My First (well second competition)

A couple of months ago I entered two images in the Traralgon Art Show with no success, however I have finally bitten the bullet and entered two images in a huge Photographic Competition the Canon Creative Asia Awards which specialise in portrait and wedding photography.

How does it Work:-
Your image is judged by five judges and you are given a score out of 100 and images receiving gold silver and brionze scores considered to be high quality images worthy of recognition in the competition.

Gold being 90-100
Silver awards 80-90, and
Bronze awards given for images scoring 70-79.

This is a huge international compeition and so I was doing it for the judges feedback and not expecting anything, but I scored a Bronze with both of my images and received some very good feedback and so will approach competitions with a whole new mindset now and level of excellence.

Judges Feedback on this image

As part of the judging process our judges have offered some suggestions on potential ways of improving your image.

Good Image - The judges agree that this is a well executed image. Nice use of exposure, composition and focus. Strong Technique has been displayed. Lighting - Often the difference between a good photo and a great one is the light. This is a big subject and covers many issues, but the judge is indicating that better use of light may improve this image. Is the subject over lit? Is the light too contrasty or too flat for your subject? Is the light helping or hindering the subject. Technical Quality - Technical quality in a competition is expected by the judges. When viewing your entry, they may have seen some issues in terms of colour, contrast, brightness or even unwanted spots or marks that have let your entry down. Presentation of your work and correct post-production is so important for a successful competition entry. Composition - Composition is a big subject and very personal. The judge believes this image could be improved with stronger composition, which can be as simple as where your subject is placed within the frame, to more complex interactions of various elements within the composition. Have a look at your image again and see how a different camera angle, framing or subject arrangement could make the image stronger.

Judges Feedback on this image

As part of the judging process our judges have offered some suggestions on potential ways of improving your image.

Lighting - Often the difference between a good photo and a great one is the light. This is a big subject and covers many issues, but the judge is indicating that better use of light may improve this image. Is the subject over lit? Is the light too contrasty or too flat for your subject? Is the light helping or hindering the subject. Composition - Composition is a big subject and very personal. The judge believes this image could be improved with stronger composition, which can be as simple as where your subject is placed within the frame, to more complex interactions of various elements within the composition. Have a look at your image again and see how a different camera angle, framing or subject arrangement could make the image stronger. Post Processing - Another highly subjective subject. It is not how much or little you process that matter, but how effective it is. Does it enrich the message and storytelling? Or does it detracts? Be ware of halos dodging & burning, artifacts from over sharpening. Try to maintain details in the highlights and shadows. Successful post processing just glues the eyes the image. Some liken post processing to cooking. When it is done right it is just heavenly. Technical Quality - Technical quality in a competition is expected by the judges. When viewing your entry, they may have seen some issues in terms of colour, contrast, brightness or even unwanted spots or marks that have let your entry down. Presentation of your work and correct post-production is so important for a successful competition entry. The best part is having this feedback to help with looking at images in the future and even better was that I entered these in a bit of a hurry as the closing date was not long after I took the shots so I am doubly happy as I hadnt had a chance to egt them critiqued by anyone and so I know there could have been some tweaking done to improve them just by getting a second opinion on them. Special Thanks to Olivia for being my model and Tanya who assisted with styling as it was a total combined effort and lots of fun on the day....lots of pictures and an enjoyable photo shoot. Now I have two Bronze certificates to place with my photography portfolio which is slowly being built, image by image.....It is very exciting and I am glad I decided to enter the images. The winning images wont be available to be seen until January so I can't wait to look at them and see the top images in every category, I know they will be awesome.