photo contests

Many benefits lie in wait for those who dare to participate in photo contests. If you have been hesitant to showcase your work, go for it! These competitions provide an opportunity for you to explore your work, build your network and discover techniques. Photo contests are also a good chance for both beginners and advanced photographers to expand their creativity by experimenting with various styles. 

There are numerous free photo competitions that you can participate in both online and locally. However, in today’s age of COVID working from home, online is the way to go. Most of these competitions do not require you to be a professional photographer. Even better is the fact that some allow to participate multiple times. How do you get to win these contests? Here are some tips to help you:  

Read and understand the rules

This is not just for free photo competitions but all sorts of competitions. There are countless entries which would have won the competitions but are tossed out, simply because a certain requirement was not met. It could be as simple as titling your photo. Be on the lookout for the important details such as submission day, the picture format, model releases, etc. If any of the rules are not clear to you or some information is missing seek clarification.

Tell that story

A good photographer should be able to capture the moment and bring it back to life through their lens. The photo should be a testimony of what they saw and what others might have missed. This, unfortunately, is not something that you can be taught in school, but you will learn over a period of time. It makes your photo capture attention easily and invoke certain emotions.

Perfect sharpness 

Play around with sharpness of your images. Work with that blur but do not go for a soft photo. Soft images are likely to get you thrown out of the competition. It is essential to learn how to take sharp photos first before entering any photo contests. Mastering the art of perfectly sharp photos improves your chances of winning in photography contest a hundredfold.

Presentation is king

The final presentation of your content is very important. For online competitions ensure that you are working on a calibrated monitor.  This will ascertain that your image files for submission meet the criteria needed such as image dimensions, file formats and color profiles. For print competitions, the borders and mats should be carefully picked. Avoid having distracting borders and mats. These are likely to draw attention from your photo. Paper choice is also vital as paper stocks are varied and they are likely to impact the final print quality of the photo.

As aforesaid, winning a photography competition might be hard but it is not impossible. The above are just some of the things that you can do to improve your chances of winning. Sometimes it is not about the quality of your camera – it is all about technique. Take time to practice and learn new techniques and you will be on your way to great heights.