The competition was judged on 24 January at Nikon House and the judging panel comprised:

Lee Martin, Global Managing Director of Allsport
Bob Kirwin, Picture Editor, The Times
Michael Feldman, Senior Photo Editor for Europe, Africa, Middle East and South Asia of Associated Press
Rod Sibbald , Group Picture Editor of Scottish Media Group
Giulia Carnera, Picture Editor of Elle
Russell Roberts, Curator of Photograph of National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
Jon Edwards, Picture Editor of The Sun

Photographers were invited to enter portfolios of five photographs for each of the specialist categories: News, Features, Photo-Essay, Regional, Sport, Fashion, Arts & Entertainment and Royals and eight photographs for the Press Photographer of the Year.

The shortlist is as follows:

Nikon Press Photographer of the Year
Jeff Mitchell - Reuters
Adam Butler - Associated Press

Regional
Jeff Mitchell - Reuters
David Moir - The Scotsman

Royals
Jonathan Evans -
Jeff Moore - National News

News
Dan Chung
Sion Touhig - Corbis/Sygma

Features
Tom Stoddart - IPG
Andrew Fox - Freelance

Arts & Entertainment
Stuart Boulton - The Northern Echo
David Sandison - The Independent

Photo Essay
Jon Levy - Freelance
Jon Challicom - Freelance

Fashion
Robert Perry - Scotland on Sunday
Peter Macdiarmid - The Independent

Sport
Bradley Ormesher - The Mirror
Andy Couldridge - Action Images

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, which takes place on 8 March. An exhibition of the winners and runners-up will follow at Proud Galleries, Buckingham Street, London and on line at Photoshot.com.

All prints in the exhibition will be printed by Joe's Basement, sponsors of printing and framing services to the Nikon Press Awards.