{"id":1270,"date":"2010-11-25T23:14:44","date_gmt":"2010-11-26T04:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/?p=1270"},"modified":"2022-05-29T08:19:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T13:19:29","slug":"551-top-tips-for-winning-photo-contests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/25\/551-top-tips-for-winning-photo-contests\/","title":{"rendered":"#551 Top Tips for Winning Photo Contests"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/25\/551-top-tips-for-winning-photo-contests\/\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Last week I judged the <a title=\"Canadian Geographic Photo Contest\" href=\"http:\/\/photoclub.canadiangeographic.ca\/cg\/contests\/parkscanada\/Default.aspx\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fphotoclub.canadiangeographic.ca%2Fcg%2Fcontests%2Fparkscanada%2FDefault.aspx','Canadian+Geographic+Photo+Contest')\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canadian Geographic \/ Parks Canada Photo Contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It took much of the day to choose the winners. About 4000 entries had been sifted to produce a short list of a little under three hundred.<\/p>\n<p>My two co-judges &#8211; Creative Director Suzanne Morin and Parks Canada&#8217;s Daniel Rosset &#8211; and I were to select the top ten in each category and, yikes, then choose the winners.<\/p>\n<p>Reducing the photos to the top ten was not as hard as selecting the top picks. Below are <strong><em>details to improve your chances of winning a photo contest<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use a low ISO &#8211; 100 is ideal. 400 on most cameras is ok. Low ISO will produce cleaner photos with less noise or grain texture to the photo.<\/li>\n<li>For landscapes <a title=\"The Lonely Tripod\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/newsletter\/lonely_tripod_article.html\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fnewsletter%2Flonely_tripod_article.html','The+Lonely+Tripod')\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use a tripod<\/a>&#8230; period.<\/li>\n<li>Get closer to your subject. <em>I cannot stress this enough.<\/em> So many entries are dismissed because the main part of the photo is sooooo far away. Get closer!!<\/li>\n<li>Simplify. Keep your photos clean. Messy backgrounds or lack of a focal point will make judges ask &#8220;what is the photo about?!&#8221; and quickly say &#8220;Next photo!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Create a strong <a title=\"Primary Focal Point\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/newsletter\/Mary_Primary_Scott_Secondary-article.htm\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fnewsletter%2FMary_Primary_Scott_Secondary-article.htm','Primary+Focal+Point')\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">primary focal point<\/a>. Make it obvious what the photo is about.<\/li>\n<li>Submit well exposed photos. Auto settings can cause problems in some scenarios. Manual mode can be fooled by light or dark subjects. <a title=\"Advanced Expoure Techniques\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/newsletter\/advanced_exposure_techniques.html\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fnewsletter%2Fadvanced_exposure_techniques.html','Advanced+Expoure+Techniques')\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn to expose<\/a> for the main subject.<\/li>\n<li>Keep photos <a title=\"Blur in your photo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/newsletter\/slight_motion_blur.html\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fnewsletter%2Fslight_motion_blur.html','Blur+in+your+photo')\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sharp in the right places<\/a> using both focus and shutter speed.<\/li>\n<li>Have fun! If you enjoy what you are shooting it&#8217;ll show in your photos.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Need more info? Read <a title=\"How to get your photos noticed\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/newsletter\/Top_tips_to_get_photos_noticed.htm\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fnewsletter%2FTop_tips_to_get_photos_noticed.htm','How+to+get+your+photos+noticed')\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how to get your photos noticed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The photo contest winners are announced in the spring.Good luck in photo contests!<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 311px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tips for winning Photo Contests\" src=\"http:\/\/www.HarryNowell.com\/Photo\/blog\/DaveLise-5.jpg\" alt=\"Tips for winning Photo Contests\" width=\"301\" height=\"450\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tips for winning Photo Contests<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet Last week I judged the Canadian Geographic \/ Parks Canada Photo Contest. It took much of the day to choose the winners. About 4000 entries had been sifted to produce a short list of a little under three hundred. <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/25\/551-top-tips-for-winning-photo-contests\/\" onclick=\"return TrackClick('http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrynowell.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F11%2F25%2F551-top-tips-for-winning-photo-contests%2F','Continue+reading+%26rarr%3B')\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1270"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6335,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions\/6335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.harrynowell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}