Photo Competitions - Don't Shoot, Think!

If you listen to many Photo Podcasts, read Photo Magazines, or hang around Photography Websites, one of the most popular features are the competitions. I've started to enter a few, I think they can be a great tool for improving your technique and "pre-visualisation" of your Photographs.

First, you have to understand the "catch" with most Photo Competitions - the small print. The terms usually vary from giving the competition holder the right to display your image, to the extreme (but common) practise of the competition holder or organiser assuming all rights to your submitted images. That's right, submit your Photo and it no longer belongs to you. You can't earn any money off it, and won't be entitled to any cash for how the competition organisers (or their associates) use that image. This often applies to all images submitted - not just the winners.

Imagine you're a developer / promoter and want some great looking pictures about a subject or place. To hire a Professional is expensive - so why not just run a competition, give away a few prizes, but then have hundreds of pictures (that they now own) for virtually free?

This all may sound a little cynical, but always read the fine print of any Photo competition, and decide if you're willing to give up those rights before you give away your images.

My next point is about judging. Like any visual medium, Photography is extremely subjective. The people who look at these competitions are scanning quickly through thousands, so will only pick out images that pop out at them. Mostly being Photographers themselves, they'll also be looking for technical excellence. Of course a great capture can be forgiven mistakes, but it's best to avoid them in the first place.

Another concern is whether the competition is just an exercise in trawling through your back-catalogue, or an assignment to get you out and about, looking for, and thinking about the subject. Some Photo competitions don't specify about when the picture should have been taken, but my view is that if you want to use the experience to further your photography, it should be a new image.

Always read the rules relating to editing. In some competitions anything goes, others only allow slight adjustments, some none at all. It's a shame to spend the time on a great image, only to get it kicked out because you cloned in something from another shot.

I've only just started doing these things, and at the moment I just submit to ones where I enjoy the process, think the judging is fair, and like the feedback that the other contestants give. I take part in the Tech Guy Monthly Challenge on Flickr, The TWIP Photo Challenge, and the one they run on the Fuji Website. Have I ever won anything? No way, and I don't expect to, the process of thinking about the subjects is reward enough. Lets have a look at a few images (click on the pictures to go to Flickr to see the bigger sizes):

The subject for this challenge was "Match Day". I normally have to think about a challenge for awhile before I get any decent ideas, and this one had me stumped. I didn't fancy going to the local park and taking pictures of amateur Footballers, and didn't want to pay to go to a match, so after seeing some interesting HDR Still-Life's in a magazine, I thought I'd have a go at doing my own.

This one was for a challenge with the theme of "water". I took some shots of the Sea, a small river, etc, but none of them stood out at all. Then my Wife mentioned how pretty this plant looked in the morning when the dew had collected on the leaves - so I had my subject! This is a Super Macro, with my S5700, but also a HDR, tone mapped in Photomatix. I had to think long and hard about using this version or a wider view (you can see the other in my Flickr Photostream) - and I'm still not sure if I made the right choice.

Now I didn't go looking for this subject - "silly" - but I had the challenge in the back of my mind, and when I saw the contrast between the modern gun and the medieval weapon, I thought it looked a little funny.

So, dive in and start entering competitions at sites you like and trust. They really get you thinking about what sort of pictures you want, and how you're going to achieve them.

Good Luck! Rob.

PS If you're ever stuck for ideas on a theme, search Flickr or Google Images - then use what you find for inspiration!