There is nothing more humbling for an amateur photographer than entering pictures in photography competitions and seeing their entries lose to what they consider pictures of only fair quality. To many, while judging photography competitions is done by professional photographers or others with knowledge of pictures, it is also highly subjective based on the interests of the judges at that particular event.

While feelings may be hurt, photography competitions are a great learning tool for photographers of every skill level and while most competitions separate different levels of knowledge to compete against others with the same skills, there have been professionals entering amateur photography competitions and losing, who find the subject matter may be out of their realm of expertise.

A wedding photographer may be able to take the best wedding pictures in the country, but if a contest is for candid, outdoor life style pictures they may have trouble if they cannot get the wildlife to pose for them. Likewise, in photography competitions an outdoor photographer may have trouble lining up a shot with several people included and have them all looking in the same direction at the same time without one or two closing their eyes just as they hit the shutter.

Competitions Rarely Judge Photo Against Photo

Many people look at photography competitions as a means of comparing their skills with others entered in the same contest. Typically, judges in a competition do not attempt to compare one picture against another, as the subjects will usually be different. Instead they will look first at the subject, then judge that picture on composition, lighting, use of color or black and white and how the image captures their attention. While most amateur photography competitions do not have all of the elements deemed necessary for the perfect picture, how the picture affects the judge will determine if it receives a winners’ ribbon.

A photograph is a work of art and if a dozen people took a picture of the exact same item, there would be a dozen representations of that item. With the individuality of each photographer, having photography competitions strictly for specific skill levels is the most fair way for judged to determine the winning entry.

Amateur Vs. amateur and pro Vs. pro with one or more intermediary skill levels can make photography competitions fair for everyone involved. The best advice is that is a person continues to lose out in contests, look closely at the winners and see what they are doing right, instead of what you are doing wrong, and then adapt your findings to your own pictures.