I see judging wedding photography competitions as a huge honor, and also a HUGE responsibility. Over the last four years, I have judged for the following major organizations: Fearless Photographers, Masters of Wedding Photography Italy, and now most recently, Wedding Photography Select. As a competitor in various groups as well, I am all too aware that every single image that is submitted is SOMEBODY’S baby, and as such, worthy of my extremely careful consideration. This is why I don’t put a time limit on completing this task… whether it takes me 3 hours or 8 days!
With that being said, I just wanted to give a rare glimpse into my thought process for rating each submission. A few are more personal to my particular preference, while I believe many are across the board for most judges. Let’s get started!
Wedding Photography Select Award Winning Photo by Ken Pak
Photoshop: These days, the capabilities are endless… while I don’t mind the removal of an ugly exit sign or other small, distracting object, some experts can do an imperceptible job of inserting a couple into some completely grandeur location that they never went anywhere near on the wedding day. Even if a competition allows this, that’s just not the same playing field the rest of the submissions are on. If I can find evidence of composites, substituting backgrounds, fake skies, or fake light, I immediately move on.
Overprocessing/Underprocessing: I can’t begin to explain how many images that had the potential for greatness, but were SO overprocessed with heavy, visible brush lines; over-clarification; or unrealistically saturated skies that I just could not vote for them. I did not completely rule out some very good moments with a BIT too much processing for my taste, however, like I did with some images that felt like they had no processing or serious technical issues related to processing. Images that may have been heavily processed but fell clearly into the realm of exceptional fine art were also voted favorably.
Fearless Award Winning Image by Cafa Liu
As a side note, I have often heard complaints in the awards arena pertaining to the low percentage of COLOR image winners, and I believe I have finally found the answer to that question. Besides the fact that there are probably way more B&W submissions than color ones, a color image will also be scrutinized for correct white balance and other color-processing-related issues, as no one wants to award photos of umpa lumpas or dead people.
Technically Sound: With cameras today, there aren’t too many ways to really mess up an image that you can’t correct in post, but focus is among the main ones. If I can tell in a mere 900-pixel photo that it’s not sharp, it’s out. If the photo is still over or way underexposed after processing, it was probably extremely off in camera. Either that, or it was poorly processed. Cropping also falls into this realm. If areas of the image are not contributing it, I usually wish they were cropped, but still wouldn’t rule out a TOTALLY amazing moment for this. For portraits, heads should be in clean places, body parts should not be amputated in weird places, and all photos should have decent lighting at minimum. If I see direct flash, I just can’t get past it. Meanwhile, awesome light can DEFINITELY take an image to award-winning level.
Masters of Wedding Photography North America Award Winning Image by JD Land
Moments & Fake Moments: As a hard-core photojournalistic wedding photographer, I put an extremely high priority on moments. A strong, authentic moment goes a long way with me. On the other end of the spectrum, “moments” that look like they are staged by the photographer lose major points. I often ask myself questions like, “if this is a real-life ceremony or reception moment, why are there no guests in the pews/background?” But this is totally my personal taste.
Masters of Wedding Photography North America Award Winning Image by Tara Theilen
Unflattering Images: Sometimes I feel like we get SO wrapped up in the content of the image that we completely disregard our clients. I believe that every single one of these awards should be something most brides will look at and be thrilled to have from their own wedding day. No one wants an image of themself, where they have five chins or are super-ugly crying. So unless that moment is so hilarious or otherwise amazing that most brides will still appreciate it regardless of how bad they look in it, I try not to award them.
Expressions: We all know that expressions can make or break an image, but I’m not just talking about those super close ups of two people interacting with emotion written all over their faces – but oh my gosh do I love those! What I’m actually doing is looking at the subject’s expressions in every single image and asking myself, do they at least fit the story? Even a really awesome photo with tons of texture and life can be ruined for me by a lackluster expression, or worse yet, a pissy one… I’m pretty certain that no bride wants photos of them looking bridezilla on their wedding day. Again, I believe part of the role awards should play is to expose brides to images they will be so blown away by that they’ll pay TOP dollar for ones like them and drive our entire industry up!
Fearless Award Winning Image by Claudiu Negrea
Camera Awareness: Camera awareness of one or more subjects in an image tells me a lot about that photograph. By knowing the subjects are aware of the presence of the camera, it indicates on some level that they are performing/playing it up for it, reducing the authenticity of the moment captured. Either that, or the moment just wasn’t strong enough to take their attention away from the photographer.
Nudity & Animals (should I not have put these together? haha): There is definitely room for some awards with both of these characteristics, and I sure do love me some animals. Personally, however, there needs to be more to the image than JUST the fact there is some random farm animal in it, or the fact you can see some bare-bridal bum. I need the animals to be part of the story or play some unique artistic role in the image to put it over the top. I also don’t like awarding photos that just have nudity for the sake of nudity. What I will award are amazing photos that just HAPPEN to have some nudity or the nudity is a contributing factor.
Fearless Award Winning Image by Bryan Surgener
Rip Offs/Trends: I’m talking about all the increasingly cliché photo ops. Some of these, for example, include tossing the bride/groom, bride looking out the car window with some kind of reflection in the window, couple’s mimicking murals behind them, shooting dress from inside, little people/big world photos, tiny couple’s walking down a scenic path, silhouette bokeh shots, drone photography with couple’s lying on the ground, etc. Now, don’t get me wrong, some of these are great shots that any client would be super happy to have, but in terms of awards they’re a bit overdone. I don’t rule them out completely, but if I see one, it really needs to be one of the very best versions of that type of shot I’ve ever come across for me to REALLY want to see it win. OR, the photographer must have put a unique spin on it.
Context: I have seen so many beautiful reaction moments and expressions, but what really takes these images to award-winning level is context. WHY are the bride and groom crying? If it’s a speech photo, is the speaker also represented in some way? If it’s during a ceremony, what or who are they laughing at? Again, I rule nothing out entirely, but context is a biggie.
Gut Feeling: Have you ever seen one of those images that just make you FEEL something and you can’t explain why? It doesn’t have to be a fancy or unique concept or location. For example, I’ve seen a million photos of brides walking along and catching a gust of wind, but then maybe there’s that ONE that somehow evokes an emotional response from me. These gut-feeling images are so rare that I just love seeing them win.
Wedding Photography Select Award Winning Image by Marius Barbulescu
Posing: Touching foreheads and awkward-pucker kisses… we really can do better than this! While it often seems hard to come up with something that hasn’t been done to death, when I think in terms of mathematics (which I admittedly suck at) even I can imagine how many combinations of ways we can physically position two bodies and you never know until you try something new!
Wedding Photography Select Award Winning Image by Marius Barbulescu
As a final thought, I don’t believe anyone should EVER feel bad about not winning an award in these competitions. Believe me, seeing what I’ve seen, it’s a truly competitive world out there, and the vast majority of photos submitted are at the very least “good.” It’s really just a matter of narrowing it down to the absolute BEST, which is no easy task.
On the bright side, after seeing so many quality submissions, I can now save money on submitting some of my own photos that would have never made the cut in this latest competition. So yay for the occasional shot to the old ego! Congrats to all the winners out there! Feel proud, because you deserve it!
And HUGE Thank YOU to all the amazing photographers who allowed me to use their images to illustrate this article! I hand picked each of your images because they are among my favorite award winning images ever!