Earlier this week I shared the winner and ten Honorable Mention photographs (Part 1, Part 2) from GreatBirdPics’ Reflections Bird Photography Contest. As you recall there were 85 entries in the contest and today I am going to share how Xwinger and I narrowed the field down from 85 to 11 photographs, in hopes that the information will help you create better photographs and win future photography contests. This is not to say that we will have another Reflections contest in the near future, but most contests do have a theme so the points below should be generalized to other contests.
Let me begin by saying I didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas about what a “winning” Reflections shot should look like. As Xwinger and I reviewed all the images we discussed the following points as we made each keep/don’t keep decision.
Did it Keep To The Theme? Some of the photographs submitted had little or no reflections of birds in them. They may have been good pictures, but without a bird reflection they were rejected.
Is it a GreatBirdPic.1? Let’s face it if the subject isn’t in focus, properly framed, exposed improperly, or lacks technical merit it wasn’t going to make the cut even if it had a reflection.
Is it a GreatBirdPic.2? We did not find it very interesting if the bird was just standing there in water doing nothing and it had a reflection. Note that in almost all of the winning photographs, the bird was being active (preening, hunting, flying). There were exceptions, like when the technical merits of an image made it stand out, but we did ook for some activity in the shot.
Is the Subject’s Head Visible? Some of the contest entries had excellent reflections but the subject’s head was hidden (usually tucked away). If we didn’t see detail in the head the image was set aside. The subject’s eyes are always important and we looked for sharp eyes on the subject and its reflection (some reflections had very interesting eyes caused by ripples in the water).
Was the Reflection Integral or Incidental to the Photograph? As we reviewed the pictures it was clear that some of the images were taken because there was a reflection in the frame, and others just happened to contain a reflection. Those in the later category were set aside.
Could the Reflection Have Been Better? In some photographs the water was covered in bits of vegetation, bubbles, foam, or other debris. These often obstructed parts of the reflection (particularly damning if the reflected head was affected). In some cases it appeared that if the photographer would have just taken a step in another direction the reflection would have been less affected by the debris. In other cases a disturbance in the water caused ripples which greatly distorted the reflection.
Did A Watermark Distract? I get it, we don’t want our images copied and displayed elsewhere without our permission and/or proper attribution, hence the author’s name is watermarked on the image. Some watermarks do not distract the viewer (see the one on Emil Baumbach’s winning image). Some watermarks are large and draw the viewer’s eyes away from the image; some watermarks were actually placed right over the subject (or its reflection). In general, watermarks reduce the quality of an image in the eyes of our judges.
I hope this helps your thinking when you next submit one of your GreatBirdPics for a contest – be it here or anywhere. Please email me or make a comment if you have any questions.
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