CULTURE SHOOT is international contest of art photography, organized by Saudade Photo Collective from Braga, Portugal.

The contest is divided into the following sections:
• OPEN COLOR
• OPEN MONOCHROME
• NATURE
• PHOTOJURNALISM
• WORLD IN FOCUS
• PORTRAIT

Closing date: 11 January 2026
All judging completed by: 25 January 2026
Score Reports sent by: 8 February 2026
Catalog publication date: 8 February 2026
Awards mailed by: 9 March 2026

The entry fee is the same for all sections, and costs 25 EUR.
Discount for groups:
• More than 5 participants = 20 € for all sections;
Payment of the entry fee can be made in the following ways:
• Through our website: https://theiaap.com/e/cultureshoot
Images from participants who did not pay the entry fee will not be taken into consideration.

This exhibition is open to anyone; however, an entry may be rejected when the Sponsor or the Exhibition Organizers, in their reasonable discretion, believes the entry does not conform to exhibition rules and these ES-COE. Membership in any photographic organization is not required.

Image creation and ownership
In all sections of the exhibition, images must originate as photographs made by the entrant. They may not incorporate identifiable images produced by anyone else (for example: clip art, replacement skies, or stock images). Images created in whole or in part by image creation software (frequently called ‘AI’ images) are not allowed.

Reproduction: The entrant permits the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. Entries will not be accepted from entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced in materials related to the exhibition. The exhibition assumes no liability of any misuse of copyright.
Entry: An Entry consists of, up to and including, four (4) images entered by a single entrant into the same Section. An entrant may only enter a specific Section once. Entrants may not enter identical or similar images into the same section or different sections of the same exhibition. Similar is defined as almost identical in subject, composition, props, lighting, or technique so that a reasonable person viewing the entries together would decide the entrant has duplicated the previous image except for minor changes.
Titles: Each image must have a unique title that relates to the content of the image. Titles must be 35 characters or fewer. No titles may be visible to the judges, and nothing in the image may identify the entrant. Titles may not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames such as IMG 471). Titles may not consist of personal identifiers possibly augmented by a number; or include words such as “untitled” or “no title”. Titles may not consist solely of numbers unless those numbers are prominently contained within the image, such as a contestant number in a race.
Color and Monochrome:
Color and Monochrome images from the same capture that share substantial pictorial content in common will be considered the same image and must be given the same title.

Photographs must be in JPEG format, with dimensions of 1920 pixels horizontally and 1080 pixels vertically, at 300 DPI, using JPEG compression (if exported using Photoshop): 7-12. The maximum file size should not exceed 4 MB. No specific file naming is required. Digital images cannot be altered, including resizing in either direction, by the exhibition or the exhibition’s equipment before or during judging.
Authors can submit their photographs with the application in the following ways:
• Uploading through our website: https://theiaap.com/e/cultureshoot

The judging will be done by remote online judging. All judges will be using equipment capable of displaying images at 100% of the image resolution. Judges will be using color calibrated equipment. Target Range will be max 30%.

By entering this contest, you are explicitly consenting to the personal details you have supplied, including physical addresses, email addresses, being held, processed and used by the contest organizers for purposes associated with this contest. You also explicitly consent to such information being sent to organizations that have accorded official recognition, patronage or accreditation to this contest. You acknowledge, agree and accept that by entering this contest, your participation status which includes your first and last name, name of the country used during registration at the contest, number of sections entered and number of photos entered in those sections will be made public in a published status list and that the results of your entry shall be made public in exhibition gallery, exhibition catalog.

In order to have legal authority on those who do not respect the rules of FIAP, the organizer must make sure that all participants of an online event under FIAP Patronage tick a box next to which the following text is stated: I hereby expressly agree to the FIAP document 040/2023 « Conditions and regulations for FIAP Patronage » and FIAP document 038/2023 « Sanctions for breaching FIAP regulations and the red list » I am particularly aware of chapter II « Regulations for International photographic events under FIAP patronage » of FIAP document 040/2023, dealing under Section II.2 and II.3 with the FIAP participation rules, the sanctions for breaching FIAP regulations and the red list. FIAP documents 040/2023 and 038/2023 must be linked to this paragraph so that participants can consult it.

License agreement
By submitting an entry, the entrant certifies that he is a sole owner of the rights to use sent images, including copyright, pa-tent and/or other applicable rights. All models must be of Legal Age of consent or have guardian permissions issued. The exhibition organizers assume no liability for any copyright misuse conducted by entrants.

• GARIK AVENESIAN; (Czech Republic)
• CHRISTOS KONSTANTINOU - ACHERIOTIS; (Cyprus)
• BOJAN PETROVIC; (Serbia)

At the international exhibition Culture Shoot the following awards will be presented:

FIAP Best author
6x FIAP Gold medals [1 per section];
12x FIAP Blue Ribbon [2 per section];
6x IAAP Gold Medals [1 per section];
1x IAAP Silver Medal [Section A];
1x IAAP Bronze Medal [Section B];
18x IAAP Diplomas [3 per section];
30x SALON e-Diplomas [5 per section];

The organizer reserves the right to award the most successful authors of Culture Shoot 2026 depending on the total number of entrants.

FIAP DEFINITION OF MONOCHROME

A black and white work fitting from the very dark grey (black) to the very clear grey (white) is a monochrome work with the various shades of grey. A black and white work toned entirely in a single colour will remain a monochrome work able to stand in the black and white category; such a work can be reproduced in black and white in the catalogue of a salon under FIAP Patronage. On the other hand a black and white work modified by a partial toning or by the addition of one colour becomes a colour work (polychrome) to stand in the colour category; such a work requires colour reproduction in the catalogue of a salon under FIAP Patronage.

PSA/FIAP NATURE DEFINITION

Content Guidelines
Nature photography records all branches of natural history except anthropology and archaeology. This includes all aspects of the physical world, both over water and underwater.
Nature images must convey the truth of the scene. A well-informed person should be able to identify the subject of the image and be satisfied that it has been presented honestly and that no unethical practices have been used to control the subject or capture the image. Images that directly or indirectly show any human activity threatening a living organism's life or welfare are not allowed.
The most important part of a Nature image is the nature story it tells. High technical standards are expected, and the image must look natural.

• Objects created by humans, and evidence of human activity, are allowed in Nature images only when they are a necessary part of the Nature story.
• Photographs of human-created hybrid plants, cultivated plants, feral animals, domesticated animals, human-created hybrid animals, and mounted or preserved zoological specimens are not allowed.
• Photographs made where the scene is natural and the animal is unharmed in a carefully managed environment, such as Zoo, rescue centers, and ethically managed natural environment farms are permitted.
• Attracting or controlling subjects through the use of food or sound for the purpose of photographing them is not allowed. Maintained situations such as provided supplemental food due to hardship caused by weather conditions or other conditions beyond the animals' control, where photography is incidental to the feeding of the animal does not fall under this provision.
• Controlling live subjects by chilling, anaesthetic, or any other method of restricting natural movement for a photograph is not allowed.
• Human-made elements shall be permitted under the following circumstances:
a) When they are an integral part of the nature story, such as a songbird singing atop a fence post a manmade object used as nest material, or a weather phenomenon destroying a man-made structure.
b) When they are a small but unavoidable part of the scene, such as an unobtrusive footprint or track in the background.
c) Scientific tags, collars, and bands are specifically allowed.

When photographing at a zoo, sanctuary, or rehabilitation center, it would be construed that the photographer ensured that it’s properly accredited and conforms to best practices.

Editing Guidelines:
Processing or editing must be limited to making the image look as close to the original scene as possible, except that conversion to grayscale monochrome is allowed.
Allowed editing techniques:
• Cropping, straightening and perspective correction
• Removal or correction of elements added by the camera or lens, such as dust spots, noise, chromatic aberration and lens distortion
• Global and selective adjustments such as brightness, hue, saturation and contrast to restore the appearance of the original scene
• Complete conversion of colour images to grayscale monochrome
• Blending of multiple images of the same subject and combining them in camera or with software (exposure blending or focus stacking)
• Image stitching - combining multiple images with overlapping fields of view that are taken consecutively (panoramas).

Editing techniques that are not allowed:
• Removing, adding to, moving or changing any part of an image, except for cropping and straightening.
• Adding a vignette during processing
• Blurring parts of the image during processing to hide elements in the original scene
• Darkening parts of the image during processing to hide elements in the original scene
• All conversions other than to complete grayscale monochrome
• Conversion of parts of an image to monochrome, or partial toning, desaturation or over-saturation of colour.

WORLD IN FOCUS

Just as with travel and tourism pictures, this section encompasses the full range of photographic genres from architecture, culture, events, food, landscape, portraits, etc. A “WORLD IN FOCUS” image expresses the spirit of an era, the essence of a place or of a culture whether it is shown in an authentic scene or whether it is arranged. Digital manipulation to optimize an image in terms of fine-tuning of levels and colours is allowed as long as the image looks natural. The same applies for removal of dust or digital noise. Techniques that add, relocate, replace, or remove any element of the original image, except by cropping, are not permitted.

PSA/FIAP PHOTOJOURNALISM

Photojournalism entries are images with informative content and emotional impact, reflecting
the human presence in our world.

Content Guidelines
• The journalistic (story-telling) value of the image should receive priority over pictorial quality.
• Images that misrepresent the truth, such as those from events or activities arranged specifically for photography, or of subjects directed or hired for photography, are not eligible.
• When Human Interest is specified, those images depict a person or persons in an interactive, emotional or unusual situation, excluding sports action.

Notification cards will be sent by email.

CATALOG
All entrants of the event (participants which submitted works and paid entry fee) will receive on-line PDF catalog of the photo event. The organizer will take all possible care while handling the emails, awards and catalogs, however will assume no liability for damages. It is understood that awards can be lost in shipment to the recipients.

Nataniel Mndonça
Braga, Portugal

email: [email protected]
undefined: https://photosaudade.com/cultureshoot/