Got a Better Photo?

Submit it to the BetterPhoto Photo Contest then! Participation is free, and they are running monthly competitions is several fixed categories: Landscape & Travel, Animals, People, and “Graphics, Details & Flowers”. Oh wait, there is one more: if you shot some other creature like extraterrestrial, you are still covered - the fifth category called General is just for you. But don’t get overjoyed yet - the photo of your fellow extraterrestrial needs to be sharp, otherwise their merciless Jury will not be happy…

But at least you are forewarned, since they posted quite a detailed Guidelines How to Win a Photo Contest. It’s worth reading - you can use those principles in other competitions as well. Here is a short summary:

• You photo has to be the best.
• The picture should be in focus (point your camera to the thing you want to shot, and then stop shaking it!)
• If there is still some blurriness, your photo can still qualify, but only if The Jury will consider the softness to be intentional.
• It’s hard to judge if the exposure is correct, but if the snow on The Jury’s monitor is blue, you probably need to lighten it up a little.
• If you shot on film, learn how to scan properly. If your scanner sucks, you have to read sharpening tutorials for your favorite photo editing software.
• Don’t overdo it with the JPG compression. They’ve got a big hard disk, since uploading in PNG and TIFF(!) format is allowed.
• This one is tough: you have to be creative and/or artistic ("and” is better). It is ”all about the art of seeing,” as they say, but you also have to learn how to make a good photo out of it.
• You photo has to be the best.

Well, Phoetica wish you complete success in the BetterPhoto Contests! Remember, you can submit one photo each day! The deadline for this month is 12:00 Midnight, Pacific time, Saturday, January 31, 2004. The prizes are awating you. :-)