For contest organizers
Your rules ban AI. Here is how you check.
Of the 87 competitions we analyzed in June 2026, 50 ban AI-generated images but only 11 state how they verify. Lumethic closes that gap: shortlisted entries are checked against their RAW files, and your jury receives a report it can rely on and publish.
The enforcement gap
A ban without a check protects nobody
When a generated image wins under an unenforced ban, the contest carries the damage: retractions, refund demands, and a news cycle about the jury. The opposite case costs just as much, a real photograph disqualified on suspicion because nobody could examine evidence. Both happen in the same place: rules that state a ban and stop there.
57%
of the 87 contests we analyzed ban AI-generated images in their photography categories
22%
of those bans state any method for checking whether an image is a real capture
0
of 87 rulebooks mention C2PA or Content Credentials in any form
How it works
Verification for a shortlist, not for ten thousand entries
Announce the check
Add one clause to your rules: shortlisted entrants provide the camera original. 27 of the 87 contests we track already reserve this right. We can help you word the clause, drawing on the rulebooks in our database.
Finalists upload two files
Only the shortlist is checked. Each finalist uploads the submitted image and its RAW file. No app to install and no new hardware; cameras already write these files.
Lumethic compares them
The service checks the image against the RAW original: sensor data, metadata consistency, and signs of a recaptured screen. The result is deterministic. Files are processed in memory on EU infrastructure and are not stored.
Your jury decides
You receive a clear report for each entry. What the jury does with it remains your call; Lumethic supplies the evidence, not the verdict.
Why announce it
Most of the value arrives before the first check
A published verification step changes what gets entered. A photographer with a generated image reads your rules and moves on. One with a genuine capture keeps the RAW file and enters with more confidence, because a check protects them from accusations too. This is why the strictest competitions on the calendar, from World Press Photo to Underwater Photographer of the Year, tie awards to original files.
Start with a shadow check
You do not need to change your rules to see what this looks like. Send us the finalists of a past edition, with their originals where you have them, and we run the checks and show you the reports. You see exactly what your jury would have seen. Nothing about your contest changes until you decide it should.