Terms and conditions

6. What you can enter

6.1 The photograph has to answer the brief for the round. How well it fulfils the brief is part of how it's judged, and an entry that doesn't answer the brief won't be placed.

6.2 Any aircraft, anywhere, any camera including a phone. The photograph must have been taken by you. If the brief gives a date the photograph must have been taken on or after, that date applies. If it doesn't, the photograph must have been taken in the 36 months before the round opens.

6.3 It must be a single photograph. No composites, no HDR merges, no focus stacks, no stitched panoramas, no exposure blends, no frame grabs from video. The only exception is a technique the brief for that round says is allowed.

6.4 Editing. A judge comparing your original file to your entry should see the same photograph, better finished. Allowed: cropping, straightening, lens and perspective corrections; exposure, contrast, white balance, colour, curves, clarity and dehaze; dodging and burning, global or local; removing sensor dust spots; black and white conversion, toning and moderate vignetting; sharpening and noise reduction, including AI-based tools, provided they don't add anything that wasn't in the original image. Minor object removal is allowed (cones, posts and the like), but there can be no AI-generated changes that alter the scene or the aircraft or change what happened, nothing that fakes movement, and nothing that affects the original value and meaning of the image. Not allowed: adding, moving, duplicating or removing any aircraft or part of one; compositing; altering anything that was moving; sky replacement; adding cloud, vapour, smoke or any background element; generative fill, generative expand or content-aware fill used to alter the composition or the original overall image; any image wholly or partly generated by AI.

6.5 Nothing on the image. No name, signature, watermark, logo, border or text. The winning photograph goes to print, so it has to be clean.

6.6 File. JPEG, longest edge at least 3,000 pixels, and no more than 30 MB, with the EXIF data left in.

6.7 Original files. If your photograph is placed we'll ask for your original file and you'll have 72 hours to send it. We accept the common RAW formats, the out-of-camera JPEG if you shoot JPEG, or the original phone file. No original file, no placing.

6.8 It must be your own work, and you must own the copyright. Clause 12 has the promises you make about it.

6.9 No previously awarded work. You can't enter a photograph that has won, been placed, been shortlisted or been commended in any other photography competition, or in an earlier round of High Roller. Work you've published yourself, or that has been published editorially, is fine, as long as you still own the rights and can give the permission in clause 11.

6.10 Be accurate. What you tell us about the photograph must be true. Don't misrepresent what's happening in it, where it was taken or when.

7. How it's judged

7.1 The judges. The judges for each round are named in its brief. A judge can't enter a round they're judging. COAP Online runs the competition and checks that entries are eligible.

7.2 One competition. Reader entries and COAP Online members' entries to the same brief are judged together, by the same judges, on the same criteria. There's no separate result for readers, and no entry is treated differently because of the route it came in by.

7.3 Judging isn't blind. High Roller runs in the open on Kōlab, so entries appear with the photographer's name as they're uploaded, and the judges and other photographers can see them. The judges score each photograph against the criteria in clause 7.4.

7.4 The judging criteria. Each judge scores every entry on the ten criteria below, each from 1 to 10, all carrying equal weight:

• Impact. This is the sense one gets upon viewing an image for the first time. Compelling images evoke laughter, sadness, anger, pride, wonder or another intense emotion.
• Lighting. The use and control of light is central to photography and critical to the judges. Whether the light in an image is artificial or natural, the judges look for its effective use to enhance the image, and the purpose of that use.
• Technique. This is the approach used to create the image. Printing, lighting, posing, capture, presentation media and more are part of the technique applied to an image.
• Creativity. The judges look for the original, fresh and external expression of the maker's imagination to convey an idea, message or purpose.
• Story Telling. This refers to the image's ability to communicate to the viewer and evoke imagination.
• Subject Matter. This should always be appropriate to the story being told in the image.
• Colour Balance. The judges look at the effective use of colours and tones in an image. An image in which the tones work together, effectively supporting the image, can enhance harmony. By contrast, a lack of harmony can be used to evoke diverse feelings for effect.
• Composition. This is central to creating an image and should bring all the visual elements together in concert to express the purpose of the image. Good composition holds the viewer in the image and prompts the viewer to look where the creator intends. Effective composition can be pleasing or disturbing, depending on the intent of the image-maker.
• Centre of Interest. This is where the photographer wants the viewer to stop as they look at the image. There can be primary and secondary centres of interest, and occasionally there is no specific point of interest because the entire scene collectively serves as the focus.
• Style. The judges look for a specific style: your style. It might be defined by a specific genre, or be recognisable in the way a particular photographer applies light to a subject. It can positively impact an image when the subject matter and the style suit each other, or have a negative effect when they are at odds.

Over all ten sits one principle: congruence, or harmony. All the components above must work together to create one image, and the strongest entries are cohesive and consistent in every area. The judges keep it in mind across all ten scores, rather than giving it a score of its own.

7.5 Placings. Entries are placed by their total score. If the round has categories, the highest total in each category is the category winner, and the judges score the category winners again to choose the overall winner. If it has no categories, the highest total is the overall winner. The brief says how many runners-up are named.

7.6 Ties. If two entries have the same total for any placing, the one with the higher combined score on Impact takes the place. If they're still tied, the judges look at the tied entries side by side and agree which takes it. Nothing is ever decided by chance.

7.7 Checking originals. We check the original file of a placed entry against the rules in clause 6. If it doesn't pass, or the file doesn't arrive, the entry is withdrawn and the next-placed entry moves up. Before withdrawing an entry for an editing question we'll tell you what we found and give you 48 hours to explain.

7.8 The judges' decisions on scoring are final. We'll always tell an entrant why a placed entry was withdrawn, and you can complain under clause 18, but we won't re-score.

7.9 The scores and the judges' notes are kept for two years. They're the record that this was a competition judged on skill. We don't publish individual scores.

8. The prize

8.1 A reader entry is a chance to win. It doesn't guarantee a prize, a placing or publication.

8.2 The overall winner of each round has their photograph put forward to Combat Aircraft Journal to be printed in the magazine, credited with the photographer's name. The overall winner can be a reader or a COAP Online member, whoever scores highest.

8.3 Combat Aircraft Journal decides which issue the photograph appears in, and its size, design and layout. If the magazine can't print a winning photograph, because an issue is delayed or changed or for an editorial reason, we'll tell the winner, and the photograph is shown on COAP Online's website and social media as the winner of that round.

8.4 There's no cash or equipment prize for a reader entry unless the brief for that round says there is. If a round carries another prize, its brief says what the prize is and who can win it. There's no cash alternative to publication.

8.5 Runners-up are named publicly and their photographs are shown on COAP Online's social media, blog and emails. There's no other prize for a runner-up.

8.6 A prize can't be transferred to someone else.

9. Telling the winner

9.1 We email the winner and the runners-up of each round at the address on their Kōlab account.

9.2 The winner has seven days to confirm by reply that they're 18 or over and eligible under clause 3, so the photograph can go to Combat Aircraft Journal. If we can't reach the winner in that time, or they turn out not to be eligible, the next-placed entry takes the place.

9.3 Results are published on the date in the brief, on Kōlab and through COAP Online's emails and social media. We may publish before the winner has replied to us.

10. Publicity

10.1 We'll publish the names, counties and photographs of the winner and the runners-up with the results, in our emails and on our own social media accounts. The Advertising Standards Authority expects promoters to publish or make available the surname and county of major prizewinners so that people can see a real award took place.

10.2 If you'd rather we didn't publish your name with the results, email us before the round closes and we'll list you as "name withheld" with your county only. Your Kōlab name still shows on your entry on Kōlab. If the ASA asks us to show that the award was made, we'll show them.

10.3 If you win, we may write a short piece about your photograph (aircraft, settings, the story, what the judges said) and use it, with your name, to tell people about the result and about later rounds. We won't use your name or image to advertise any product.

11. Your photographs: copyright and what you let us do

11.1 You keep the copyright in everything you enter. Entering doesn't transfer anything to us, to Key Publishing or to Kōlab.

11.2 By entering, you give COAP Online a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use each entry for the following purposes only: showing it in the competition gallery on Kōlab; if it's the winner of a round, letting Combat Aircraft Journal publish it in a print issue and any digital edition of that issue, including where the magazine tells readers about the competition; if it's a winner or a runner-up, showing it in the results email, on our blog, in our own social media posts about the results, and in the results session for COAP Online members and its replay; and showing it, as an example of past entries, when we announce a later round. Kōlab hosts and displays your entry for us under the same limits.

11.3 We'll credit you by name every time we show your photograph (unless you've asked us not to publish your name), and we won't alter it or add anything to it beyond resizing and converting the file so it displays. Combat Aircraft Journal may crop a winning photograph to fit the page.

11.4 COAP Online, Key Publishing and Kōlab won't sell your photograph or license it to anyone else. If anyone else wants to use it, they'll have to ask you and agree terms with you directly.

11.5 You can remove an entry from the gallery yourself, using the remove control on Kōlab, or by emailing us, and we'll do it within 14 days. An entry removed before the round is judged is withdrawn from the round. The licence for that photograph ends when it comes down, except for anything already published under it, like a results email or an issue of the magazine, which can stay as it is.

11.6 Nothing in these terms affects your moral rights, and we don't ask you to waive them.

12. What you promise us

By entering, you confirm that:

12.1 You took the photograph yourself, inside the dates in clause 6.2, and you own the copyright.

12.2 It doesn't infringe anyone else's copyright or other rights, and if a person is identifiable in it you have whatever permission you need to enter it.

12.3 You took it from somewhere you were entitled to be, and you didn't break any airfield, military, aviation security or trespass rules to get it.

12.4 It meets clause 6, and if we ask for the original file you'll send it.

12.5 Everything you tell us about yourself is true, including that you're a reader of Combat Aircraft Journal.

12.6 If someone makes a claim against us because one of these turns out not to be true, you'll cover us for it.

13. Your data

13.1 COAP Online Limited is the data controller for the competition. Kōlab (Kōlab Social Ltd, a UK company) processes competition data for us under a written data processing agreement. Your Kōlab account itself (username, profile, anything you do on Kōlab outside the competition) is Kōlab's, under Kōlab's privacy policy.

13.2 What we collect for the competition: your name, email address, county and country, confirmation that you're 18 or over and a reader of Combat Aircraft Journal, your photographs and their embedded data, the route your entry came in by, and the judges' scores and notes on your entries.

13.3 What we use it for: running the rounds you enter (that's the contract between us); publishing the winner's and runners-up's names and photographs as clauses 8 and 10 describe (that's our legitimate interest in showing a real award took place, and you can object using the opt-out in clause 10.2); and, only if you've asked for them, emailing you about COAP Online. You can unsubscribe from those at any time; competition emails, like results, still come.

13.4 Who sees it: COAP Online's two founders as administrators; the judges see the photographs and the names shown on Kōlab; Combat Aircraft Journal gets the winning photograph with the photographer's name and county, to publish it.

13.5 How long: your photographs stay in the gallery until you remove them. Scores, notification logs and the winner's eligibility confirmation are kept for two years as the record of the competition, even if the photograph has come down.

13.6 Kōlab Social Ltd, a UK company, holds your entries and photographs for us. Kajabi, which runs our website and email, is based in the United States, so your name and email address may be processed there. Any transfer of your data outside the UK is made under the safeguards UK GDPR requires.

13.7 Your rights: you can ask what we hold, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and object to publication. Email team@coaponline.com. Our full privacy policy is at coaponline.com/privacy-terms. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

14. Disqualification

14.1 We'll remove an entry, and where it looks deliberate all of that person's entries, if: it breaks clause 3 (eligibility), clause 4 (one reader entry, one account, duplicates), clause 6 (the brief, single image, editing, marks on the image, file) or clause 12 (your promises); the original file isn't supplied on request; or the entrant abuses the judges, other entrants or our team.

14.2 Where the question is about editing or the original file, you get 48 hours to explain before we decide, and we'll tell you the decision and the reason.

14.3 If a breach comes to light in the 30 days after results are published, we can revisit. If the winning entry falls, the next-placed entry moves up, we publish a dated correction, and we tell Combat Aircraft Journal if it affects a photograph that's due to be printed.