How to Enter a Photo Contest: A Step‑by‑Step Beginner's Guide
Photo contests are a big deal for photography fans. If you keep an eye on and even enter high‑quality contests with the right mindset, they can really boost your skills and get your work noticed.
But photo contests can also be a tricky game. With so many commercial interests involved, some contests don't help photographers at all. Instead, they turn keen enthusiasts into easy paychecks for certain organizers.
In this article, we'll share some straightforward tips on how to enter photo contests. We hope these pointers help you if you're thinking about joining one. Let's get started!
In this article, you will learn:
- What's the Right Mindset for Photo Contests?
- How to Spot a Trustworthy Photo Contest?
- How to Enter a Photo Contest?
- Conclusion
What's the Right Mindset for Photo Contests?
Having the right attitude matters when you follow and enter photo contests.
The right approach is to use top‑quality contests to learn about industry trends, spark new ideas, and spot your own gaps. Entering these contests pushes you to create stronger, more mature work. Winning, or even placing, can motivate you to stretch your creativity on bigger stages.
The wrong approach is getting hooked on winning low‑level contests. That only leads you down the wrong path.
Generally, people enter photo contests for two reasons: self‑improvement and motivation.
1. Self‑Improvement
Watching winning photos from reputable contests is a great way to sharpen your eye and build your skills. Not everyone can visit galleries, buy pricey photobooks, or join in‑person workshops. Online photos vary wildly in quality, so beginners often don't know what to trust.
Following award‑winning entries from respected contests means you're seeing work that's already been hand‑picked by expert judges.
Different contests favor different styles. Some prize deep storytelling. Others reward eye‑catching form and design. Some ask for a series of images to show your ability to build a theme. Others want a single shot that captures a split‑second moment.
If you want to boost the visual impact of your images and develop a distinctive style, check out more commercial‑oriented contests.
Hasselblad Masters Awards, for example, award images that excel in form, beauty, and recognizable style.
If you care more about the ideas and meaning behind the photos — plus planning, editing, and presentation — look for documentary or fine‑art contests that require a full series of images.
Entering contests yourself is also a powerful way to improve. Compare your submitted photos to the winners. Ask: Did I lose because of lack of originality? Or was it the overall look, the topic choice, or the execution? These questions help you grow.
2. Motivation
Winning a contest brings both recognition and rewards. Industry exposure shows that your work matters. Media partners can boost your visibility, leading to more collaboration offers. Many contests also give gear vouchers, travel grants, or cash prizes.
Photography can be an expensive hobby, and anything you get back helps.
Winning is a point of pride, but watch out for two pitfalls:
- Complacency. There's always a higher level. Even after an international award, you'll find tougher contests. Contests aren't the only way to judge a photo's worth. Finish, originality, and impact matter most.
- Creating just to win. Photography should first please you and reflect your voice. Make your best work, then pick the right contests, or tweak your entry for a specific contest. Don't lose yourself by chasing judges' tastes.
Of course, a strong commercial drive can lead to shady contests that just want your money. That brings us to the next question: how do you spot a trustworthy photo contest?
How to Spot a Trustworthy Photo Contest?
There are tons of photo contests these days. As more enthusiasts join in, some opportunists turn these contests into money‑making schemes. They charge high entry fees, exhibition fees, and more, often for little or no value.
Entry fees aren't always bad. Good contests often use fees to set a quality bar. This encourages photographers to pick their best work, rather than spam hundreds of random shots.
To tell a legit contest from a cash grab, look at three things:
- Prizes & Exposure
- Organizer's Track Record
- Quality of Past Winners
1. Prizes & Exposure
The real reward of photo contests is the boost in confidence and motivation. Of course, fame and money are nice, too.
Beware if a contest charges steep fees but only hands out a cheap medal, a tiny cash prize, and zero press coverage. That's usually a money trap. At first you might feel proud, but there's no long‑term benefit.
Some contests use flashy names like "World," "Art," or "Grand Tour," yet a quick web search only turns up press releases, agent promos, or winners'own posts. That tells you the contest isn't well respected.
On the flip side, any contest with no entry fees, regardless of prestige, is photographer‑friendly. You can enter without worrying about getting scammed.
Major international contests like the Sony World Photography Awards and the Nikon Photo Contest are top quality, and they don't charge any entry fee.
The HIPA International Photography Award also has no entry fee and offers a prize pool of several million dollars. Even though some past winners have stirred debate, it's billed as the world's highest‑paying photo contest and is definitely worth watching.
Further Reading:
If a contest charges an entry fee but offers high‑value awards, especially with big media coverage and strong industry connections, it can be worth it for serious hobbyists or pro photographers. Take the time to build and polish your best work, then go for it.
Another key factor is how much exposure the contest brings. Top‑tier events like World Press Photo, POYi (Picture of the Year International), and the Sony World Photography Awards (Professional category) carry both professional prestige and mass appeal.
When their winners are announced each year, major websites and newspapers run the stories, and social media lights up. A win here not only grows your fan base but also gets you noticed by brands and agencies, leading to more contracts and shooting gigs.
Spotting these contests is easy: do a quick Google search. If you see hundreds of thousands, or even millions of articles and posts from reputable outlets, you know it's legit. If industry pros are writing reviews, analyses, or critiques of the winning images, that's another sign the contest really matters.
Some contests fly under the mainstream radar but hold high regard among professional photographers. Winning these often comes with project grants to help you finish your work, plus opportunities for publications, exhibitions, agency representation, and other industry partnerships.
2. Organizer's Track Record
When a contest is run by a well‑known camera maker, a respected institution or foundation, a major photo festival, an art magazine or gallery, or a professional association, or if it's named after a famous photographer, that's usually a solid sign it's legit. Here are some examples:
Contests run by camera brands and industry leaders:
- Sony World Photography Awards
- Leica Oskar Barnack Award
- Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography
- Hasselblad Masters Award
- Nikon Photo Contest
Contests run by professional bodies or foundations:
- Magnum Photography Awards
- World Press Photo Contest
- Pictures of the Year International (POYi)
- Wildlife Photographer of the Year
- Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year (Greenwich Observatory)
- National Geographic Photography Contest
- National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest
- International Photography Awards (IPA)
- Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3)
- Tokyo International Foto Awards
- Moscow Foto Awards
- Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
Contests run by photo festivals, media outlets, or galleries:
- Arles International Photography Festival
- Pingyao International Photography Festival
- Foam Talent Call
- LensCulture Exposure Awards (Street, Portrait, Emerging Talent)
- Aperture Portfolio Prize
- BJP Breakthrough Award
- PDN Photo Annual
- ICP Infinity Awards
Contests named after photography legends:
- W. Eugene Smith Grant
- Henri Cartier-Bresson Creation Award
- Kimura Ihei Photography Award
A contest's judging panel is also a big clue. If the jurors are respected photographers, editors, curators, or industry experts, you can trust the contest's credibility.
Most scammy contests skip listing real judges or use vague titles like "Grand Master." Their websites and flyers look cheap. A quick look at the jury often reveals self‑appointed "masters" — a dead giveaway.
Finally, contests with a long history tend to be more reputable. For instance, World Press Photo started as a small Dutch competition but, after 60+ years of iconic winners, it's now the gold standard in photojournalism.
3. Quality of Past Winners
A contest's prestige and its exposure grow together. Organizers and entrants fuel each other's success.
The clearest way to judge a contest's quality is by looking at its winning images. Strong winners raise the contest's profile, which draws in more top photographers and great work. That, in turn, makes the contest even stronger.
Take the Monochrome Photography Awards, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year, and the EPSON Pano Awards. These are commercially run, grassroots contests with a relatively short history, but their winning entries have stayed consistently impressive.
Because of that, they keep attracting more outstanding submissions, and both their prestige and public reach continue to climb.
How to Enter a Photo Contest?
Every photo contest has its own entry page with rules and FAQs. Before you enter, make sure you understand these key points:
1. How to Submit?
Is it all digital, or do they want prints? Do you send images by email or upload them on a website?
2. Entry Deadline
For international contests, watch the time zones. It's smart to send your entry a few days early.
3. Image Specs
Single shots or a series? What's the required file size, aspect ratio, resolution, or color space? Missing these details means your entry could be disqualified.
For example, the EPSON Pano Awards demand a minimum 2:1 ratio, exactly 3000 pixels on the long side, and four images to qualify for Photographer of the Year.
4. Who Can Enter
Some photo contests limit entries by nationality, age, or gender. Read carefully.
5. Theme
Certain contests, like the Nikon Photo Contest, set an annual theme, like "Hope" or "Peace." Don't enter if your photo doesn't fit.
6. Category
Contests often divide entries into categories like "Landscape," "Portrait," "Street," or "Nature." Pick the one that fits your work best.
7. When the Photo Was Taken and Past Awards
Some contests require images shot within the last year, two years, or five years. Older photos aren't allowed. They may also forbid any images that have won awards in the same organizer's other contests, or even any public photo awards.
8. Post‑Processing Rules
Post‑processing rules can differ a lot between contests, and even between categories in the same contest. Some let you go wild with composites, while others allow only simple edits, and some forbid changing any object in the frame. It's key to know the rules.
For example, National Geographic says you can do light dodging and burning, tweak colors, crop your images, merge HDR exposures, stitch panoramas, or turn a color photo into black‑and‑white. But you can't make big changes to hues, add or remove anything, flip or warp elements, or erase trash, foam, or other objects from the scene.
Other photo contests are more relaxed: as long as the scene stays true to reality, you can apply heavy color grading and basic blemish fixes, but you still can't create purely computer‑generated composites.
If a contest has an Art or Creative category, though, you're free to use Photoshop however you like: composites, digital art, or any creative treatment you imagine.
When it comes to photo editing, we'd like to introduce you to TourBox, a creative controller loved by many photographers.
TourBox makes every step of your editing workflow simpler. Its knobs and buttons let you replace tedious mouse and keyboard tasks with intuitive controls. It works smoothly with all major photo‑editing software, giving you a more immersive and efficient way to edit and color‑grade your images.
If you're curious about how TourBox can speed up your photo editing, check out our Photo Editing page to learn more handy TourBox tips.
9. Study the Style of Photo Contests
Understanding the rules only makes sure you won't be disqualified. But if you want to win, you also need to get a feel for each contest's overall tone and style.
Every photo contest has its own tastes. By studying past winners and the judges' backgrounds, you can target the contests that match your work.
Take the National Geographic Photo Contest, for example. It leans toward documentary nature photography and cares a lot about storytelling, cultural context, and capturing a decisive moment. Pure sunrise or sunset landscapes rarely win there. Instead, judges look for images that show a place's character, nail an unforgettable moment, or record a rare natural event.
In contrast, contests like the EPSON Pano Awards showcase pictures for their beauty and impact. These contests test how well you handle tone, color, and atmosphere. Many National Geographic–style winners wouldn't make the cut here if their shots aren't visually striking enough.
Then there's the Landscape category of the Sony World Photography Awards, which favors contemporary work that tackles environmental or social issues. It has its own set of expectations.
Liam Man, Open Photographer of the Year, Landscape Winner, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
Even within the landscape genre, every contest has a different focus. Knowing a contest's style helps you choose the right one for your photos.
As we stressed before, never shoot just to win a contest. First, focus on creating great work. Then pick contests that fit your style and, if you want, fine‑tune your images for them. Don't reverse the process by chasing awards.
Conclusion
Photo Contests for Casual Shooters and Beginners:
- Any contest that doesn't charge an entry fee.
Contests for Advanced Hobbyists and Pros:
- Any no‑fee contest (especially those with big prizes).
- Fee‑based contests with real prestige and exposure (as described above).
- Any contest that scores highly on all three measures: prize & exposure, organizer reputation & history, and the professionalism of past winners.
Contests Casual Photographers Should Avoid:
- Low‑profile contests with high entry fees.
- Any contest that charges a lot but offers only small prizes.
