Travel Photographer of the Year - International photography awards and competition for all amateur and professional photographers

Selecting Your Images

What The Judges Look For

The judging panel for TPOTY brings together the talents of professionals working in many different areas of both travel and photography. There are, of course, photographers but also picture editors, picture buyers, photojournalists, digital imaging experts, printers, retouchers and lecturers in photography. We also include at least one lay judge who will be assessing images purely on their WOW factor. Each judge has their own approach to judging and each may look for slightly different things but this diversity of talents on the judging panel gives a balance to the judging process.

They do, though, all have two things in common; a love of photography and an eye for a great image.

There is plenty of advice in this section of the website to help you choose your images, and on the judging page you'll find out about the judges and their approach to images. So rather than a long description of what each judge looks for, here is a list of things that are common to all of them, in no particular order of importance:

Sharp focus
Use of light
Viewpoint
Accurate exposure with good balance between shadow and highlight detail
Strong composition
Creativity
Consistency across a portfolio
Originality
Good colour balance and tonal range
Use of colour
Use of depth of field and shutter speed
Use of shape and form
Themes linking the images
Subtlety
Thoughtful picture selection and for portfolio, images which fit together
Impact
Following the brief
Dynamism or movement
Interpretation of the category theme
Atmosphere
Engagement
An interesting subject
Capturing the moment
That WOW factor

Editing and selecting your own photographs is difficult but choosing the right images for each category is crucial to winning a prize. Think about your selection carefully and if in doubt, ask someone else’s opinion.

Image Quality

It is important to pay attention to the technical attributes of your images. They MUST be in sharp focus, correctly exposed with good shadow and highlight details where required and properly colour balanced if they are to stand any chance of competing for a prize.

Focus: It doesn't matter how good an image is, if it isn't in focus it won't win. If your original transparency, negative or digital file is sharp then make sure that any prints that you make to enter are good quality and equally sharp. You're wasting your time and money producing a poor print from a good quality original, and with high quality printing so readily available either from a photo lab or your own desktop there is no excuse for doing so.

There's a difference between ‘out of focus' and blur caused by a combination of movement and a slow shutter speed, as witnessed by Michael Matlach's winning portfolio in the 2003 Colour & Passion category. These pictures you either love or hate, but there is no doubting that they are technically excellent. This becomes especially evident when viewed as a large print rather than the small low res image on a website gallery or computer screen.

Exposure: Unless you are trying to achieve a special effect, exposure should be well balanced with good detail in both shadow and highlight areas. It is very easy to spot a badly exposed image and the judges will be looking for this.

Colour Balance: With good film or digital cameras, and readily available filters, there is no excuse for submitting badly colour balanced images. If you use a photo lab to produce your prints then they should automatically colour balance your image for neutral blacks and whites. Many inkjet printers produce a colour cast, usually magenta or cyan, unless they are properly calibrated so be aware of this and colour correct your printed images

Impact & Presentation

Composition is a key element of every great photograph. It is a major part of the impact which an image has when viewed so pay attention to this when you're taking a photograph. Occasionally it's not possible to achieve the strongest composition in camera. Where this is the case you can strengthen the composition at the printing stage by careful cropping. See ‘The ones that got away'.

Composition: The rule of thirds exists for good reason but it's a guide not a hard and fast rule. In many cases the strongest composition can be achieved by following it, but knowing when and how to break it can be the difference between a good and a great photograph.

Cropping: This is effectively a second chance to strengthen the composition of your images. Not every photograph can be taken with the strongest composition so crop your images carefully where the best composition has not been achieved in camera, or simply isn't the same shape as the full frame image. Good composition and careful cropping are vital tools in achieving maximum impact from an image.

Presentation: A well printed and presented image creates greater impact than a badly printed, poorly colour balanced or dog-eared print. It's obvious. You can submit a print up to A4 (approximately 21cm x 30cm) in size. This will show off your work much better than a small postcard sized machine print. If you print your images properly then there is no need to mount them. Indeed mounted or oversized prints are not permitted and will be penalised in the judging. They also cause handling and storage problems. These are major considerations when handling so many entries. The judges are assessing your images not your presentation, but a little care can make the difference between two closely matched portfolios or images.

Themes & Category Briefs

Many amateur photographers feel that they can't compete with the professionals but this is quite simply wrong. TPOTY has been won by both amateurs and professionals. Many of the images on this website were shot by amateur photographers. Can you tell the difference?

Category Themes: Each category in the competition has a theme and these are designed to cover different aspects of travel photography from landscapes to people, from luxury to adventure and so on. These categories change each year. The clues to what the judges are looking for are all there in the category descriptions so follow them closely and choose images for each portfolio which fit the portfolio themes/briefs.

Follow the brief: If there’s one difference between the amateur and professional entries, it’s that the pros tend to be better at selecting the images for their portfolios.

If you can, shoot your images to fit the brief.

Don't just choose four random images that are good either. These may score highly as individual images but will fall down on the portfolio scores. In a good portfolio the images relate to each other or fit together to tell a story.

It is often useful to follow a theme within a theme. For example, look at Martin Breschinski's 2003 runner-up Spirit of Adventure portfolio in the Previous Winners’ section. Martin used the theme of ‘an adventure on a bike' to interpret the category theme of 'Spirit of Adevnture'. This was creative and well executed. As a result he scored very highly on his portfolio marks. It also proved that you don't have to travel to the ends of the earth or some expensive destination to get great travel shots.

When you choose your images remember also that this is TRAVEL Photographer of the Year not Wildlife Photographer of the Year or Portrait Photographer of the Year etc. etc...

Image Choice

Be creative with your image selection - choose different and original images. If you plan to submit an image or a portfolio of Buddhist monks or Maasai warriors or Peruvian women in a market then they'll need to be photographed very well and creatively to catch the judges' eye. Literally hundreds of each have been submitted in the past four years and very few stood out. We’ve also see a dozen or more pictures of the same cigar smoking Cuban woman every year. She must be earning a good living from modelling!

Portraits are another good example. We see lots of sombre, expressionless portraits. Some are very powerful, but most would be much more interesting had the photographers engaged with their subjects or their cultures.

Best, not favourite: This section should put you well on the way to choosing your images for this year's entry but take time to really assess your images when you’re compiling your entry. Many people choose their favourite images not their best ones. This is easily done because particular photographs carry memories with them. For example it was taken just before the most glorious sunset, or the meal that evening was incredible, or your partner told you they love you. That’s fantastic but these memories probably aren't in your photograph even though you attach them to it when you look at a particular image. The judges don’t have the benefit of these experiences when they assess your entry and, in the cold light of day, they may be your favourite but not your best photographs.

A good tip, if you're not sure about a particular image, is to ask someone else's opinion. It could be the difference between winning and coming nowhere.

Useful Tips

In previous years there were many great images entered but they didn't all win. Below are three examples of images that the judges felt could have won prizes but for three very different reasons, they didn't.

Presentation & Composition Pang's image captures the moment brilliantly and for this alone it merited commendation. However it didn't win a prize in the Single Image category for two reasons:	Tr
	Tr	Pang submitted this as a machine print. The print was not pin sharp, as many machine prints and especially enlargements tend not to be. For the judges, there was no way of knowing if this was the focus on the original shot or the print? It's very hard for the judges to tell but 'not in focus' = 'no prize'. In fact the original negative IS sharp and a prize winning opportunity was missed. The image could have been strengthened considerably by a little careful cropping so that the figures on the right are not cut in two. Below the same image has been cropped and has much more impact as a result
Song of Spring, Ansar, Sanpei, China © Pang Piow, Malaysia
	Tr	Right Image, Wrong Category Matjaz's image is highly evocative, giving a different view of a travel related theme. He entered it as part of a portfolio in the People & Places category. Unfortunately the judges didn't feel that the rest of the portfolio was as strong as this image but almost all said that, had it been entered in the Single Image category, with the theme Essence of Travel, then it would have had a very good chance of being a prize winner.
Boy in trainers, Mali © Matjaz Krivic, Slovenia
In Camera Technique Nathan's image has captured the moment brilliantly and it's not hard to see why he called this image ‘Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil'. However, the image has unfortunately been shot with a very narrow depth of field. The boy is the centre is sharp but the other two are just very slightly soft, diminishing the impact of the shot. Now, it may be that this was a fleeting shot and there was no time to alter the camera settings, but sometimes this can be the difference between a good shot and a great one.
Three orthodox Jewish boys © Nathan Briner, UK