EP169 Stop Killing Your Prints: A Judge’s Guide To Common Competition Mistakes

If you’ve ever stared at a “competition worthy” image and thought, “Is this actually any good, or am I just emotionally attached and mildly delusional?” then this episode is for you.

In this one, I’m lifting the lid on what really happens inside a judge’s head when your prints hit the panel: the mindset you need, the mistakes we see over and over again, and the tiny details that can quietly kill an otherwise beautiful image.

We’ll talk blown highlights, grubby greys, over sharpening, dodgy mounts, vignettes turned up to eleven, and why blindly following the latest photo trend might actually sink your chances. We’ll also get into mentors, titles, paper choice, time pressure (my personal kryptonite), and why the only real failure in competitions is not to enter at all.

If you’re thinking about qualifications, print comps or you just want to finish your images to a higher standard, grab a drink, have a listen, and then go and do something brave with your work.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] it's Thursday, late afternoon, early evening. It's gone dark. It's November. I've got what's left of a mug of coffee next to me. And I just thought I'd sit and record this podcast. It's been, it has to be said a really good day. We've had a lovely client in seeing their wedding pictures, which is always lovely when it goes the way it did.

Lots of tears. Their's, not mine. Um, they love them. They've picked well for their album, cannot wait to produce that for them. It's been a really good week. Lots of nice clients, but over the next few days, Sarah and I are really hoping we get to step away from it just for a bit. We were hoping to get abroad, but it looks like with scheduling issues, that isn't gonna quite happen.

But we live in an area stuck between London and Oxford, so at the very least we have a huge proportion of interesting things to go and have a look at. And that's my hope is we get away from this beautiful business that I love, but it really is all encompassing. So just for a day or [00:01:00] two time to take a bit of a break, I'm Paul and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast.

So, hello one and all. I hope you're all well in this particular podcast, um, because I'm hoping to get out the door and go for a drink tonight with some friends. Um, a little less waffle and a , slightly more to the point podcast. Probably some of you will prefer that some of you might miss the randomness.

Um, however, if you listen to the last podcast, it was a little bit about what it's like to be a judge when you are assessing qualifications, panels, and print judging in general. Today what I wanted to do was go through some of the things that [00:02:00] occur to me that may be applicants either don't know or quietly ignore, which might be the truth.

But basically the things that as judges we see, and I thought I just stepped through it from that point of view. Slightly less about the judges, slightly more about what to look for if you are entering a competition. Now, I've done this style of podcast. I think this might be my fourth, fifth, maybe sixth version of it over the years, can you believe it's been nearly 10 years I've been recording this. Um, either way, what I wanted to do was just update it, go through some of the things that are fresh in my mind from judging qualifications a few weeks ago, and then judging the Print Master's competition, um, just, uh, a couple of weeks ago.

Both of those, you learn different things. You see different things, but I thought I'd just relay, if I can, the stuff that maybe you should consider if you are thinking about entering, in particular, print competitions, [00:03:00] but this extends out to really any image competition you can, you can think of. So with that, if that's not your shtick, then this isn't the episode for you.

But if you fancy just having a listen and seeing if this echoes with you, that would be great.

So.

Listen up. Now. Firstly, I have to admit that from my point of view, entering competitions, I recognize as being both terrifying and slightly addictive. There really is something wonderful about finishing your images to a level that maybe you don't normally do.

Maybe that, that tiny amount of perfection, those stray hairs, those eyebrows, lips, I mean, of course my portrait photographer, so I'm talking primarily people here, but that level of detail that maybe your regular, everyday Good Professional Practice, we call it, maybe your everyday work doesn't warrant because, in the end, every hour you spend on an image is cost. We [00:04:00] don't normally regard it as cost, 'cause we enjoy our job and it's time. You know what? It's like time. Who cares about time? Well, you should because it's your business. And so there's something really addictive about spending that time with a purpose on an image that you think you believe maybe, maybe just maybe will do well in a competition.

Now that said, of course, every time you enter to, you don't know what the judges are gonna say. And let's get that right out in the open at the beginning, at the top of this podcast, a different day, a different judge, a different result. And that is just the way of it. So you cannot ever really totally predict what you're gonna do, how your images are gonna perform. You can't. You can have a guess, and you can predict within a boundary or two. But in the end, it is totally down to what the judges see on the day and you have to get used to that no matter how much effort you've [00:05:00] poured into an image. And I've had images where I was certain, certain it was going to do well and did nothing.

And I've had other images where I was like, well, it's all right, but if I'm lucky in the right judges are on the panel, it might do okay and they've gone on to win. You really dunno. So just be aware of that because those disappointments shouldn't deter you. Yeah, they should just really drive you to do more of it.

But that's very hard and I will admit that I too suffer from that sense of disappointment. The inferiority complex that comes with it. A degree of resentment, I suppose. What do the judges know when, when you win something? The judges amazing. I love them. They were brilliant. You could see how sharp their eyes were when the judges don't award you something or your images don't do well, of course, the judges were idiots. They didn't know what they were talking about. And as a judge, I'm completely aware of it.

So in this podcast, we're gonna go through what you should look out for, the mindset, the, uh, technical side of it, [00:06:00] some of the presentation stuff, and some of the silly things really, that as a judge, we sit collectively and just groan.

Um, there's sometimes you hear in the room that if only, if only. The, uh, image had this, if only the author had done that, those kinds of conversations. So let's work my way through the list. I put together a little bit of a list of things, um, and let's hope that some of this chimes with you. So first section is all about, uh, mindset.

And at the end of the day, nearly everything about photography is what goes on in your head. So let's talk a little bit about your preparation and your mindset. First things first, you cannot, you cannot. Be objective about your own work. Alright? It's just not possible. And to be fair, no one can be truly objective about something that's creative.

You can be subjective and you can be experienced, but you cannot ever be objective when it's your own work. The memory of the shoot, the memory of the [00:07:00] client, the memory of the moment will totally cloud your judgment. You cannot do it. You are, you are emotionally invested in your work. So be aware of that because you need to get a mentor now by a mentor.

Ideally, it's someone who's been around a little bit, who's done a few things, knows their way around, competitions, the structures, the rules at the very least, um, hopefully, um, produces images that are of the standard you are hoping to produce, and preferably in a style that you wish to attain in a style that you wish to deliver.

Because if you are in tune with that person, in tune with their work, you'll listen to them more. It doesn't necessarily mean they have more or less skill than another mentor, but if you like their work and respect what they do, you're more likely to pay attention to what they see and what they say to you.

Now, if you can't get a mentor, at the very least, just pass it around some friends and see what people think and see [00:08:00] what they see. Be aware that your mom, or at least, my mom will always tell me my work is beautiful. Um, my mates are a little bit more brutal than that, but my mom will always tell me, but if you can find another photographer to give you a hand, it's the best thing you can do.

Next thing, the only true failure about competitions in the sense of failure is to not enter. Entering isn't a failure. Entering and winning is obviously the success we will wish for entering and not winning is simply just another level of success. It's not quite what you wanted, and it's certainly not recognizing your success the way you'd like, but not entering is the only true failure.

And of course with most competitions, they're anonymous. So who cares whether you enter and don't and your images aren't successful? Who cares whether your qualifications panel, um, doesn't get across the line? The only person who will tell the world is you. So if you are nervous, if you are concerned, if you're insecure, then [00:09:00] simply keep it under your hat until you need to.

So enter the competitions.

Go watch judging sessions. Not all judging sessions are public. The Societies they are, and of course, that's coming up in January as I record this. It's November 13th when I'm recording this. Um, but go and watch maybe The Society's judging.

Um, go listen to the judges, particularly in the new Vogue category because every image will get a critique from a judge. Um, maybe think about the click conference, which has been on the past couple of years, because again, each image has a short critique from at least one judge. So you get to learn. A lot of judging is anonymous and quiet, and it's just score panels, and that's not as useful as it could be, I guess, uh, but do go and listen because it's a free masterclass in, uh, critiquing and in standards. Now you must, you must, and I'll come back to this later, read the rules. Um, so many images get [00:10:00] in the end either disqualified or have so many marks knocked off them that they might as well have been disqualified simply because the applicant did not pay attention to the rules.

Whether it's about using ai, whether it's about composites, the wrong composites, whether it's about wrong print and presentation sizes, whether it's the wrong category and category definitions are sacred. As judges, we cannot move the images from one category to another. Even if we could see what the category should be, it's down to the applicant to move or to put the image rather into the correct category because if we move them, who knows, we might not just be helping you, um, win something.

We might be helping somebody else lose something and we may still be getting it wrong. And also there's a bigger challenge, I think in the, the order of categories in which we judge means what if we wanted to move an image into a category that we've already finished and signed off? What do we [00:11:00] do? How do we do that?

There's no way of doing that, not fairly. So judges cannot move images between categories. It's absolutely fundamental. So the category definitions are sacred. Read them, pay attention to them. Understand the nuance when it says domesticated animals. What does that mean when it says studio portrait? What does that mean?

Don't just assume you know it because every association will have slightly different rules. Every association will interpret them slightly differently. Go and read them. Pay attention, make notes on them. If you are at all, um, confused or don't understand them, go and ask someone. Email the people running the competition. They will nearly always get straight back to you.

Uh, give yourself time. Please give yourself time. There's always shipping delays, print issues, customs, nightmares these days are also part of the puzzle. Um, even recently we had stuff coming in, uh, from one of our supplies in Italy [00:12:00] and it just got stuck in customs in Italy coming outta the country rather than coming in.

I don't know why it got stuck, but it got stuck. Um, and it wasn't for print competition, but it highlighted just how easy it is for you to miss a deadline, and this is one that's really close to me is that, um, I'm the last minute kind of guy last minute.com, and so I'm forever up against a deadline and I'm forever aware that I'm taking a huge risk.

Um, unfortunately it's just the way my mind works and so I am truly qualified in making sure you do not make that mistake. Give yourself plenty of time. Uh, another one here, I dunno why I've put this in this particular section, but if I don't mention it now, I dunno whether I will, um, which is that, be careful of following trends blindly, being fashionable, creating images that are right now, the current trend is great.

Of course, it's great. [00:13:00] But if you're gonna win a competition, you better be exceptional at it because everybody else is highly likely to be entering the same style of image. Image. And if you do that, if you are picking images that are similar to other people's, then the impact scores that the judges are looking for, the impact.

And listen to my previous podcast about that, the impact is diminished because if we've seen 10 of the same style of image. Guess what? The winner will be the one that gave us the greatest impact. So it's highly likely to be one of the first couple, and it will certainly be the one that's probably the highest standard, because that's where the impact score is.

So be very careful of doing that. I mean, I'm not saying strive always to be completely different because you think that's what you have to do to be good. You don't have to be different to be good. Being good is in and in and of itself different enough. But in competitions that stand out, that impact of seeing something you've [00:14:00] never seen before well, that does truly count.

And on that, let's go on to section two, which is technical execution. Okay. So in the end, the execution is everything. Now for this, I recorded this thinking. This is mostly about print competitions and in a print, absolutely everything shows, and that's why we do it. We use print as a medium for assessing the creativity and the control of the photographer, and it exposes things that screens simply don't, or at least most screens don't.

If you have the most expensive, truly calibrated monitor in a studio, that is the right light, um, levels. Um, and your, your monitor's been on for two hours, but you haven't been at the screen, um, for hours. And you can sit down with fresh eyes and look [00:15:00] at the screen. Yes, of course it will expose details, but there is something about print that seems to just surface both high points and low points in a photographer's process, which is why we do it.

It's a really good way of assessing an image. So here are a few things. That we have seen on the technical side of it over sharpening, I cannot overstate about over sharpening. Over sharpening is a bit of a killer. Judges hate it and we always see it. In all the years I've done this, all the years I've done this, I've never heard a judge say This image is under sharpened.

Now, I've heard judges say this image is blurred. I've heard this. Judges say This image has been blown up from a file that's too small. But I've never heard a judge say This image has been under sharpened. But I would state with a degree of confidence that in every [00:16:00] single session I've been a judge, one of the judges or myself have said, this image is over sharpened.

And of course you see it in halos, you see these little lines around edges, and they're very easy to spot. If you are worried, if you, you are on the edge and you're thinking, have I sharpened it enough? Turn the sharpening down. Or indeed, with modern sensors, just turn it off. You don't need it. Print. Well control your exposure.

Well control your colors. Well control your tones, well control your printing well, and you don't really need to sharpen very much, if at all. Uh, always do it last in the process. Once you've got your file to the size you want it to, the print size, you want it. Apply your sharpening right at the end of that chain.

If you do it at the beginning. Um, I know there are pre- raw sharpeners and things out there. If you do your sharpening at the beginning, of course every edit you make runs the risk of exaggerating the effects of the sharpening. So always sharpen at the end if you need to at all.

You must get your [00:17:00] exposure right. And by that I simply mean don't blow your highlights, don't block your blacks. Um, blown highlights, on the whole, are a nightmare. If there are blown highlights in a print, it is highly likely that the judges are gonna firstly spot it, and then secondly penalize for it. And I speak from experience here.

There was an image that came up in the last round of judging where to me as a judge, everything about the image was essentially everything I would've liked to have created. The shape, the form, the moment, the emotion, the printing, the mounting, everything about it was on point. But some sunlight had coming through the ceiling in the, through the skylight, I think had clipped the edges of some shiny stone work had blown the highlights.

And that became the sticking point with most of the judges. Um, I was willing to give some leeway on it, on this particular image, um, because the emotion of it was so powerful, but quite rightly, the other [00:18:00] judges challenged that. Um, and in the end I had to, of course, see their point of view because blown highlights, are blown highlights.

Similarly with blocked shadows, and this is a little bit more subtle blown highlights are blown highlights, unless they're just a specular point on a shiny surface. Um, they are what they are. But blocked shadows are a little bit more nuanced because you have to ask yourself, would you see detail in that area of the print?

And if the answer to that is yes, we would or would expect to then block shadows are a bit of a headache and you can't have them. If on the other hand you wanna put an image on a black background, then that's a slightly different conversation. You can have black areas, big blocked black areas, if that's your style, if it's a stylistic choice.

Um, similarly, you can have big blocks of white as long as it's not paper white, um, on the page, you always want some ink on the page. Um, so [00:19:00] block black's a little bit more nuanced. So do your test prints, get your paper you're gonna use, print a series of blacks from 0% up to 10%. Find out where the break point is, where you can clearly see the difference between those points, and that's your minimum black. That's the darkest your image can be. Whether it's 5%, 6%, 7%, whatever. It's, that's the darkest you want for the blacks that you are producing.

Uh, make sure eyes are sharp. Um, again, I speak as a portrait photographer really here. Uh, if the eyes are not sharp, it's unlikely. That the image is going to do well unless demonstrably in the image you can see that that was the intent of the photographer.

Blurred eyes, very rare that they do well.

Make sure the catch lights are in there. You do need some kind of sparkle in the eyes. You don't want that sort of dark lifeless look, but just make sure they're in the right place and that makes sense 'cause it's easy to Photoshop. Um, highlights in catch lights into eyes these days.

But be careful. You put them in the right place. Uh, watch [00:20:00] for dust spots, stray hairs, cloning marks, those kinds of things. We had a couple of images recently where there were visible dust spots in the sky, and at that point, you know, you, you are very limited in how well an image can do if there are dust spots, because it's sort of digital photography 1 0 1: clean your sensor, do not have dust spots, do not have stray hairs in there.

Um, make sure that any, any cloning is invisible. 'cause the judges one or two judges. I know, I, I spot them reasonably well. I'm okay at it. But there are one or two judges I know that at the other end of a room will shout. I can see they're cloning and when you investigate it, yeah, you can.

Um, some people are just, they have a gift for that in the same way that some people can hear whether music is slightly just ever so slightly off rhythm or off key. Um, many judges I think, can spot things like, um. Cloning marks. I'm very good at spotting any kind of dust, marks and banding in skies. You know that color banding you get, [00:21:00] uh, but some of you, you just need to make sure it's technically on point.

Make sure you are using a fully color calibrated workflow. You need to calibrate your monitor. You need to calibrate your printer. You need to be producing images that the color is spot perfect, not just for you, but when the judges see it. So you're gonna need some way of viewing on the screen, checking your printer, and then viewing the prints afterwards.

Not many of us can afford D 50 light boxes, but you can get pretty close with some really high quality LED lighting. Bright lighting, I think Datacolor do one. Ilford do one to do spot checking on prints. They're about a hundred pounds I think at the moment, high CRI that make the colors pop and you'll see all of the tone.

Just pop your print underneath. And he'd be amazed, amazed how much detail just leaps off the page. And of course, as judges, that's how we are assessing the images. So you [00:22:00] need to do the same to be sure that what you see on your screen is exactly what you are hoping to show the judges,

uh, paper choice match your paper to your image. Um, there are lots of safe choices, of course, you know, these semi mats, um, good colors, good dynamic range. Good D Max. Um. Barita is a lovely paper, but just be aware it's very contrasty and it can run the risk of your block, your blacks blocking up a little bit, so just do your tests. Um, some of the papers they look great front on, but if you look from an angle they expose where there's not much ink on the paper, um, I think it's called chroming or bronzing.

And if you know this, if you hold a jet, an inkjet print up, and you move it around under the light, you see the the reflectivity change. Be aware of it. Um, and baritas one of those papers are quite susceptible. So be careful because when we're judging, as I said in the previous podcast, in a row of five judges, the outer judges walking in [00:23:00] will see your print initially from an angle.

And if that angle shows where the ink isn't being laid down on the paper, that's gonna mean the first things they spot. So print some test strips. Make sure you understand your paper.

Section three. Print quality and presentation. I've written down here the final polish. I must have been having a moment when I wrote this out, the final polish, um, and I wrote down, this is your shop window.

Hmm. Okay. Well, in a sense it is, um, it's certainly how you're gonna sell the image to the judges and your print must look spot, perfect. And here's the thing. Increasingly people are using labs for their prints and having their prints delivered straight to the competition. I can understand why people do that. You only pay for one set of postage for a start. However, always, always see your print before submitting it. I know it's more expensive, I know it's harder, but in the end, the judges assume [00:24:00] that you have seen those prints. They assume you delivered what you want us to see. So as such. We assume you did it.

Any defects? There's no excuse. It's yours. So you must, you must see your prints before submitting them. Too many people I know when you're working overseas, that's a little bit more difficult. You send your files to, say a UK lab, a UK competition, or you send your files to a US lab. It's a US competition in your UK based, but there's no excuse for a poor print.

Poor print. There's no excuse for a poor quality print coming in front of the judges. We will assume you've seen it. It's your problem.

Uh, mounting and presentation, your mount is really important. Um, if you get the wrong mount size, basic reading the rules 1 0 1. [00:25:00] If the mount size is wrong, it will be disqualified.

It should be disqualified. And we are having this debate recently. About how harsh some of this is. And as judges, we want everybody to do well. We shouldn't be here to wreck someone's life or you know, deter them from entering. We should be here to help promote and encourage, and it feels really weird when we have to do something like disqualify a print.

But here's the point. Everybody else in that competition has gone to the effort of mounting them correctly. And we had one or two in the last, um, competition. I judged the print masters where the presentation was bang on point 20 by 16, and the most exquisite mount cutting and presentation of the print.

So imagine we let a print through, even if it's scored really well, and it was of an incorrect size, and it did well at the expense [00:26:00] of another print that had complied with the rules. So a better way of looking at this is we're not penalizing the photographers that didn't comply with the rules. We are rewarding the photographers who did comply.

That's how we do it. We're not punishing those who didn't. We're rewarding those who did, and that feels a lot more positive. And then we can kind of, it feels a bit more human, but that's what we have to do. If somebody's gone to all this effort. Of creating the most exquisite printing and mounting the right size, the right mount cuts complimentary paper to Matt Color.

Everything about it's perfect. And then we have one that's the wrong size. What are we supposed to do? Well, of course, what we do is reward the author that complied, and in the end, we have to just accept the fact that if you haven't complied, it's not our fault. If you haven't complied to the rules, that's not the judge's fault.

So read the rules, understand what it is they're looking for. Make sure there's no ambiguity. You've got it [00:27:00] absolutely in inches. If it's in inches, in centimeters or millimeters. If it's in millimeters, you know what's required of you comply with the rules. We cannot score an image that doesn't comply.

, Here's another thing that occurred to me, and this occurred to me a couple of times watching prints being handled.

Do not. If you do a flush mount, a flush print, and it's very effective. Sometimes I saw some beautiful ones this year where essentially you print on the paper, there's no separate mount. Now that's, you have to be careful if you're gonna do this. So if you do a full print, so you are just printing onto a big piece of paper and then mounting that print onto a 20 by 16 board.

So the whole thing basically is one big print. Be careful for a couple of reasons. The first is, remember that when you pack them. Highly likely to scratch because the print surface itself is right there, right under the print above it, and scratching becomes a little bit of a problem. Yes, you can put sealants and lacquers and things on them, [00:28:00] but it's always a bit of a risk.

The second thing is if you do print edge to edge, allow space around the edge. Don't do a full edge to edge 20 by 16 print. If you do that, when the. Print handlers and the print handlers are so careful, but the print handlers, the edge of the glove, runs every risk of being on top of the ink when they're handling the edges of the print.

And my recommendation is don't do that unless you have a very specific reason to do it. You've got some design that just works that way. Be careful. Allow enough space around the edge of your image that the print handlers can handle it with any, without any risk at all of them touching the ink.

Uh, a few things we saw this time around.

Um, we saw quite a lot of prints that were rippled, and all that means is they'd been taped to the back of the mount. There was no backboard. They'd been taped to the mount, and that [00:29:00] taping had a different expansion rate than the paper and the board. So essentially you've got three different expansion rates.

You've got the mat, you've got the tape, and you've got your print. And when you do that, there's every opportunity for the print to ripple. If it gets humid, if it gets drier, warmer, cooler, it doesn't really matter. As they change shape, you get rippling and rippling will cost you points. So the best way, if you can, if you have time and you can afford it, of course, these things are not really that cheap, is put your print mount, your print.

Onto an adhesive backboard so that it's flat mounted. It's, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do, but once you get the hang of it, it's really effective. If not, you can always photo mount or spray mount your print down onto a backboard, and all you're doing is making sure that it stays absolutely flat all the way through the process.

Now the boards always move a little bit. There's not a lot you can do about that. I'm looking at some of mine [00:30:00] who are sitting up on the shelf right now, and some of them have bowed a little bit over the years. But the prints, every single one of those prints is still absolutely flat on its backboards.

And that's 'cause I photo mounted them down. Um, I've, I usually do that, um, rather than, um, using adhesive boards, um, simply because, uh, it's easier for me and you, you can have a little bit of movement on the print before the adhesive finally cures. Um, but do something if you can't, if you have a really, a print that you just wanna let hang, then obviously, um, t mounting is the way to go.

Um, but you still will need a back on that board. So you'll need a backboard, then your print and the T hinges, and then your front mount. Um, do not put tape all the way around a print and stick it to the back of a mount and then stick it to a board. Or worse, no backboard at all because that print is gonna ripple.

There's no doubt about that. Your print must lie flat curled edges. They're distracting and they will get penalized.

Uh, I've also written here, I [00:31:00] dunno why I've written this in print quality and presentation. I must've been having a moment. Uh, subtle edits win. I dunno why it's in this particular section.

It's absolutely right. By the way, um, heavy retouching and strong vignettes, particularly strong vignettes, I think are one of the things we see the most of. Um, don't overdo your vignettes. Um, you don't need to on the whole. Uh, you can guide an eye in, and at the end of the day, we use vignettes and use differential focusing or, you know, shallow depths of field to draw the viewer, to draw the judge to the subject.

That's what we're doing. That's why we do this stuff is where do I want the viewer's eye to go? You've put it in a mount, it's got a window on that mount. So already you've guided the viewer away from the edges of, um, the presentation into the image. Now they're in the image. Now you have to guide them to the bit of the image you want 'em to see.

And that's what vignettes do and they're very effective. But a vignette should be more or less invisible. The viewer should not know your bit. You are guiding them [00:32:00] to the bit you want them to see. And too often the vignettes are too heavy and too unsubtle. Two things. One, if you want to check your vignettes, look at them in a small grid, such as Lightroom's, thumbnail, view the library view, and you'll see your vignettes.

They just stand out when your images are small. So that's one way of just checking them. The other is too many people. Ignore the fact that in reality, if you had areas of shadow and shade and areas of light in those areas of shadow and shade, you would still have specular highlights. They would still be white.

So, um, when you do your vignettes, make sure you still allow subtle highlights to come through. They're not affected or else, and vignette will just look muddy and dark and we'll know. You've put it on there. If though, on the other hand, little pockets of light, little bits of reflectivity come through the vignette, it might be that that was a natural vignette and those are the ones, the ones we don't know have been done will always do the best.[00:33:00] 

Okay. Section four, composition and storytelling. Uh, composition should be a guide, not something that obfuscates or confuses. So just place your subjects. I, I'm, I don't tend to use the word composition. It's obviously. Um, something that's in almost all of the rules of the competitions that I judge. Um, I would, I still prefer to call it layout because you lay out the bits that you have on the, in the photo it sounds, and somehow everyone calls it composition.

And I dunno why I like the word layout so much more. But I just do take the things that are in the picture, lay them out where you want them. Just sounds logical to me, but hey, you know, each of the road. Um, but just place your objects carefully. Give the subject room. So avoid getting your subject too close to the edge of the frame.

Don't crop through a joint. You can crop crop through the middle of a limb, not through a joint. Try not to skim the edges of things at the edges of the frame. And quite a few images this year actually thinking about it were they looked [00:34:00] like there wasn't enough breath around the image when it went into the matt.

But my suspicion was there was in the original raw file, and so people print the file as they want it, and then forget that you've got at least three or four millimeters all the way around a mounted print that's gonna crop in. So prepare your files to allow for that. Don't get just the edges of an arm or the, just the tiny bit of the top of the hair or something.

Um, you know, my view is if you're gonna crop, crop, otherwise give it space. Um, try and avoid distractions, particularly behind your subject or at the edges of the frame. Anything that draws your eye away from the subject. Um, one thing as judges we do not do is we never turn an image upside down. We're not allowed to.

We are only allowed to see the image as the author wished to, to see it, which is correct, by the way. But as an author, you can turn the image any which way you want, and there are [00:35:00] tons of tricks you can do. Turn the image upside down. Use saturation maps, use luminosity maps. There's all sorts of tricks you can do to check where the richest saturation is, to check your high points, your bright points, all of those things, because you don't want to lose that impact that in, in, as the judges are going through the detail, you want the judges to be, oh, that's great, the impact as it came in. And then as I explore, as I interrogate this image, it just gets better and better and better. That's what you want. Uh, horizontals and verticals. Make sure they are horizontal or vertical.

Too many times have I seen an ocean scape where the horizon of the ocean isn't Absolutely. Flat isn't absolutely horizontal. The clues in the title horizon horizontal. Um, now I know if you've got a lake coast or a lake shore or sometimes even just a coastline, that might be, if it's coming towards the viewer, [00:36:00] might be at an angle, but you have to stand back and get it so that it looks correct, and if ever there's a horizon in the distance, almost always, unless you're doing something creative, it should be horizontal.

Similarly. If you're doing architectural stuff, unless there's a reason why you have converging verticals and it's apparent your verticals need to be well vertical. Uh, a thing on storytelling here, I've said this quite a lot. Um, I'm not sure how popular it is when I say it, but I'm gonna say it anyway 'cause I believe it.

It is not the judge's job to decode and understand your story. It is your job. To guide the judges to that story. If we don't get it, that's not our problem. It's your problem. Now, I know occasionally a really beautiful image comes in, but the judges don't really appreciate all of [00:37:00] the messaging in it, and only afterwards when the author talks to one of us, it's like, ah, that's what it was about.

I wish I'd known. That's not our problem. That's definitely you. You use every trick you have from the title to the printing, the composition, the color, the subject, everything about it. That's your job. You have all of these levers you can pull for the judges to react, but it's your, it's your job. And remember, whatever else in a photograph, emotion will always beat cleverness.

It doesn't matter how clever you think you are being. Emotion will win out every single time. Picture a face with one tear rolling down it and you are already halfway there just because of the emotion levels. So be careful of that. Make sure that you are telling the story that you want told and make sure by testing it with a mentor and other people that people are gonna get it.

Uh, strategy playing the long game, section five. Um, do not. Cannibalize your set of [00:38:00] images. If you have shot five or six or seven or eight amazing images from a shoot, pick one, pick two. If you're at a push, preferably in different categories, do not send all seven. 'cause essentially you're sending us the same thing over and over.

And by the time we get to the last one, no matter what order and randomized set we get by the time we get to the last one, the impact is diminished. And the impact is the first and the last of all the criteria we look at. Do not get duped into thinking because every image is beautiful. You should enter them all.

Don't do that. You can enter 'em into other competitions, but be aware even then that many of the judges judge across multiple organizations. So just be aware of that. Pick one, pick the best. Two, put 'em into different categories if you have to. Um, but other than that, do not send the whole set. Um, I've written this here where it's, I've written variety shows depth and control, but repetition looks lazy.

The talk with variety is we tend to think of variety from the same shoots. [00:39:00] My argument is variety across what you do, even stylistically there's gonna be some similarities, but pick different shoots, um, different subjects, um, and that will show far better than, um, repeating similar images from the same shot.

Same se uh, same session, uh, too buly, uh, your titles, your image titles. Now titles are a little bit of, they're one of those odd little things. I'm not sure what I feel about titles. I've always really, if I'm honest, fought against them and I fought against them for the simple reason that if we are judging images, I'm not judging you as a poet, I'm judging you as a photographer, um, as a visual artist.

However, I'm acutely aware that when a title is read out, it can help a judging panel connect with the image. I am aware that it can heighten the emotion in a similar way. The varnishing an image in the old days. Brings everything together and just ties it to some [00:40:00] message. Um, titles do that. So if you, if it's an, if it's a competition that allows titles, even though I would love them not to be there, if it allows you to enter a title so on, because there's, it's unlikely that it will distract from the score, but it is likely that it will enhance the enjoyment.

Consequently, the impact. That the image will have on the judges. Alright, uh, so titles, yes. Uh, where am I? Um, yes, uh, don't rush. Sorry. I was reading off a screen and lost position of where I was. Uh, don't rush. Um, I've already said this kind of, I have plenty of time. Print check, test, review. Alright. Um, ideally do your print.

Leave them a couple of days, have a look at them down the line. Of course none of us have time for that, but the very least, print them one day, look at them. The next, let the ink settle for a start. 24 hours for most colors to settle. Um, after that, um, [00:41:00] you want your emotions to settle. So do you look at the images cold or at least as cold as you can.

So print check and then, um, rest and review. Use feedback. Your mentor if you have to, people around you, friends, family, get feedback. Even if you don't like it, get feedback because you'll learn from it. Okay. Some common pitfalls. Section six, um, already mentioned a few of these. Uh, these happen a lot, so don't do them.

Simple as that. Don't enter your image into the one category. Um, you know, if it says newborns can only have another person in the shot as a supporting act, that doesn't mean, um, a family photograph that's not a newborn. That might be a newborn. They might have a newborn, but that's a family photograph.

It's a family group. Um, newborns are newborns. It's a very specific category. It's four newborns under the age of seven or eight or nine weeks, whatever is the, the category rules. Um, you can have hands, you can have shoulders. You probably [00:42:00] can't have people in most of the associations read the rules specific to the association or the competition.

You're entering, um, similarly, whether your print and mount sizing, make sure that you have the right print and or mount size, too many images get. Um, and, but the thing is, the real sadness here is that if you've gone to the effort of printing your image, mounting your image, and sending it in, it's the wrong size.

We're gonna disqualify it. But you've already paid the money. You've not only entered, you've not only paid the entrance fees, but you've produced a print and a map. Um, so the loss is just even harder. So just read the rules. Um, I've mentioned ripples and coal prints I've mentioned, mentioned poorly calibrated workflow.

I've mentioned trendy clone style. In fact, to be honest, I dunno why I've done this section. We've mentioned all of these. I must have been having a fit of peak, but it's always good to recap. So recapping don't, don't enter, um, trendy fashion style imagery. And by fashion, I mean following a trend, I don't necessarily mean fashion category.[00:43:00] 

Um, that's similar to what's out there in the big, bad world, because actually you might find there's 20 other photographers doing the same. Don't have a sharpen, don't have a lot blacks don't have grubby grays. Yep. Grubby grays. We haven't mentioned grubby grays. Grubby grays drive me insane. What do I mean by grubby grays?

I mean, in monochrome in particular. In monochrome. Make sure that it's a really well produced monochrome. And by monochrome we simply mean all the colors are in the same palette. Um, black and white is a very specific subset of monochrome. Monochrome could be all colors of, of brown, for instance. Um, but you must have detail, you must have contrast.

You must have all of the tones that you wish to portray in the print. So just watch for that. Uh, plasticy skin was another one that came up this year. Um, actually it comes up every, every year, particularly with the advent of AI retouching. The sliders are too easy to whack to a hundred. And you know, your clients may love it, but print judges [00:44:00] probably won't.

We want things to look great. Perfect. Of course. But real, it should look like you produced it, not a machine produced it. Uh, right. Okay. Last bit. Why bother entering? Well, primarily I think there are two aspects to entering competitions. And by extension qualifications that are worth your while, at least from a professional photographer's point of view.

Firstly, it's good business. Any kind of decent award. And by when you say award winning, please be award winning. I really don't like someone getting, you know, I dunno. Um, I don't want to, I don't want to moan about some of the things that go on in the industry, but. When you say you are award-winning, you better have won an award.

And by that I mean won at the very least, [00:45:00] um, got a silver, sorry, a bronze or silver or gold at the overall level. Um, not a commended in a small competition. That's not award winning. That's, I got commended now. I'm sure, I'm sure I may hear from people about this one. And those things are valuable, by the way, and you can tot them up and you can put them at the certificates on the wall.

But if you're award-winning, award-winning. Anyway, I'll get down off my soapbox on this one. Sorry. Um, every time you win an award, it's wonderful publicity. Even if you come runner up, you can say, came runner up in a national competition. Um, that's fair enough. That's what you did and it's still great publicity.

As long as you explain why and what and all the rest of it, um, and how it's your clients, your subjects that got you there. Those kinds of messages are brilliant. So there's one angle on it. The other angle, of course, is from a personal development point of view, [00:46:00] just the process of preparing your files for competition changes you, it's a very specific set of skills, not necessarily ones you'll use every day with every client, but.

Having that in your back pocket, understanding the color work, understanding the retouching, the subtleties in layout or composition, storytelling, how to create vignettes properly printing, you know, I know not everybody prints these days. I think that's the way of it, because most image consumption is digital, but printing really does highlight things that you will not see on a screen under normal circumstances.

So. Those are the two reasons. Great publicity and it develops your skills and with that you grow. You grow in confidence, you grow, your discipline improves, you grow your experience watching, judging. If you enter competitions quite often [00:47:00] you'll go and watch the judging and then hear feedback. That feedback is invaluable.

One of the reasons I judge is because I've learned so much doing it. I was laughing with the judges the other day, you know, um, even when it's me putting up a challenge because I think there's something in an image that the other judges maybe haven't seen, and I get beaten down. You know, when you raise a challenge, it's one of the scariest things you do as a judge on the panel is to stick your hand up and say, I love you guys and I respect everything that you do and see, but I think there's something here that you may have missed, whether you're talking an image up or talking an image down.

And it's really scary sometimes. You are absolutely right and the other judges go, do you know what? Saw that or didn't see that? I'll come with you. Sometimes they will line up and say, here's why we don't agree with you. We're gonna stay where we are. And that's heartbreaking too. But the process, the discourse, the investigation, the argument, they're really powerful.

It's why I judge, because I learned so much. [00:48:00] Um, of course, entering a competition is quite a brave thing to do. Of course keep it, keep it anonymous. You don't have to admit to ever entering anything. You only admit to winning something. And remember, the only real failure in image competitions is not to enter them.

So those are all of the points I wrote down. I'm sure there are many more, and there are plenty of other podcasts I've done on this topic. This is just my latest update on the same thing. But sure, surely there is something in there for all of us. Even me as I'm going through it, I'm thinking, I must remember that next time I enter a print, how many times have I got caught out by my own mistakes, when I should know better?

I'm a judge. I've been doing this a very long time now, and yet I still make those stupid mistakes. The biggest mistake I make, by the way, is to not allow enough time, and from that time box, everything else falls apart because I'm working at the last minute, I'm working at midnight or one or two or three in the morning.

I'm having to do everything on the back foot, which is [00:49:00] unfortunately the way I am, but from that single mistake, everything else flows. Sometimes I don't enter the competition because it was too late for me to think about it. Sometimes I do enter the competition, but it was too, too late to create the prints that I truly wanted to.

Sometimes I'm so late that I forget some great images that were in the, in my portfolio that I just didn't have time to go and find and I forgot about them. My biggest weakness. Is time. I dunno what yours is. Whatever it is though, get your images sorted, get yourself another pair of eyes, whether it's a mentor, workshops, friend, whatever, and get on and do it.

Right. So on that happy note, I'm gonna go um, and join some friends for a drink in our local pub and then I'm gonna have a few days out with Sarah. It's gonna be lovely. Um, I'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. Of course. We love to hear the feedback. Please do head over. To Apple's podcast. Um, and leave us a review on there.[00:50:00] 

Uh, no matter whether you are Google or Apple or you don't do any of those, the best place for reviews is on Apple, is it encourages so many more people to come and listen. If you fancy workshops, head over to mastering port portrait photography and go to the workshop section. Uh, we have a whole load of dates.

Um, some of them have sold out now, uh, but they're still in there. And I spent, I had a lovely week this week. It's been such a nice week. Um, spent a very happy hour going through someone's, um, images came across for a coffee, actually just as part of a mentoring session. Um, and we just sat and explored images and chatted ideas.

It's an absolutely wonderful thing to do. So if you fancy a workshop, uh, they're on the list. If you fancy, um, something a little bit longer term, some mentoring. Then of course, that's on there too. The deadlines for judging, uh, for the, uh, society's competition are looming. Um. So, uh, if you fancy that, then please do head across to the society's image competition website.

Um, I too, uh, must get my images in. Um, [00:51:00] I'm dreading leaving it to too late, but I can't help but think that might be what's coming because December for me is manic. So a load of that, um, please do, if you haven't already bought it by, this is a shameless plug. I don't care. Please buy the latest Mastering portrait photography.

Book, uh, the updated version, it's available on Amazon. Um, uh, Amazon by the way, can sell it to me cheaper than I can buy it from our own whole, from, from our own wholesaler, which I still think is slightly ironic. However, it is what it is. It's the way the world or the big suppliers. Uh, but if you want one signed, you can order that from mastering portrait photography.com.

Otherwise, head over to Amazon and if you do have a copy of the book. Please leave us a review. That's a lot of asking you to leave reviews, but all you have to do is log in, find the bit, write something nice, hit a few stars, well hopefully five or four. Um, and then you're done. And then I'm forever, I'm forever in your debt and you feel better about yourself.

Uh, so, uh, please do, uh, do those things head over to, uh, Amazon Lib's review on [00:52:00] the Amazon website. That would be great. And with that, I'm gonna sign off. I'm gonna finish what's left of a cold mug of coffee and I'm gonna go have a drink with some friends and spend a few days. Out and about with Sarah doing something interesting.

Not sure yet what whatever else you do, wherever you are, whatever you're doing with your, your prints, your competitions, your qualifications, be kind to yourself. Take care.