organizer, at its sole discretion and without prior notice and with no claim to a refund.

Art. 16. Provision of the service
The Organizer reserves the right to modify, suspend or extend the uploading and/or voting of the works due to any problem of a technical, organizational or legal nature.
In the event of early termination of the contest, the works of those already registered beforehand will be evaluated according to the rules contained in these regulations and, in any case, by the designated jury.
Due to the specific structure of the Internet, in which many entities are involved, no guarantee can be given regarding the constant and complete availability of the site and the connected applications.

Art. 17. General conditions
Recourse to legal action is excluded.
For any dispute, the court of Lugano (Switzerland) shall have exclusive jurisdiction, with the application of Swiss law.
No correspondence will be entered into regarding the contest.
Participants acknowledge and accept these general conditions of the contest.

Art. 18. Language
In the event of any discrepancy between the English translation and the original Italian version of these Rules, the Italian version shall prevail.