Photography Contest: Why I Chose The Winners

Gayl Punzalan, Creative Director, Blue Ink Media

Category: CLOSE UP

The little spider: The first question when judging a photo is: did the participant follow the direction? A lot of people might not agree with this spider, but looking at the instruction: it should be xx centimeters in size, and photographer has to make it look big. This spider is I’m quite sure, some centimeters small, and it looks gigantic in the image. The other spider picture is okay, but there’s camera shake when the shot was taken. Another is the bee on a dandelion, which is also okay, but I would have zoomed in 50% more to make the bee look big.

The runner up is a miniature of parked vehicles

in front of Pete’s. It’s not the best picture, but it did follow the instruction. I had to give credit to the photographer because I know in his/her mind “oh this is small, and I can zoom in to make it big, that it will look life-size.” Depth of field he/she used is correct, and the angle is acceptable.

The honourable mention is a butterfly on a flower.

Again, if it were me, I would have zoomed in, about 70% more to get the face of the butterfly and a bit of its wings – so I can adhere to the instruction. I like the depth of field – the butterfly and flower being sharp, and the background a bit blurry. I like the angle too. I can imagine the photographer looking at the butterfly and maybe took several shots and he/she submitted the best angle you can get in that scene.

Just because these three were chosen, doesn’t mean the rest is not good. When I judge, I pick about half of all the entries, look at them one by one, and ask myself, why is this better than the next picture. There is a set of criteria I follow when judging: 1. Choosing the right subject 2. Effort of the photographer (carefully picking where to take the shot from) 3. Sharpness of the image (no matter how wellchosen the subject is, if your camera shook when you took the shot, it’s not going to make the cut). 4. Angle – correct application of rule of thirds 5. Creative use of depth of field – should the background be blurry or not? 6. Difficulty of shot – is the photographer lying down when he/she took the shot? Or maybe he twisted his body, arms, and legs just to capture this picture?

Good photographers are good judges of a scene. If there’s no shot, don’t take it.

Category: BLACK AND WHITE

The Zion Grandeur – The black and white, landscape shot of a mountain. Well, this is one of those pictures where the photographer was in the right place, and the right time. It’s probably about 3 or 4 pm, blue sky, the sun is ultra-bright. But then there are no burnt parts in the image - meaning the shutter speed and the setting of the depth of field is correct. Rule of thirds is correct, image is sharp.

The runner up is a shot of a lake. I picked this because of the image’s balance. While the focal point is at the dead center, the photographer compensates that with the horizontal island where your eyes are led to. The subject is very fitting for a black and white picture.

The honourable mention is called “Cuba”, and I like it because of the leading lines, because of the angle of the shot, and because the depth of field is excellently used.

For me personally, photo judging is subjective. Most judges, if not all, have their own influences, tastes and feelings when deciding which photo is the best.