As you look through your image from your latest travels, how do you go about choosing the right ones to enter into photo competitions? There are a few things to bear in mind which will increase your chances of winning or getting your images showcased in exhibitions or the media.
Most photo competitions have categories and themes. It is on this basis that they are judged so make sure you enter your images in the right category. Whether your strength is photographing people, wildlife, landscapes, underwater, aerial, architecture or any other travel related theme, and whether you shoot in a documentary, artistic, abstract style in colour or black and white, there will almost certainly be a category for you and your images.
Different categories and themes for every kind of photography. Images Piper Mackay (2024 TPOTY winners)
The categories and themes are important so make sure you pay attention to them and edit your images to meet them before entering. You may have a great shot, but if it doesn’t fit the theme, then it won’t win. If that’s the case, keep your powder dry and save it for the right category when that comes around.
This brings me to the first and probably biggest mistake which people make. When we go somewhere exciting to take photos, the experiences are part of the image for us. So when we choose, we choose our favourite images, not necessarily our best. There can be a big difference but why?
As photographers, our memories are attached to our images and we tend to see the whole package not just that image. When you take a picture of a breathtaking landscape, they key moment at a festival or cheetah chasing a gazelle, for example, the excitement you felt at the time – plus the celebrating the capturing the shot; the lovely dinner at the lodge; the new people you met there and talked to – are all part of that great day. Subconsciously you attached these memories to your images.
Catching the moment – timing is everything in photography. Images © Tittu Shashi Thomas (left) and © Jo Kearney (right)
Now, when a judge (or a photo editor – the same applies to any editing) assesses your pictures some time in the future, all those exciting elements around your image(s) aren’t there. It’s just a picture for them, even though it may be a very good one. We’re all bad at editing our own images so how do you choose our best, not our favourite?
Perhaps the best advice here is to ask someone else’s opinion, but more than that, listen to it. They don’t have to a be a photographer – just someone who can say “I like it because…’ or “it doesn’t fit the theme”…. or “It’s not as good as your other ones”. Their opinion matters because it is dispassionate. They like the picture or they don’t, and their opinion comes without the baggage, the memories, which you have attached to it.
Think differently and be creative. Images © Trevor Cole, Panagiotis Dalagiorgos and Joshua Holko
I remember years ago judging a portfolio category in Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY). On this occasion a really talented photographer enter some strong images but one was not so good. It is very common that people enter a four-image portfolio which has one weak shot in it. The other three images were really strong and he would have been a contender had the fourth one matched it. Many years later I met the photographer and asked him why he’d chosen that fourth images. He told me he asked his partner and she said it wasn’t as good but he didn’t take her advice and left it in. That decision cost him winning the award!
In a world so flooded with images, especially on social media, how do you make your photography stand out? How do you leave an impression on the judges? They look at thousands of images so you don’t have long to achieve that. First, and most importantly, don’t underestimate the judges! In good competitions they are highly image literate. If you’ve just copied someone else’s photograph, they will spot it, so be original.
Let’s look at some examples of how you can add impact to your photos. . You’ve taken a shot of a lion. If it’s a head shot, what makes it stand out from a million and one other head shots of lions? Have you caught a moment or simply documented it? The same would be true if you were photographing a person or a bird or a view. What makes your shot different?
Pick the moment. These two images are both lovely portraits but in one the girl looks so much more relaxed and engaged. Image © Chris Coe
So when selecting your pictures look for the ones that convey something to the viewer – a moment, an expression, tenderness, aggression. Uniqueness or perhaps something humorous. Humour is a great way to catch a judge’s attention.
Mood and atmosphere can transform an image. © Takahiro Game
Don’t forget to add details as well as wider shots to a portfolio. Image © Jenny Stock
Choosing images to enter a portfolio is different from choosing a single image, With the latter it’s all about making an immediate impact. With a portfolio it’s more about telling a story. When you read a story it progresses from page to page, or chapter to chapter. If a book has two sections which are essential the same, you get bored. A photo story, or a portfolio, is no different and needs to progress too. So don’t waste any opportunities to do that – each image in a portfolio should tell a different part of the same story. Portfolios without this rarely have as much impact.
In a portfolio each image should be different. Here different perspectives on the same waterfall. Images © Roie Galitz
With category themes you can also be creative and those entries where the photographer has put extra thought into their selection really stand out. So say, for example, there’s a category about wildlife in the landscape. You could enter shots of the same landscape with different animals or birds in, but by adding a sub theme of your own you can create more impact. This could be a particular colour, such as red, or a range of different colours, or a pattern such as stripes, or seasons, or same/different weather conditions. Be creative. Use your imagination – that extra thought can make your entry stand out and get your images noticed.
Young photographer Maksymilian Paczkowski shows how you can introduce a sub-theme – in this case colour – into a portfolio. Image © Maksymilian Paczkowski
These simple tips will help you to with competition entries and help your entries rise to the top:
- Choose images which fit the theme.
- Choose you best images NOT your favourite ones. Often they aren’t the same.
- Once you selected you images, ask someone else’s opinion, BUT listen to their answer.
- Don’t underestimate the judges. They are highly image literate and will know if you’ve just copied someone else’s shots so be original.
- Make your images stand out. Don’t just enter documentary style images that can be seen every day on the internet. Capture some character, expression, behaviour, mood and even humour to catch the judges’s attention.
- With a single image go for impact – that WOW factor.
- With a portfolio, tell a story with each image telling a different part of the same story.
- Think about how you can add a creative twist of your own by having a sub theme running alongside the main theme.
TPOTY 2025 is open for entries now and the closing date is 13th October. Check out the categories and choose you images to enter based on the advice given above and you could be on your way to winning!
Read other opinions on Eye for the Light and read the insights of competition judges
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