The Budapest International Foto Awards accepts submissions in the following categories and subcategories.
This category includes commercial images intended to advertise, market, or promote products, services, or individuals.
Automotive
Featuring motor vehicles of all kinds, including motorcycles, cars, trucks, and more.
Beauty
Glamour-style portraiture, artistic or commercial, highlighting the beauty of individuals or objects.
Fashion
Showcasing clothing, accessories, makeup, and styling in a fashion context.
Food & Beverage
Images featuring the presentation and appeal of food and beverages.
Music
Photographs related to music, including musicians, records (album art), concerts, and musical events.
Product
Visuals designed to accurately and appealingly represent products for commercial use.
Self-Promotion
Images that promote the photographer’s personal brand, style, and personality.
Travel/Tourism
Images highlighting an area’s landscapes, people, cultures, customs, and history.
This category is for photography that uses non-digital methods of capturing images.
Architecture
Film-based photography capturing built environments—exteriors, interiors, bridges, structures, cityscapes, and others.
Editorial/ Journalism
Images created to support stories, articles, or ideas in publications, covering a wide range of subjects.
Fine Art
Film photography expressing the photographer’s artistic vision, ideas, emotions, or messages.
Nature/ Landscape
Images capturing the beauty of nature, including land, sky, and water.
Portrait
Photos focused on a person or group as the main subject.
This category features architectural photography of buildings or structures, interior or exterior, and including dynamic shots or architectural details or forms.
Abstract
An artistic approach to architectural photography, focusing on lines, shapes, angles, or fragments of structures detached from their usual context.
Aerial/ Drone
Photographs captured from aircraft, drones, or other flying devices, taken by hand or remotely.
Bridges
Images of bridges, arches, piers, and related structural elements or details.
Buildings
Photographs showcasing buildings and structures, or any aspect of a building’s architectural features.
Cityscapes
Images capturing the physical elements of cities and urban environments.
Industrial
Photographs of buildings and structures serving commerce and industry, including factories, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities.
Interiors
Photography focusing on the design and spatial aspects of indoor environments, highlighting architectural elements and structural spaces.
Historic
Photographs of buildings or architectural sites that carry historical significance or heritage value.
Bodies of work published in book form: exhibition catalogues, prototypes, proposals, self‑ or traditionally published, limited edition or re‑issues, zines, handmade, multi‑ or single‑author, intersectional, and more. Includes the cover plus 6 inside pages.
Documentary
Photographs that provide factual insight into real people, places, or events—telling true stories, documenting reality without staging.
Fine Art
Photography created with aesthetic intention — revealing the artist’s subjective vision, idea, or emotion.
Nature
Photography that captures the natural world — landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures.
People
Portraiture and works that focus on the human element—capturing individuals or groups, expressions, and the human experience.
Other
Book photography that falls outside the scope of the above categories.
Images created to accompany text, illustrating stories, articles, or ideas within a publication. This category covers a wide range of subjects.
Conflict
Photographs documenting armed conflicts and their impact on people and places.
Environmental
Images of the natural environment or events—such as global warming and ecological impact—captured for artistic, research, or monitoring purposes.
Fashion
Photographs featuring clothing, accessories, makeup, and styling.
General News
Images that accurately depict news and current events.
Personality
Portrait photography that specifically captures the unique personality and distinctive traits of the subject.
Photo Essay (Series only)
Images arranged as a series to explore a theme, news feature, or human-interest story.
Political
Documentary or narrative photographs centered on political themes.
Sports
Editorial images documenting sports and sporting events, professional or amateur.
Images created with an aesthetic intention, revealing the artist’s subjective vision. Photographs that express ideas, messages, or emotions through both image and technique.
Abstract
Non-objective, experimental, or conceptual photography presenting images not immediately associated with the physical world.
Collage
Images created by combining or layering multiple images or parts to form a new composition or interpretation of reality.
Landscape
Photography showcasing natural landscapes through the creative vision and techniques of the photographer, often with artistic enhancement.
Minimalism
Images composed with a minimal number of elements like color, shape, line, and texture.
Nudes
Photos depicting the nude human body with an emphasis on form, composition, emotional content, and other aesthetic qualities.
Portrait
Artistic images of a person or group of people, capturing the personality of the subject by use of lighting, backdrops, poses, etc.
Still Life
Photographs of inanimate subjects, typically featuring a single object or a small group of objects.
Special Effects
Images showing how a subject or scene can be interpreted or captured by the artist using special effects or techniques (manual or digital included).
Other
Photography which falls outside the scope of the above subcategories.
This category is devoted to photography of natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures.
Aerial
Photographs taken from an aircraft, with a drone, or other flying object, either by hand or remotely.
Astrophotography
Photos of astronomical objects, celestial events, and areas of the night sky (landscapes with astronomical objects are included).
Flowers
Floral photography in any form.
Landscapes
Photos that capture elements of nature and the natural features of land, sky and water. Photographs of artificial scenery, such as farm fields, orchards and gardens, can be entered here as well.
Macro
Close-up photographs where the size of the subject is life-size or larger.
Panoramic
Wide format images with horizontally elongated fields of view.
Pets
Photos featuring domesticated animals, including animals kept on a farm, in a zoo, or anywhere outside their natural habitat.
Seasons
Images with a focus on the natural seasons, and their effect on nature.
Sunrise/ Sunset
Photos showing the rich colors and dramatic lighting of the sunset.
Trees
Photography of trees and forestry.
Underwater
Photographs taken while under water, diving on the surface, scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming, or from a submersible or remotely operated underwater vehicle.
Wildlife
Photos documenting animals and other wildlife in their natural habitat (NOTE: animals NOT in their natural habitat, such as farm animals or those kept in a zoo, should be entered in the “Special/Pets” category).
This category is for photographs where people are the focus, whether a single person or a group, showing the human aspect of life in all its wonderful variety.
Children
Portraits of children and youth.
Culture
Images that tell a story about a people and their culture or traditions.
Event
Photos showcasing the essence of gatherings or occasions, capturing the moments, emotions, and people that define the experience.
Family
Photographs highlighting family and what it means.
Lifestyle
The art of ‘everyday’, photos showing real-life events or milestones, people and their way of life.
Portrait
Artistic images capturing the personality of a person or group of people.
Self-Portrait
Photos representing the artist taken by the artist.
Wedding
Images of wedding or engagement celebrations, ceremonies, or traditions, and the people taking part.
You may enter up to 20 images that represents your entire work or only a series in Advertising, Fine Arts, Wedding, Personal Work. The images should represent the best of your work, without any year limitations.
Advertising
Commercial images used to sell, market, promote or advertise a product, service, or person(s).
Fine Art
Images where the intention is aesthetic, revealing the subjective, creative vision of the artist, photos that express an idea, a message, or an emotion through the image and the technique used to create it.
Food
Images featuring food.
Personal
The art of ‘everyday’, photos showing personal real-life events or milestones, people and their way of life.
Other
Photography which falls outside the scope of the above categories.
This category is for the more “niche” genres of photography, and those using special techniques or technology to achieve the finished product.
Aerial/ Drone
Photographs taken from an aircraft, with a drone, or other flying object, either by hand or remotely.
AI-Generated Images
For images created or generated solely by executing a command/commands to AI.
Digitally Enhanced
Images that have been edited and/or enhanced using digital technology/editing software.
Macro Photography
Close-up photographs where the size of the subject is life-size or larger.
Night Photography
Images captured outdoors at night, between dusk and dawn.
Science/ Technology
Exploring the use of advanced equipment, techniques, and digital technologies to capture and enhance images, pushing the boundaries of traditional photographic processes.
Smartphone Photography
Photos taken using a mobile phone/smartphone.
Street Photography
Photos that capture the essence of the urban lifestyle, random moments, real life, chance encounters.