Entering Photography Competitions: Is It Worth It?

Is entering photography competitions worth it? I’d say: absolutely.

Here is my round-up of where to find photography competitions, how to increase your chances of winning, and how to make the process as fuss-free as possible.

True or false: the only people winning photography competitions are professional photographers with years of experience and extensive editing skills?

Until about 2 years ago, I would have confidently pegged this statement as true.

Winning photography competitions seemed to be something that “other people did”, and it never occurred to me to enter any because I felt that I severely lacked the level of expertise and experience needed.

After all, I didn’t even have access to a studio, and I was creating my photographs in my crammed living room using basic gear (I still do so today!).

However, sometime last year, I created a picture that got quite a positive reaction from friends and family, so I decided to enter it into a few competitions just for fun.

I then forgot all about it until… I received an email that my photograph had been shortlisted for the British Photography Awards!

I was incredibly surprised and felt so validated and honoured (even though I didn’t win that award in the end).

Since then, I have managed to snag two wins, a top 5 jury selection and 2 honourable mentions, so I know that winning competitions is absolutely possible even for non-professional or inexperienced photographers.

In this blog post, I want to share why I think it’s essential to enter photography competitions regularly.

I’ll also share my top tips for finding and winning competitions, and finally offer some bonus tips on how to streamline the process (entering a lot of competitions surprisingly entails quite a bit of admin work).

Let’s start with the main question, then: should you enter photography competitions at all?

Entering photography competitions can be expensive, since most of them have an entry fee, and winning is statistically rather unlikely, at least if you’re going for the main price.

Reasons for Entering Competitions

Well, I’m here to tell you that, if you want to take your photography seriously, entering photography competitions is non-negotiable.

First of all, it’s a sort of “best practice” for photographers:

Almost all professional photographers I follow or admire enter competitions regularly, as a win signals to their audience that their work is of a certain standard or quality.

Winning competitions can make it more likely for your work to be considered for exhibitions or galleries and increase the value of your photographs if you plan on selling them.

It can also lead to more exposure, for example when the competition organiser publishes your win in their social media accounts and on their website, or if the competition win includes an exhibition and/or print sale.

Secondly, entering competitions can be a great motivating factor to produce work on a regular basis.

Many competitions actually have specific themes, like “The world around us”, “Identity” or “Patterns in Nature”, for example.

Keep an eye out for such themed competitions, as they can give you a nice framework for what to create when you’re out of ideas or suffering from creative block.

Personally, I have committed to entering one competition per week.

Since I made that decision, I’ve noticed that I’ve more discipline in creating work, as I want to honour that commitment and produce more (and better) work each week.

Finally, when you actually do win or receive an honourable mention, you will notice that this is an incredible confidence boost.

As artists, we often work by ourselves, only trusting our own judgement whether a photograph is aesthetically pleasing or not.

I remember that when I won my first competition, I felt very surprised because the photo I entered wasn’t one of my personal favourites, and I actually didn’t think it would win.

When it did, I felt very validated:

I realised that I wasn’t totally off with what I was doing, that there were at least a few people in the world who deemed my photographs interesting.

In that way, competitions are a great benchmark, a sort of barometer for the quality of your work, and help to keep you motivated in your artistic journey.

By the way…do you like taking portraits? Then check out my free ebook below:

…but now, back to the blog post!

How to Find Competitions to Enter

Hopefully I’ve convinced you now that entering photography competitions is a great idea, but how to actually find them?

When I first started entering competitions, I didn’t quite know where to look for them, so I thought I’d make it a bit easier for you and point you in the right direction.

Let’s start with the more well-known competitions you might be familiar with. Some of these are:

https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards

https://www.tokyofotoawards.jp

https://sipacontest.com

https://www.lensculture.com/photo-competitions/emerging-talent-awards-2023

PX3 – The Prix de la Photographie Paris

Taylor Wessing Photography Price

https://fineartphotoawards.com

https://ndawards.net

International Photography Awards

https://monovisionsawards.com

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography

https://musephotographyawards.com

In addition, there are lots of smaller competitions organised by galleries (these are great because the winning photographs will often be exhibited), publications such as photography magazines, organisations like universities and schools, and lots more.

I found that the best way to keep updated about such competitions is to follow specific social media accounts.

I particularly love the Instagram account @for_photographers_only:

They post lots of different competitions and also have a corresponding website with even more contests.

Another good option is creating a profile on a platform such as www.viewbug.com or www.photocrowd.com.

These act as a sort of portfolio website where you can enter monthly or weekly competitions.

Finally, you will find competitions in photography magazines available on the newsstand, as well as in local or national newspapers.

If you’re a beginner photographer and find well-known competitions a bit threatening, you can even find contests in women’s magazines, free publications (like Stylist or Waitrose magazine in the UK), or Facebook photography groups.

How to Increase Your Chances of Winning Photography Competitions

Great, so you found some competitions you’d like to enter – now let’s talk about how you can increase your chances of winning.

One big tip is to really give the category you’re entering in a lot of thought.

For example, I create self-portraits, but often there isn’t a dedicated category for those.

Depending on the picture, I may enter it under the category “Fine art portrait” or “Fine art conceptual”, or even under an “Other” category such as “Digitally manipulated” or “Film photography”.

Of course, if you’re a landscape photographer for example, the choice would be quite straightforward.

However, if you create fine art pictures, advertising images, digitally enhanced work or other photographs that fall into several categories, really think twice about which category your picture would fit into best.

If in doubt, you can even enter your photograph into two categories to increase your chances of winning.

Next, I find it helpful to research the competition winners from the last year to see what the organisation is looking for.

Sometimes, I will refrain from entering images if I feel that my style is very different from the winning photographs of the previous years.

My third tip is to really think about your caption or additional information, especially if you’re a fine art photographer like me.

I think that judges like reading about the why behind the photographs, and an interesting caption or title can make your photos more impactful.

Finally, make sure to stick to all the submission requirements for entering photography competitions, like correct dimensions, resolution and colour space.

Bonus Tip (to Save You a Headache)

And here’s the bonus tip I promised you:

Keep a spreadsheet of all your entries, like a simple Google doc.

I’ve noticed that once I had entered a few competitions, I started getting very confused about which ones I had already submitted to, which ones I had received a reply from, etc.

Now I keep a spreadsheet where I log every competition, which images I entered and when, and which contests I won or didn’t win.

It’s tedious, but it will save you so much headache.

Equally, I now keep a Google doc with all the image information because most competitions require entering the same information over and over, such as creation date of the picture, technical data such as shutter speed and aperture, caption/inspiration behind the photo, and so on, and I didn’t want to have to gather all this information every time again.

Now, I just copy and paste from my document and get on with my day!

All of this might seem like a lot of work, but in the end I only spend about 10 minutes per week on entering contests, which is very doable.

I think what’s holding most photographers back from entering competitions, however, is not the admin, but self-doubt and lack of belief in the quality of their own work.

I know, because I used to be one of them, but I’m so happy that I gave it a shot anyway and managed to even win a few competitions by now.

Even if you doubt that you can win a competition, I would encourage you to regularly enter them and just try your luck – because we all know that you certainly will NEVER be a winner if you don’t enter in the first place.

So why not start taking action now? This month, pick three competitions and challenge yourself to enter a few pictures. If I can win, you absolutely can, too!