Tips to Win Photography Contest

June 20, 2008 in Tips and Guide on Photography
Tags: photo competition, Photo contest, photography contest, picture contest

I was browsing the net to find some interesting articles about photo competitions and fortunately I bumped on this amazing post. Though the author has brilliant ideas on giving hints and tips on photographers, he warns his readers that everything about his post was purely from his own thoughts. Like he said, he has a different view on how to win photo contest but the uniqueness of his methods are fascinating. “Untechnical”, intriguing and somewhat rebellious but honestly, I like his style of putting it together.

Here are some tips from his post..

Stick to the Topic

This is the most basic rule in entering picture contests. Photographers should submit entries that fall in a particular category. In some cases, photographers use their imagination way too far that the judges never grasp what the photo is about. Having some tag lines on the photo will help however, picture contest won’t allow such thing. Contestants must be aware that the photo they shoot will be useless if it leaves an empty message to the world. You know what I mean?

Know the rules – then break them

Kind of a riddle isn’t it? I find this tip very interesting. Ansel Adams, seen by many as one of the greatest aficianado of photography said something along the lines of ‘there are no rules for great pictures, there are just great pictures’. The line means that its impossible to make a set of criteria that would guarantee a good photo. Photo contests are extremely subjective and the audience is free to think what they want. You must first know the rules of thirds. Learn it and practice by heart. Many people who don’t understand it, break it in ways that are un-pleasing to the eye. The trick is to find a way to make it work. Get the exposure right, mind your backgrounds, have a vision, and get it all to work together. It is essential to know all the rules of photography, so you can choose the ones to break and replace it with style.

Tell a Powerful Story

Photos could be technically beautiful, following all the necessary things by the book in order to have perfect shots. But how would you define beautiful photos? In a photography contest every aspect of the photograph is being analyzed. In order to get the attention of the audience, your photo must tell a powerful story about it. Drag the audience in an emotional involvement. A photo of a mother looking at a child might invoke this: You might feel that the mother loves the child, but the photo could leave you cold. Another photo would cause you to feel with the mother: Where you understand the feeling at a deeper degree. Finally, an image might be so strong that not only do you recognize and understand the emotion, you might actually feel the same. Photography contest is not all about technicality, elements like emotions will captivate the audience heart.

Like in any other contests, being different gives you extra attention. Whether bad or good impressions are thrown at you, the point is you got something stuck in their mind. Photo competition is very similar. To have your photos remembered among the thick pile of entries (might come in hundreds or even thousands), you got to put some genuine accent on your work. There are risks in doing this method, you might actually get the eyes of the judges or get rejected in an instant. Being unique is not bad but taking it to the extremes is something else. Your entries in every picture contests represents your soul and passion of the art. Be unique in your ways, judges are like filters that selects the brightest among the multitude of sparkling little dots. You can thank them in some ways but remember that the true judge is the world.