Principles 

​​​How an individual creates an image for their own use, and what source material is coopted for image creation, is entirely at the individual’s discretion. But, when an image is submitted alongside the images of others into a competition or exhibition, then each participant needs to be assured that the other participants are using only their own original work.  There is a distinction between the image content and image processing and presentation which is at the photographer’s discretion. Processing can utilise techniques such as selection, noise reduction, calculated textures, montage, high dynamic range, focus stacking and many others. Presentations may include keylines, print paper types, print mounting and others. Some of the processes may use Artificial Intelligence/AI (definitions below in Appendix), with very fast and intelligent effects.

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Image Generation 

​​Banks of individual textures and skies have been available for some time and there are software systems which will overlay an imported texture or substitute a sky. Increasingly there are image generator systems which draw on, or have been developed or trained on, content from large image banks to create new images, via a user prompt or specification (i.e. generative artificial intelligence - see definitions in the appendix)). Any importation, whether manual or automated, of all or part of a single image or of a generated image which includes or has been developed from the work of others, means that the resulting image content is not entirely the work of the photographer. The resulting image for presentations within MHPS must indicate that importation of elements are included that are not directly the work of the member. Trust and honesty of members is central to this

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Images used from Mobile phones

MHPS welcomes new technology, including mobile phone photography, so long as honesty and knowledge of equipment and processing is evident. As described above, any process that imports whole or part images created by other people should be labelled as such in any presentation and is not appropriate for judged events, competitions and MHPS exhibitions. 

 

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Images used in judged events, competitions and MHPS exhibitions

Images that are used for judged events, competitions and exhibitions both within MHPS and externally, must not use any imported material from sources other than the work of the member.  This includes all artificial generated components that use pixels originally created by someone else (generative AI). Also, submissions to external events must take account of the specific rules for that event.

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Compliance 

It is appreciated that the individual photographer may not be fully aware of exactly how individual processing functions act, whether in-camera or in post-processing, However, MHPS would expect photographers to be aware of and report when any significant addition has been made to an image which is not part of an original work by the photographer.

 

 

Looking forward

Establishing exactly what is and isn’t the product of generative AI will become increasingly hard to discern and will require ongoing consideration, transparency and discussion when reviewing work for distinction submissions, exhibitions and competitions.

 

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Acknowledgement

This guidance is based on that of the Royal Photographic Society and the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain.

(Month) 2026

 

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Appendix 1 - Definitions 

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - AI

In photographic situations this is the broad concept of machines acting intelligently on content already present in any given image file.  Traditional AI therefore is modifying/moving the photographer’s own pixels creatively, for example cloning, sharpening, tonal manipulation, noise reduction etc. etc.  Thus no issues of ownership/copyright/ intellectual property arise with this method.  We are all doing this currently when editing our images.

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GENERATIVE AI 

This in photographic situations is a subset of AI which creates original images, or code by learning patterns from other photographers’ works.  This content is the result of creating massive datasets containing billions of images taken from the internet, most often without the original creators' consent or compensation.  Thus the use of this content creates major issues around creativity, ownership, copyright, intellectual property rights etc. 

 

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WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

AI is manipulation using the photographers own image pixels.  However generative AI involves using image pixels taken from the internet (often without permission) which do not belong to the photographer.  So the issue is around the ethics of generative AI in respect of the ownership and creativity of the photographer.