In every city, country, any social network and all over the world, there are free photo contests, in which anyone can participate by uploading their photos on the site or by sending an e-mail.

How often, trying to catch everything at once, we pass by the important and beautiful things...It is very important to be able to stop in time and see, to notice a miracle, a fairy tale, magic... in the most simple and usual things that surround us, like the heroes of the “Bluebird” by Maeterlinck or the Little Prince...

Make us look at the little things or just stop, look around and enjoy the environment can only a camera. Here you can see the best works of photographers who were able to capture the beautiful, terrible, exciting, joyful and sad, fantasy or just casual “The Best Photos From Sony’s 2017 World Photography Contest”.

In every city, country, any social network and all over the world, there are free photo contests, in which anyone can participate by uploading their photos on the site or by sending an e-mail.

Rules and purposes of holding photo contests 

There is some mystery in the photo; admiration for what lies outside our vision is inside our imagination. And almost every online photography competition gives an assignment to photographers to entice viewers, make them guess, or take pictures of something routine in such a way that everyone opens their mouths with surprise that even in some inconspicuous details the beautiful is hidden.

The photo competitions are held always and everywhere, have their tasks, goals and themes, their viewers and prizes. Now everybody holds the competitions from sites of major brands to small local firms, and each presents its interesting photo challenge ideas. But why they do it – hunt down this question.

Very often there are competitions for the sake of competitions – they competed for the prize, gave it to someone and the activity ended there. And what for in general to hold contests in social networks or on the Internet? After all, brands spend large budgets not only on prize money, but also on developing the creative photography project ideas and launching the applications. Doing any action on the Internet, you should always remember – why we do this and what results we want to achieve. After all, this is not entertainment, but one of the main tools of Internet marketing. And any tool needs to be applied competently. 

Rule # 1. Goals and objectives.

Before developing the mechanics of the competition, you must clearly define what goals you are going to achieve and what tasks to solve. And, building on that, it is already necessary to select a prize fund and think over the mechanics. Only here there is an important point – the concept of the competition should be commensurate with the value of the prize. 

Why do we hold a competition?

• Viral content. The competitive post will increase the coverage of the page, without attracting additional budgets.

• Activate subscribers and Internet users, which will increase the engagement rates.

• Take inspiration for your own creative photography project ideas;

• Loyalty to the brand. If you, as an organizer, fulfill all your promises and openly and honestly choose the winner – people will reach out to you. Even those users who have not catch a break, and they are only participants, will be more loyal to your brand afterwards.

• Attract attention to yourself: to the brand of the camera or to the problem. If this is an online photo processing service, you can mention your photo editing prices and make a discount to the participants or prize-winners.

• Promotional actions and contests can help bring a new product to the market.

And so on. Determine what primarily a priority is for you, and then take to task the entire strategy of the competition and the mechanisms for launching it.

Rule # 2. Correlation between the value of the prize and the mechanics of the competition.

If you compete for a cash prize or a camera or some kind of non-material prizes, then they must meet the set objectives, if the conditions for participation in the free photo contests are clear and you are honest, and then you will attract a large audience of participants, and thanks to advertising, ordinary people can vote for the photo.

Rule # 3. Competition rules.

You must very clearly state terms and conditions of bidding. The more you pay attention to the rules, the less problems you will have in determining the winner. 

• Start and end dates of the competition.

• When the winner is announced.

• What you need to do to win.

• How you select the winner.

• Which photos cannot participate in the contest (advertising, offensive images, etc.).

• Disqualification –you can exclude the participant for foul (if this is someone else's picture, or is going to cheat like the audience when voting.).

Rule # 4. Duration of the competition.

How long your contest will last depends largely on the value of the prize and on the mechanics. 

Rule # 5. Promotion of the competition.

To place and forget is not our method. In any case, it does not work that way, if you do not compete for an apartment. After you have thought out the goals and objectives, prescribed the most efficient mechanics and placed the competition – the photo contest should be promoted. 

The great range for promotion is offered by Facebook.

• Promotion of a post. If you have a minimum advertising budget, you can spend it on promoting a competitive post. It is advisable to think about this before launching the contest, since there should not be a lot of text in the illustration for the promoted post (no more than 20%); otherwise Facebook refuses to promote such publication.

• Newsletter. Place information about the competition on all possible resources. It can be a corporate site, a blog, email, etc.

• Business correspondence. You can easily post information about the competition in the signature of your letter. Thus, all your customers and partners will know about the action.

• Traffic from the site. Lead people from the site to your competitive post. Place a pass-through banner or pop-up window on the site with a call to participate.

Rule # 6. Using of specialized services.

Applying the smart technologies. In order to hold a competition, you need goals, an idea and a graphic implementation. If you do not want to waste your time, you can use the services of marketers or any web services. 

Rule # 7. Who will get the prize.

The determination of the winners must be see-thru and very clear, so that you will not be blamed that you gave the prize to some of your friends.

Standard methods for selecting the winner:

• You determine the winner yourself, relying on the criteria prescribed in the conditions – creativity, originality, etc. 

• The method of random numbers. Here you will be helped by the site “random.org”.

• The choice of the users.

• If you involve the jury in determining the winners, then it should be well-known and authoritative people in the photography and art field. 

• Mixed method: Several places are determined by random selection or by the number of likes, and several choose you and your team, according to a certain criterion. 

Rule # 8. Summing up and rewarding.

Always announce the results at the time you stated. If you delay the publication with the results of the competition, this will raise suspicion. So do not deceive your members! After the announcing the results, do not wait until the winner finds you himself.

If you follow these rules, then you will hold a massive and successful contest in a social network or on your website, which will form the basis of your future photo challenge ideas. 

Free photo contests for newcomers 

So, you put out money on different digital devices, the lenses, light equipment, big memory cards, read the user's manual and have just visited the photo courses. Do you think it's time for your hobby to justify all these efforts? Online communities of amateur photographers regularly arrange contests for non-professional photographers and award prizes for creative work that has been recognized by a wide audience of viewers. We will tell you about several contests, where photographers of different levels, creating in different styles, can take part. Each of the sites has an individual approach, which is shown in the selection of winning works – somewhere visitors like art photography, while on other resources they prefer classic photographs, somewhere is forbidden before and after retouch, and somewhere people are loyal to retouching. Anyone can take part in all these competitions, absolutely free of charge, but this will require registration to avoid fraud in the voting. 

Before taking part in any online photography competition, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with its rules, especially with those points where it is spoken about copyright and hidden advertising. If you break them, your work will be disqualified (for example, if a well-known brand is imprinted on your photograph). Most legal photographic competitions reserve all rights to the submitted photographs for you, but they can be used for advertising purposes. So, for some competitions you can read here “TOP 5 Free Photo Contests To Submit Your Photos Right Now”, but here's a bit about those contests that we selected:

“JPG” is an entertaining online community that appeared in 2005, as well as a printed publication that is released twice a month and is intended for amateur photographers. On the site “JPG” there are many thematic groups to which users subscribe and comment on the posted photos. At the moment more than 40 groups are open, concerning a wide range of the topics.

The rules are common: in order to add photos, you must to log in (you can subscribe to the community without registering), there should be no Portrait retouch on the posted photos, and their size should be at least 2,200 pixels on one side. Only the one photo is allowed in the one given topic. “JPGmag.com” chooses a set of the posted photos for each planned printed issue, which are exhibited for the contest inside the “JPG” community in prospect. The images that won the majority of votes are selected by the editors of “JPG” for publication in this magazine, and on the basis of these works a magnificent full-scale glossy edition is created.

Prizes: the reward for the winner is the very possibility of publication. In this contest you will not see free gifts or fantastic money prizes. But for most shooters the publication in the magazine and the opportunity to see their work on the windows of newsagents is also a good reward.

“Popular Photography Magazine”. Most large photo magazines regularly provide competitions for their loyal readers, give away prizes and publish the creme de la creme works. The printed journal “Popular Photography” is represented in the network by an electronic site-analogue “Pop Photo”, which in addition to the monthly competitions holds many thematic contests. Some of these competitions are paid for and intended for the audience of artistic photographers – they include the “Photography of the Year” awards. And for fans there is a contest “Your best shot” which holds every month. The “Popular Photography’s” editors choose the winning photos that adorn the main page of the site and are published in the latest issue of the magazine.

Prizes: The participant who won the first place gets $ 300; there are also several consolation prizes at $ 50.

“Affinity Photo Photography Contest”. If you have the skills to work in photo color correction services, then you can win $ 1 000 at an international photo contest. The works on any subject are accepted. The only condition of the contest: the photo must be processed in “Affinity Photo for Mac”.

And much more you can find on the “ePHOTOzine” website – here you can find all the most topical contests for photographers from around the world.

Take a crack at it, participate and win!

World Photography contests 2017, which are worth paying attention to

Have you ever won a photo competition? We promise it's an unforgettable experience. Recognition of your shoot by the world photographic community is a source of creative energy and motivation for months ahead. Plus a cash prize, a bright line in CV and the opportunity to catch the eye of key people in the art industry.

The understanding according to which principles this or that contest is arranged, at times increases the probability that the images selected by you will fit into the format and take prizes. Here is an example of what contests were held last year and what benefits they promised to the participants “International Digital Photography Competitions you should enter in 2016”.

Photo contests can solve different tasks for shooters. Someone is waiting from the competition for an evaluation of their work and a portion of criticism from the panel of jury. For others, participating in contests is a chance to show the global community their shots, get marketing benefits and financial prizes. But not all competitions are worth wasting your efforts and money. Below there is a selecting of the well-established international photography contests 2017, which you still have time to join. 

1) “Pictures of the Year International”.

Prize: $ 1,000.

Registration fee: $ 50.

In April 2018, the one of the oldest known and the most respected photographic competitions “Pictures of the Year International” (POYi) will be held the 75th time. The photojournalism direction and photographic documentation are the main ranks. Usually the results of “POYi” are watched by the whole world, and the prizewinners’ shots go on tour to the best known exhibition spaces, including the US “Newseum” in Washington.

Is it worth it to participate? Yes. The award itself has not so great impact on your life, but the accompanying media exposure is guaranteed. In addition, the contest accounts about 22 various categories, what significantly increases the chances of finding the right one that suits you.

2) “World Press Photo”.

Prize: € 10,000.

Registration fee: none.

The “World Press Photo” quiz – is the exclusive in the field of photojournalism without a doubt. The exposition of prizetakers' works takes place in 45 countries and is accompanied by numerous publications in the international press. The “WPP” is distinguished by an impressive prize pool and the highest level of challenge among the participants. This year, 5 034 photographers from 125 countries took part in the competition, who presented 80 408 photos.

Is it worth it to participate? Yes. Few of the photographic competitions provide the same prize fund or popularity with the press.

3) The international “Photo Review 2017” contest

Prize: from coupons for $ 500 to T-shirts and the camera’s cases.

Registration fee: $ 35 for the first three shots and $ 8 for each subsequent picture.

The top-selling critical magazine in the photographic sphere “The Photo Review” announced the holding of the 33rd unique annual contest. “The Photo Review” will present the winning shots in its release from 2017 year and on their website. Consequently, millions of people all over the world will see the finalists. With nobs, the shots will be demonstrated at the exposition in the Philadelphia Arts University, and the curator of the “Red Filter Gallery” Forrest Old will choose one of the winners for a solo demonstration in his online gallery. Aside from, oceans of the selected contestants' editors will be represented in the photo galleries “The Photo Review”.

Winners of past years, when their pictures were seen in “The Photo Review”, got the possibility to hold a solo picture show, presented works in other respected photographic publications and sold them to completists over the USA. 

This year the judging panel will head the top-tier New York art manager Yancey Richardson. All registered participants will get an opportunity to receive a discount on the subscription to the magazine.

A few words about this magazine, it was first published in 1976. “The Photo Review” publishes materials on photo events in the US and is the heart of the Mid-Atlantic area photography art. The magazine is published every three months, printed on coated paper with high-end photographic products and embraces reviews, eye-filling portfolios, interesting interviews and different news. This modern magazine represented the earlier unpublished works by the authors Duane Michals and Frederick Sommer, as well as the catalogs of the exhibitions of James VanDerZee and Lois Greenfield.

4) “Sony World Photography Awards”

Submit applications until January 4, 2018.

Prize: $ 25,000, photographic equipment from Sony; Participation in the exhibition of the Sony World Photography Awards in London; Publication of the image in the annual edition of the Sony World Photography Awards Winners; Mention in international media and more opportunities for career growth.

Registration fee: none

The “Sony World Photography Awards” has gained its fame thanks to a decent prize fund and the division of participants in the specialized categories: professionals, students and young people. The world's biggest online photography competition this year fetes its tenth anniversary.

The yearly contest “Sony World Photography Awards” is designed to introduce the world the greatest achievements of the most talented photographers. The contest is open to all comers, and its high prestige opens the path for winners and finalists to a successful career in the global photo industry. Annually the competition engages both beginners and the recognized shooters, giving the world community a chance to see the best works for the last year. 

In 2017 a set of nominations will be expanded in each competition category so that photographers can more actively realize their creative potential. The works of finalists and winners are exhibited at London's “Somerset House” and travel around half the planet with the same name exhibition.

Is it worth it to participate? Certainly. This competition is an opportunity to express you both for beginners and professionals.

5) “National Geographic Photo Contest”

Submit applications ended in June.

Prize: 7 day National Geographic expedition, publication in the magazine.

Registration fee: $ 15 for each photo.

“National Geographic “does not need to be represented in the photographic community. This contest belongs to the very most and is famous for its high level of work. The participants can apply in the category “People”, “Places” or “Nature”. What to hide, it is very difficult to win. But the one who succeeds in this will have an impressive sum of money and an incredible amount of publications of all formats.

Is it worth it to participate? Yes, remembering that the level of this challenge will be fierce.

6) “International Photography Award”

Submit applications: until July 31, 2017.

Prize: the main prize is $ 22500, each winner will get Lucie statue, as well as publication in the special book, international exhibitions.

Registration fee: $ 30 for professionals, $ 25 – amateurs, $ 15 – students.

7) “LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards”

Submit applications: until October, 2017.

Prize: 8 grants of $ 2500 each.

Registration fee: $ 60 for a series of 10 pictures.

The works of the winners will be exhibited in the New York’s Museum of Photography, and will be shown in more than 50 exhibitions from pole to pole.

8) “Smithsonian Photo Contest”

Submit applications: November 30, 2017.

Prize: $ 2500.

Registration fee: none.

“Smithsonian Photo Contest” is also popular, albeit not comparable to the “National Geographic”. Please note that the magazine receives at its disposal almost all the rights to the shot of the prizewinners. It is for this reason that a mass of hi-end shooters ignore this competition.

Is it worth it to participate? Yes. Given the zero registration fee, the potential benefit exceeds the unpleasant moment with copyright.

With today's variety of photo contests and categories within them, there is always one that suits you. When selecting photos, be guided by your strengths. Try to look at your work through the eyes of other people, visit the portfolio review, learn the basics of photo post production services, and communicate with professionals you trust. It is an adequate assessment of your own level that will help you to spend money on fees to those competitions where your chances of winning are more than real.

Creative photography project ideas: join it or do-it-yourself

 

How to develop your abilities for photography? The experienced photographers often give simple advice: create your own out of the box project. The project involves the creation of a series of cadres united by a common theme. This helps to focus on a specific task, not being distracted by the filming of some everyday plots, to involve in conscious inventive search.

Many photographers are recognized for successful photo projects, and majority of the serious photo contests are not single shots, namely a series of shots. The creative project will offer the topic in depth and detail, which cannot be done with one photo. 

How to start own photo project? Many take topics related to street photography. For example, they shoot entire collections of picturesque windows or doors from different parts of the world, where there will not be a ton of headshot retouching effects, only the ability to show the details of objects.

Remember that to get a beautiful photo you need to not only find some subject for the cadre, but also artistically shoot it. Think over the composition of the shot, plan your trip so as to be in place at the right time of day and weather. This will determine the nature of the lighting. The most effective shots can be got in the morning or in the evening. By the way, in the morning often there is a fog – use it in your pictures! The photo challenge ideas is a myriad, look on the Internet, go to the Instagram, which is actually one big site for photos, where each user wants to get more likes with the most extreme selfies or the most extravagant vacation spots.

We used to admire exotic countries and nature. But it's time to begin to be interested in those places where we live. In addition to ourselves, there is no one else to love these places! Give a shoutout to such project you can better explore your native places. And at the same time show them to your viewership, to attract tourists to your city or place. So keep track of the idea for online photography competition, perhaps you launch that photo project or find similar ones from other organizers.

A photograph is often compared with style of speaking. If one photo is a word, then a series of photos is already a sentence. Regardless of the chosen topic, your own creative project will help develop your visual language, teach you to communicate with the viewer not in separate words, but tell him full stories. The photography is the art of catching moments. So take photos, take photos and take photos again! Share your pictures and win the attention of viewers thanks to various photography contests 2017!

Good luck!