AI and FIAP Competitions in 2026: Know What Your Tools Are Doing

You have finished editing a favourite photograph and are ready to enter a competition with FIAP patronage. You used an AI mask, reduced some noise and tidied a distracting corner. Is your image eligible? The answer depends on what those tools did and which section you enter.

This article offers AASS’s interpretation of FIAP’s published rules and guidance, including its 2026 Book. We are not speaking on behalf of FIAP or giving its official interpretation. Quotations reproduce the source wording. The explanations and examples are ours, intended to help members understand the requirements and avoid unintended breaches.

What does FIAP actually say?

Section A-7 of the Nature Guide, reproduced in the Book, states: “While AI-assisted editing tools like sharpening and intelligent masking are permitted because they only enhance the existing visual information within your photo, generative AI tools that create new, synthetic content based on external data are strictly forbidden.” (Note 1)

FIAP and PSA’s common AI statement, Document 050/2025, “must be included in the regulations of salons or events applying for FIAP patronage” (Note 2). Its permitted AI-enhanced editing category “includes editing tools that perform transformations, enhancements, or corrections based exclusively on the existing pixel data captured in the author's original photograph without introducing externally sourced content.” (Note 2)

The prohibited category covers AI-assisted synthetic generation incorporating external image data, visual elements, textures, objects or scenes absent from the original photograph. AASS reads these passages together, rather than treating a tool’s name as proof of eligibility.

Masking and noise reduction

Imagine an intelligent mask selecting your kookaburra so you can gently adjust its exposure. AASS considers a selection that simply targets the photographed bird consistent with the permitted approach. The subsequent adjustment must still satisfy the section rules (Note 3). For a Nature entry, selective brightness adjustments should restore the scene’s appearance, rather than hide an inconvenient twig by darkening it out of sight.

Noise reduction and sharpening can fit the permitted approach when they enhance captured information without introducing prohibited content. AASS would distinguish this from a feature that generates feather textures absent from the original photograph, applying the prohibition in 050/2025 (Note 2). Check the function and settings before assuming that any denoising, sharpening or enlargement mode qualifies.

Adding, extending and removing

Applying these rules, an AI-generated sky, bird or studio background would be prohibited. Adobe describes Generative Expand as extending image boundaries (Note 6). In AASS’s reading, retaining generated surroundings beyond the captured frame would also breach the rule.

Suppose a generative function erases a sign and invents the wall behind it. AASS considers that replacement patch prohibited synthetic content, even if small or believable. A conventional repair using pixels you captured is different, but the section may still prohibit removing the sign (Note 3).

Adobe documents Photoshop Remove modes with generative AI enabled, disabled, or automatically selected (Note 5). Automatic mode may use generative AI. Check the setting before editing. Turning generation off does not override authorship or section restrictions. Adobe’s documentation describes the tool, rather than certifying FIAP compliance.

Your photographs, and the right section

FIAP requires you to have photographed every component and hold the relevant copyright (Notes 3 and 4). Another photographer’s sky does not qualify, even with permission. A conventional composite using your own photographs may qualify in a suitable Open or Creative section, subject to its conditions. AASS’s reading is that this does not allow AI-generated additions.

Nature, Wildlife, Photojournalism and World in Focus have additional editing restrictions, as do sections carrying the Traditional Photo label. In Nature, cloning away a twig is prohibited, while correcting a sensor dust spot is allowed (Notes 1 and 3).

Sections carrying the Traditional Photo label prohibit HDR and focus stacking, including in-camera processing. Nature permits specified exposure blending and focus stacking, but its guide requires the images to “contain the identical content” and to have been “taken in a single, continuous sequence” (Note 1). Those permissions should not be transferred automatically between sections.

For members, it helps to make two checks: first, the AI and authorship requirements, then the particular section’s editing limits. Passing the first does not cancel the second.

Cameras and phones count too

If subject-detection autofocus simply helps the camera focus, AASS would not treat that action alone as image generation. This applies the published principle, rather than claiming FIAP approval of a particular camera.

Conversely, AASS would regard a phone function generating an invented sky or surroundings as subject to the same prohibition. Check automatic enhancement modes and the section’s capture requirements. An AI label alone does not resolve eligibility, and neither does the fact that processing happened inside the device.

Take the warning seriously

FIAP’s required AI/authorship warning ends: “Offenders will be sanctioned for life!” (Note 3) Sanctions can also restrict participation and remove the right to use FIAP distinctions. Permitted AI enhancement remains permitted, so the warning does not make every AI-labelled operation an offence (Notes 1 and 2).

The sanctions rules provide for investigation, a response and an appeal (Note 4). We found no general accidental-use exemption in the cited provisions, so do not assume an unintended prohibited edit will be excused. FIAP determines individual cases through its procedures.

Keep your evidence before you enter

Keep original RAW files or unretouched JPEGs, component captures, their metadata and photographs taken immediately before and after the submitted image. FIAP explicitly requires retention “with no expiry”, so keep these records indefinitely (Note 4). A layered editing file is useful additional documentation, but is not a substitute for the required captures.

FIAP also requires EXIF data to remain intact in submitted files. Check export settings that strip metadata. FIAP’s entry conditions state that refusal to cooperate or supply original files, or insufficient evidence, will result in sanctions (Note 3).

Before entering, read the salon’s conditions, check the section and review automatic settings. Our practical advice is to keep a record of significant edits. For an uncertain feature, consult the manufacturer’s documentation and ask the salon or APS’s FIAP Liaison Officer to help obtain clarification. A workflow you understand makes entering with confidence easier.

Official Nature Guide PDF: https://www.fiap.net/upload/files/1767040234-673c5.pdf

FIAP’s official link to the Book: https://www.fiap.net/en/links/fiap-book-english-version

Book page 73: AI guidance and editing overview: https://online.flipbuilder.com/tklq/znbv/files/basic-html/page73.html

Book page 75: Nature editing checklist: https://online.flipbuilder.com/tklq/znbv/files/basic-html/page75.html

Official 050/2025 AI statement PDF: https://www.fiap.net/upload/files/1771262178-df4c9.pdf

FIAP February 2026 mailing: publication record: https://www.fiap.net/en/mailings/fiap-mailings-from-february-2026

Earlier AI statement PDF labelled 048/2025 E: https://www.fiap.net/upload/files/1767039931-9dba6.pdf

Official patronage regulations PDF: https://www.fiap.net/upload/files/1767072330-17c83.pdf

Official sanctions regulations PDF: https://www.fiap.net/upload/files/1759260917-55243.pdf

Official Adobe Remove documentation: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/repair-retouch/remove-objects-fill-space/remove-unwanted-objects-and-distractions.html

Official Adobe Generative Expand guide: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/create-open-import-images/create-images/explore-beyond-the-canvas-with-generative-expand.html