Sunday, October 26, 2014

Photographic Competitions

A follow up to yesterday's post../

Photographic Competitions 

by Alain Briot

"There is a relationship between photographic critiques and photographic competitions, one that fosters interesting and worthwhile remarks.  There is also a relationship between vision and competition.  Just like a print review is a way to find out where you are at in regards to developing your vision, a print competition is a way to gage how far along you are in regards to expressing your vision and making it visible to others."

"Many remarks I made in my previous essay about critiquing photographs apply to photographic competitions.  These include the difference between facts and opinions, the importance of lighting, critiquing images on screen and in print and many more. Because of that I will not repeat any of these comments here preferring to refer you to How to Critique Photographs Constructively."

"What is a photographic competition?"

"A photographic competition is an event in which photographs are entered in order to be evaluated and given a score by judges.  After scoring is completed, entrants are ranked according to their score, with the highest score being first, the lowest score being last and all the other scores placed somewhere between these two extremes.  "

"Photographic competitions fall under the heading of art competitions.  Art competitions are organized for all art mediums, not just photography."

"The goal of these competitions is to find out which entries are the best.  While this intent is commendable the outcome is often less so because of the inevitable shortcomings that befall art competitions.  One of the goals of this essay is to point out what those shortcomings are."


About Alain Briot

I create fine art photographs, teach workshops and offer DVD tutorials on composition, image conversion, optimization, printing and marketing.  I am the author of Mastering Landscape PhotographyMastering Photographic Composition, Creativity and Personal Style, Marketing Fine Art Photography and How Photographs are sold.  All 4 books are available in eBook format on my website at this link

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