Need some help with selecting an image for a competition

[Raj_55555]

I'm planning to participate in a photography competition and have to shortlist 4 photographs for the submission. Although I already have selected three of them and need help with selecting only the last one, from my experience, the photographer always seem to like their own photographs in a differ order than someone who has no emotional attachment to it. So please feel free to suggest a replacement to the other three as well. There is no genre as such, so I'm trying to keep a mix of all; but there are no rules.

The competition is pretty big(think Nat Geo big, but only for India) so I don't think I have much of a chance of getting selected. But I'd like to give it a try nonetheless. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky

Please judge the photos by what they can be, all of these photos will go through proper post processing. For #2 I realize the sky is too blue and a lot of other things, I can fix those upto a certain extent now.

1. Macro of an insect

2. Seagul lunch

3. Asian Black Kite

4. No wall can separate us

5. Elephants

6. Chimp: Deep in thoughts

7. Follow your Religion, love everybody -> This is what the message says. The people shortlisting this will most probably understand this language, so that's a plus.

8. Tibetian Mastiff Puppy

____________________________________________________________________________

And finally these are the other three shots I've selected:

#1. The Majestic Kanchenjunga [Landscape]

#2. Playing violin near the Ganges river [Sunset + Street] -> Should I edit out the other two shadows in front of the river?

#3. Drinking Problems [Wildlife/Zoolife]

 

[Designer]

#4 and #7 are my favorites here.

 

[Raj_55555]

#4 and #7 are my favorites here.

I'd still be in a dilemma.. Please exercise your right to vote.

 

[Raj_55555]

Folks, I've added one more, #8, but I don't think I can change the poll options. Please treat the option #8 as "Tibetian Mastiff Puppy" instead of none of the above.

 

[SnappingShark]

For me, only Chimp!!

 

[tirediron]

Is there a theme, or is this submit any image, any topic?

I voted for 'No wall can separate us' (Great title BTW). I few thoughts: I would crop the image to make it more symmetrical, so that there's the same amount (approximately) of each horse showing, get rid of whatever that is in the upper LH corner, burn in the whites an dodge/brighten the LH horse a bit.

 

[psran]

#4 & #5 look best to me

 

[Msteelio91]

I really like "Drinking Problems"!

 

[Raj_55555]

Is there a theme, or is this submit any image, any topic?

I voted for 'No wall can separate us' (Great title BTW). I few thoughts: I would crop the image to make it more symmetrical, so that there's the same amount (approximately) of each horse showing, get rid of whatever that is in the upper LH corner, burn in the whites an dodge/brighten the LH horse a bit.

There is no theme now, first I get selected for the competition based on my images and a 2 minutes introduction video and afterwards they'd be giving us themes to shoot. Thanks for the suggestions John.
I could follow everything you said except the crop part. From my perspective, I have a feeling it would look strange if part of his body is not visible as it will look like the horse is standing straight instead of making an effort and turning his neck. The same goes for the left one, the viewers know that he's turning his neck and not just standing there looking straight (I hope this makes sense). What do you think? Could you please show me the crop you're talking about if you have the time?

 

[sm4him]

I was going to ask the same thing John did about themes, so that information was helpful.

Raj, having just recently starting entering some juried-type events myself, where they basically want a "group" of your photos to look at, I can tell you that at least here locally, they want to see your strongest, "cohesive" body of work. I've been advised by several folks that I trust to have greater knowledge and expertise than I do in this area (which is to say, any at all, lol) to not enter photos that are too diverse from each other, but rather to try to make them all a "body of work." For me, that meant if I'm submitting bird photos, don't mix them in with abstracts and macros. If I'm submitting primarily abstracts, I probably don't want to throw in a portrait or a wild animal. You want a strong, but cohesive group of photos.

So, on that basis:
I'd toss out the first one, the macro (although technically, I don't know if I'd call this macro anyway. No difference, it's not my favorite of yours anyway).
I'd also toss out #7, which is a shame, because it IS one of my favorites of yours. But it really doesn't fit in well as a "body of work" with the rest of the options.

Now, here's the problem--IF these were MY photos, I'd also eliminate #2 from the ones you've already selected, for the same reason as #7, it doesn't "fit" with the others as well.

So, I'd either go with #7 and your finalized #2 and pick two completely different other choices, if you've got any, that work better with those images, OR

I'd ditch your "finalized" #2, and instead pick #4 and #5.

There, that was really NO help to you at all, was it?
One thing I've found. Selecting what to submit is BY FAR the worst part of the whole process!

 

[tirediron]

I think you're right about the crop; it looked better in my mind than it did when I tried it. Let's just pretend I never said that part, mmmkay?

 

[sm4him]

I think you're right about the crop; it looked better in my mind than it did when I tried it. Let's just pretend I never said that part, mmmkay?

Okay, BUT…John's thinking here is good. With a little more symmetry, this would be not just a "good" shot, but an outstanding one.

Please forgive my really quick, hack-job edit, but I don't have much time, and only want to give the idea. What if instead of cropping, you do a little cloning to take out some of the wall on the left hand side and make it more similar to the right side? Like so:


Kinda depends on whether you want to go to that much work, AND on whether this particular competition allows that level of post-processing.

 

[Raj_55555]

I was going to ask the same thing John did about themes, so that information was helpful.

Raj, having just recently starting entering some juried-type events myself, where they basically want a "group" of your photos to look at, I can tell you that at least here locally, they want to see your strongest, "cohesive" body of work. I've been advised by several folks that I trust to have greater knowledge and expertise than I do in this area (which is to say, any at all, lol) to not enter photos that are too diverse from each other, but rather to try to make them all a "body of work." For me, that meant if I'm submitting bird photos, don't mix them in with abstracts and macros. If I'm submitting primarily abstracts, I probably don't want to throw in a portrait or a wild animal. You want a strong, but cohesive group of photos.

So, on that basis:
I'd toss out the first one, the macro (although technically, I don't know if I'd call this macro anyway. No difference, it's not my favorite of yours anyway).
I'd also toss out #7, which is a shame, because it IS one of my favorites of yours. But it really doesn't fit in well as a "body of work" with the rest of the options.

Now, here's the problem--IF these were MY photos, I'd also eliminate #2 from the ones you've already selected, for the same reason as #7, it doesn't "fit" with the others as well.

So, I'd either go with #7 and your finalized #2 and pick two completely different other choices, if you've got any, that work better with those images, OR

I'd ditch your "finalized" #2, and instead pick #4 and #5.

There, that was really NO help to you at all, was it?
One thing I've found. Selecting what to submit is BY FAR the worst part of the whole process!

Well, that makes a lot of sense to me. But if that is the case, I'll have to give up my animal shots. Although there are no rules for entry, the competition really starts after the people are selected out of the millions of entries sent to them. When the competition does start, it's more oriented towards street shots and people photography and no wildlife at all. From the last two years of the competition, both times the people who were selected were non-wildlife photographer and mostly people with good portrait/landscape/travel portfolio.
It's a huge thing even getting selected, and the entrants will be live on tele for each round.
The competition themes themselves are more geared towards street/travel photographers as well..

 

[Raj_55555]

I think you're right about the crop; it looked better in my mind than it did when I tried it. Let's just pretend I never said that part, mmmkay?

:scratch: What are you even talking about? :lmao: :lmao:

 

[Raj_55555]

Kinda depends on whether you want to go to that much work, AND on whether this particular competition allows that level of post-processing.

Now this is an idea worth pursuing, I'd like to put in as much work as possible into this (last date 14th), and no rules on post-processing as such! There's just one problem with this, I've never had to use PS to do something like this before. But there's always a first time for everything I guess, I'll give it a try this weekend. Thank you so much for taking the time to do the edit Sharon