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In the times following the announcement of the Capture the Dark 2026 winners, the dialog has shifted from commendation to controversy. It seems that this 12 months, the competitors organizer – DarkSky International, a worldwide NGO advocating for diminished gentle air pollution – acknowledged photos that broke its guidelines.
The controversy began on August 14, only a day after the winners’ announcement, when disgruntled entrant Raaber Way took to Facebook to condemn the results. And it wasn’t lengthy earlier than pictures information retailers got here throughout the astrophotographer’s publish, amplifying the information.
While there’s by no means some grand conspiracy behind a dodgy photograph competitors ruling, nor “goodies” nor “baddies,” there are, sadly, the rule-abiding photographers who by no means get their honest shot at recognition.
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And from a company as influential inside the astrophotography group as DarkSky International, recognition can have a large influence on a photographer’s prospects. So it’s for the photographers who entered justly, however had been pipped by the offending photos, that I write this.
In his Facebook post, Way drew attention to one of the winning images and a runner-up that undoubtedly broke the rules.
These were The Chasm by Tom Rae, an ethereal shot of a cave illuminated by glowworms beneath the Milky Way sky, which won the Creatures of the Night category, and A Dialogue Between Space and Human Light by Mikel Iraeta, an epic depiction of a lighthouse beaming beneath cosmic ecstasy, which placed second in the Impact of Light Pollution category.
(Image credit: Tom Rae (courtesy of DarkSky International))
The specific rule these composite images broke was that they combined separate exposures taken at different focal lengths.
Capture the Dark allows techniques widely used in astrophotography, including stacking, tracking, panoramas and blending multiple exposures. But all exposures used to create a single submission must be captured at the same focal length.
When the NGO announced its winners, it additionally launched the technical settings utilized by every photographer – and Way was the primary to identify that each Rae and Iraeta had used two totally different lenses with totally different focal lengths.
Now, I don’t for one second consider that Rae or Iraeta got down to cheat their solution to victory – and I nonetheless suppose that their creations are nice artworks. In truth, a couple of days in the past I wrote a bit highlighting the unimaginable story of how Rae rappelled 330 ft (100m) into the cave to seize his shot.
Even if I knew this picture had damaged the principles, I nonetheless would’ve written that piece. I might’ve highlighted that this was the case, however the story of the daring photographic feat would’ve remained an unimaginable one regardless.
The truth stays, nevertheless, that by DarkSky International’s personal guidelines, each of those photos ought to have been disallowed. Not solely had been they allowed, however they went on to realize widespread recognition on the expense of two different really deserving photographers who caught to the principles.
DarkSky International actually is not the unhealthy man for this however, in my eyes, it has let the astrophotography group down, regardless of the response it gave on Way’s Facebook publish.
In brief, the NGO mentioned that it has “heard” the issues and questions this controversy has raised, however “stands by” its elected winners. To me, the general public assertion reads extra like a type of company “admissions” of guilt that makes use of a variety of jargon with out really saying, “we messed up”.
If my two cents is price something, a public apology with a re-election is so as from the organizers. While I agree with them once they say that they’re “only human” and people make errors, people additionally admit once they make errors and do their finest to rectify them.
This would go a good distance towards serving to the photographers who, per the principles, are deserving of a spot on this 12 months’s high three for the Creatures of the Night and Impact of Light Pollution classes, respectively.
And whereas we’ll by no means know who the 2 photographers are that ought to have, whoever you might be, simply know that your efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.
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