How to Select Photos for Contest Submissions
There are countless photo contests held every year to bring the best photographers under one roof and observe their photography skills. The ones that bring photos having important elements like creativity, technical excellence, a thought-evoking story, and a unique idea win the first prize. However, for photographers clicking a number of photos is not the end, but choosing the best one is the final step. It’s a challenging and daunting task, as a minor mistake can reduce the winning chances and make you a runner-up instead of a winner. Photo contests are an opportunity to show your photography talent to the whole world. Therefore, the importance of selecting the most appropriate photo is high. An eye for innovation, an understanding of rules, and a feeling of artistic intuition are necessary to find that. In this blog, we will guide you in selecting the photos for contest submission that increase your winning chances and captivate the audience and judges.
Read the Contest’s Rules and Regulations
You may have clicked a number of photos, but understanding the contest theme is crucial to select a valid and acceptable photograph. Reading the rules lets you align the photograph with the theme, requirements, technical guidelines, freedom in editing, and image quality. File size, quantity, pixels, dimensions, resolution, file format, and so on are all specified in the rule book and must be followed in order to make the photo acceptable for contest like https://www.viewbug.com/photo-contests.
Analyze your Photo Gallery and Choose the Best Picture
If there is the freedom to send less than a certain number of photos, consider quality over quantity. This is because the judges will judge the photos according to their quality, idea, creativity, and story, not the quantity. Remembering that, choose some of the best pictures according to their quality, standard, and pattern of winning photographs in earlier contests. Ensure that the picture has aesthetic nature, elegance, and intrigue in it.
Filter out the pictures that tell a story
From the selected pictures, filter out the ones that have an impactful and compelling story that can evoke emotions. Emotional connections with the judges and viewers significantly increase the chances of winning. Pictures with an inspiring, sensitive, historical, emotional, and motivational story work best in photo contests. In the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Photo contest, Spencer Platt, a New York photographer, won the first award for capturing a sensitive picture of a group of young Lebanese driving through a neighborhood in South Beirut damaged by Israeli bombs.
Ensure the Clarity and Technical Excellence
Ensure the clarity and technical excellence of the image by maintaining its pixel quality, proper exposure, focus, frame, composition, golden ratio, light and shadow, brightness, hues, vibrance, etc. Unique and original high-quality images cause a positive impression and define your high-level photography talent and editing skills.
Keep the Frame Clean
Pay close attention to the disturbing elements and clutter in the background that can capture more attention than the actual highlight of the photograph. Ensure that the frame of the background is free from such objects and focus only on the main element. A well-composed image with leading lines, a clear frame, a rule of thirds, and proper symmetry is more likely to attract the viewer’s and judges’ attention clearly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that the criteria for selecting winners are generally the quality of photos and the unique idea behind them. Presenting an image that stands out from the crowd, catches attention immediately, and gets immediate praise from judges and viewers is important. From the tapestry of images that you clicked, finding the perfect one is challenging. However, with the tips mentioned above, you can elevate your submission and increase your winning chances.
