Compare your RAW with the photo you plan to enter
Many contests that ban AI-generated images can ask for your RAW file, often when you are shortlisted. Choose your RAW and the photo you plan to enter. The check compares the two files on your device before you enter: how much of the frame you kept, whether the camera details agree, and areas that differ beyond tone and colour, for you to look at.
In our verified records, 17 contests that ban AI-generated images can ask for original or RAW files.
Your RAW and your photo stay on your device: nothing is uploaded.
See an example first
A sample RAW and a photo edited from it, with one potato pasted in: see what the check marked.
Area 1 is most of a potato copied from the bowl and pasted in front of it; its lower part is outside the box. In the RAW, lined up, that spot shows the side of the bowl. A mark can be one part of a larger change, so compare the area around it with your RAW.
The photo was also cropped, straightened by 1.4°, made brighter and warmer, and given more contrast and colour. The check lined the photo up with the RAW and reported that it keeps about four fifths of the RAW frame and is rotated 1.4° clockwise. It is built to ignore tone and colour, so none of these changes is marked.
Small retouching, such as removing dust spots, is almost never marked; HDR, panoramas and focus stacks show as differences. An object added or removed can be marked only in part or not at all; this example was chosen because it shows clearly. A photo with nothing added or removed can still show a marked area. Tested in Chrome on a computer.
Open the sample report. It reads the pair against the rules of Sony World Photography Awards 2027, which ask you to describe your edits; its capture-date row says Not met because the sample RAW was taken in 2021.
With the Entry Season Pass (€19, paid once, for 12 months) you can download a report like this for each entry, check a folder of RAW and photo pairs in one go, and check each entry against several contests' rules at once. The single check stays free.
Compare your RAW with the photo you plan to enter
Tested in Chrome on a computer. It hasn't been tested on phones, tablets, Firefox or Safari, and large RAW files need a lot of memory in the browser, so on a phone or tablet the check may stop.
- Decoding your RAW in this browser
- Comparing your photo with it
Photo and RAW
Areas that differ
| Area | Position in the photo |
|---|
A draft description of your edits
A draft from this comparison, for you to correct and complete before you use it. It lists only what the check measured and can miss changes. Some contests, such as Sony World Photography Awards, ask you to describe your edits when you enter.
Camera details
| Detail | Your RAW | Your photo | Result |
|---|
Neither file carries camera details the check reads.
Rules
Choose the contest you are entering above to read its rules on originals, AI and capture dates against these files.
Entry Season Pass
Open this page on the computer where your RAW files are.
Check a folder of RAW and photo pairs in one go and keep a report for each entry: Entry Season Pass, €19 (VAT included where it applies), paid once, 12 months. The single check stays free.
Tested in Chrome on a computer. The pass works in the browser where you open the unlock link.
Buy the pass, then open the unlock email on that computer.
Entry Season Pass
Open this page on the computer where your RAW files are.
€19, paid once, for 12 months. Check a folder of RAW and photo pairs in one go, download a report for each entry to keep, and check each entry against several contests' rules at once. The single check above stays free.
Buy the pass, then open the unlock email on that computer.
Sold by card through Polar, our merchant of record. We email your unlock link after payment; your photos still never leave your browser.
RAW files are decoded with LibRaw 0.22.2 under the LGPL-2.1, and photos are compared with OpenCV 4.10.0 under the Apache-2.0 licence, both running in this page from files served by this site. Source: LibRaw 0.22.2, wlibraw 0.2.0, OpenCV 4.10.0. Notices: THIRD_PARTY.txt.
How to use it
- Choose the contest you are entering, if it is in our records, to see its rules on originals, AI and capture dates.
- Choose your RAW file (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, ORF, RAF, RW2 or PEF) and the JPEG or TIFF you plan to enter.
- Wait a few seconds while the RAW is decoded in your browser. The first check also loads the decoders from this site.
- Read the results: crop and rotation, the camera details side by side, the areas marked, with your RAW lined up to compare, and each rule with the contest's own words where we hold them.
- Keep your RAW. If the contest asks for it, send what it asks for, the way it asks.
Questions
- Is my RAW file uploaded?
- No. Your RAW and your photo are read on your device, in this page, and nothing about them is sent to WinPhoto or anyone else. Apart from the web fonts every page loads, the page downloads only its own code and its example's pictures from this site. The first check also downloads the decoders, the same ones for every file, so those downloads carry nothing about your files. It also tells our server that a check started, finished or stopped with an error, or that the example or its sample report was opened, and nothing else: no photo, file name, camera detail, contest or result.
- What can the check find, and what can't it?
- It finds how much of the RAW frame your photo keeps, any rotation or mirror flip and camera details that don't agree, and it marks areas where content differs from the RAW beyond tone, colour, sharpening and noise reduction. A mark can be the edge or one part of a larger change: the page shows your RAW lined up with your photo, so you can compare the area around each mark. It can miss changes in smooth areas, such as a replaced sky or an object removed from water or a plain wall, and thin objects such as wires or poles. It compares at about 1,600 pixels on the long edge, so small retouching such as dust spot removal is almost never marked: in our tests, none of 18 spot removals was. It doesn't recognise faces, so a changed face shows only if it changes enough of the area.
- Does the result prove my photo meets the rules?
- No. It is a self-check, not a certificate. It shows what it compared, what it found and its limits. A marked area is something to look at, not a finding of cheating. Only the organiser decides whether an entry meets its rules, and organisers can run their own checks.
- My photo is an HDR, panorama or focus stack. Will it work?
- Compare it with the RAW that makes up most of the frame. Areas taken from the other frames will show as differences, which is expected; many contests allow these techniques, and their rules say which.
- What does the Entry Season Pass add?
- For 12 months: checking a folder of pairs in one go, a report for each entry to download and keep, and checking each entry against several contests' rules at once. The single check stays free.