The following guidelines will be used for judging purposes for determining what makes an Ace. This group should showcase the best photography its members can produce. It’s a Gallery of members work. To that end, the jury will consider what makes an Ace! using the following guidelines:

Originality and quality, embracing themes and stories from all aspects of life, are to be the hallmarks of what makes an Ace!

Photos with poor technical quality (banding, JPEG artifacts, excessive noise etc.), with no other aspects to compensate for it, are not really Ace. In the same way, a photo might be also technically perfect, but still not an Ace because it’s ordinary and we have seen it many times before.

Photos that are only documentary, for example of a building, a plant or a performance, are not an Ace. Those photos need to be creative as well, for example with an interesting angle, composition, lighting, symbolism or something else added to the original.

Editing is another common reason for not being an Ace. No photo should appear over-edited, the editing should be as invisible as possible and always reinforce the message of the photo. Pure digital art, with little resemblance to the original photograph, is not forbidden, but is not really for this group.

Common motifs include sunsets, seagulls, roses, tulips, crosses, tourist attractions, typical wedding-shots and photos of kids, pets and vacations that are better left for the family album. Other common themes are a lonely tree, people on the beach, the rocks and smooth water, the boats and sunset and hearts in varying forms. The common shots need to be outstanding and technically flawless to be accepted.

Photos with flags in them have to be really impressive and there needs to be a very special point made with the flag or it won’t be published, because flags are such a cliché symbol.

Zoo-photos where it’s obvious that the photo is not shot in nature, but there is no special point of it being shot in a zoo, will not be an Ace unless they are extremely good. A photo of a sad animal clinging to the bars or a really happy one may in contrast be accepted since it raises the question whether it’s right to have animals in captivity or not.

Photos of sculptures, paintings, posters or other artwork are not accepted unless given a deeper meaning, since the photographer is not the original artist.

Product shots, logos and other shots with a typical commercial style are not accepted because they are not considered artistic here.

Photos of homeless people are rarely published, because of the ethical issue. For the same reason don’t upload photos of nude children please, it’s not appropriate.

Pornographic material or very repulsive photos are strictly prohibited, uploading such photos will cause a permanent ban.