So you have decided on a competition to enter, but how do you choose which of you thousands of images might have a chance of winning. Here are a few tips:
Social Media Likes
An easy way to find out which of your images other people like is through social media. Posting your photos regularly allows you to build up a following who will like and comment on their favorite images. Keep an eye on these likes and comments and you will soon get an idea of which images are rating highest.
I even take this a step further and add an extra lightroom rating to images which are performing the best.
Organize your catalogue
Having your pictures organized using categories and key words can save you a huge amount of time when it comes to finding that one image. Adobe Lightroom is a great tool for doing this with multiple ways of categorizing and rating your images. You can even search by keywords and ratings at the same time.
Check exposure
There is no point in submitting an image which is over or under exposed. Use a histogram to check your exposure and make any minor changes which may be needed before submitting.
Check composition
Just like exposure if you submit a badly composed image you are not likely to win. Check that your image meets at least one composition rule.
Some competitions may also require you to crop your image to a certain ratio. In this case make sure that the crop does not compromise the composition.
Check colours
Your picture may look amazing on your screen, but how does it look on others? If you have a calibrated screen you can be pretty sure that your image will look ok. If you have not calibrated your screen, do so now. (I recommend Datacolor) With an uncalibrated screen you have no idea how you image will look on other screens.
Even calibrating your screen does not completely cover you as the viewers screen may not be calibrated the same as yours. Therefore, it is important to always save your images in an sRGB color space.
If you haven’t already, please check out our previous blogs; Should you be entering photography competitions? And Which photography competitions are worth entering?
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