Photography Competitions 3 Ways to Create Winning Photos

Photography competitions with worthwhile prizes and prestige demand original images that create an emotional impact. But how exactly can such images be created? Here are three ‘black-belt’ tactics to give your photos a winning edge.

To give your photos the best possible chance of winning a major photography competition, consider applying these three principles:

1. One of the most powerful techniques that film-maker Steven Spielberg uses is to direct the camera not at the ‘incredible’ thing happening (shark, UFO, German regiment etc.) but rather on the close-up reactions of individual characters seeing those things. In short, he captures a reaction, not an action.

Spielberg implies intrigue, excitement, terror or wonder.

The audience then imagines the source of those emotions which is infinitely more powerful than any actual visual.

Alfred Hitchcock used this technique superbly so you are in good company if you can master it.

For example, rather than shooting New Year’s fireworks (boring), get a 3 year old girl’s reaction to seeing them – in close-up – now that would be powerful!

2. Do your images have the ‘X-Factor’?

We are all fascinated by the extraordinary. Most of us lead relatively predictable lives hence our enjoyment of extremes in our entertainment e.g. how about a movie where a man dresses up as a bat to fight criminals and the police think that’s cool and work with him!

Are your images extreme and extraordinary enough?

3. Conceive your image not as a single visual ‘plane’ but rather as a series of overlapping planes or layers that offer interesting ideas in relation to each other.

To use a crude example, imagine a photo of the water’s edge on a sandy beach (Layer 1).

Add in a dead soldier on the sand in the foreground (Layer 2).

Beyond that, add a stripped down soldier with a surfboard running towards the water to surf (Layer 3).

What kinds of messages and themes have been added by the layers in this hypothetical image?

In doing all of this however, make sure that the eye knows where to go in your composition!

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