7th Close-up Photographer of the Year Competition

7th Close-up Photographer of the Year Competition is now open for entries!

7th Close-up Photographer of the Year Competition : The 7th Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY), annual photography competition has been recently opened for entries inviting anyone worldwide to participate sending they best close-up, macro and micro photographs.

➜ Short description

Close-up Photographer of the Year, annual photography competition returns for its seventh edition, in association with Affinity Photo.

CUPOTY is an annual competition that reveals the hidden wonder of the world through close-up, macro and micro photography.

Celebrating the art of macro, micro and close-up photography, photographers are invited to reveal the hidden wonder of the world through their pictures. You are invited to send your best close-ups, wide-angle close-ups, traditional macro, extreme-macro and photomicrographs made with a camera, phone, microscope, scanner or non-camera processes.

Organizer aims to show small flora and fauna in the wider environment and slightly wider details of the landscape around us as well as scaling in to macro, extreme macro and then to the microscopic.

Entrants aged 18 or over on July 13th 2025 can enter the following 10 categories:

➜ Animals
➜ Insects
➜ Invertebrate Portrait
➜ Butterflies & Dragonflies
➜ Arachnids
➜ Underwater
➜ Plants
➜ Fungi & Slime Moulds
➜ Intimate Landscape
➜ Studio Art
➜ Young CUPOTY for entrants aged 17 or under

There are 10 adult categories and one for under 18s. You can enter up to 30 pictures across 10 categories and up to 15 images in Young CUPOTY.

Any creative technique may be used. Black and white, tinted, HDR, square, stitched panoramic, focus stacked and multi-exposed photographs are all acceptable. Diptychs, triptychs and polyptychs will be accepted if they are submitted as a single image.

➜ Submission requirements:

➜ All images entered in the Competition should be close-up, macro or taken with a light microscope.

➜ All entries must be submitted in a digital format. This may be a photograph captured with a digital camera, phone or scanner or a high-quality scan from a transparency, negative or original non-camera print.

➜ The format should be JPEG and no larger than 1920 pixels along the longest edge at 300dpi. Files should be in the sRGB colour space. No watermarks, borders or signatures should be included. Images must not be zipped or in a folder. When resizing your pictures, please make sure you do not overwrite your original file.

➜ The EXIF data of the image should be kept intact (e.g. exposure, camera, lens etc).

➜ All images must start with a photograph, no generative AI is allowed.

➜ Images made with a microscope can go into any relevant category or into the Studio Art category.

➜ Who may enter?

The Competition is open to all professional and amateur photographers of any nationality.

➜ Prize:

An expert jury will judge 11 categories and award £2,500 to the overall winner.

Each category gets a shortlist that is showcased on the CUPOTY website and goes out to the world’s press. The Top 100 pictures from those go into a permanent winners gallery on the website and get seen by millions of people around the world through newspapers, magazines, websites, newsletters and social media.

The Top 100 pictures and the story behind each one goes into the annual CUPOTY e-book.

The Young Close-up Photographer of the Year will receive a SIGMA 105mm F2.8 DG DN MACRO Art lens and trophy.

All 11 category winners take home £250, plus a universal license for all three Affinity apps (Photo, Designer + Publisher) for macOS, Windows & iPadOS. Topaz Labs Photo AI 4 will also be awarded to the overall winner and a Cygnustech Diffuser goes to the Insects winner.

Every entrant receives a free copy of the CUPOTY 7 eBook.

➜ Entry fees:

Entry fee during the Early Bird period (ends 15th June 2025) is £22 for 6 photos, £30 for 15 photosand 30 photos for £40. After that period ends the amount of fee will increase. Young photographers aged 17 or under on 13th July 2025 is £5 for up to 15 photos.