How it Works

Bestfoto is dedicated to promoting and encouraging digital photographers to become better. That being said, our judges look for certain qualities in a photograph when making POTD selections. The one thing they do not and will not consider is ‘snapshots’.

Even though BestFoto is geared towards Digital Photographers ONLY, the basic rules to good photography apply. Here is a list of some of the things judges look for.

Composition

Remember to keep a level horizon. Nothing is more distracting than a landscape with a tilted horizon.

Remember the “third’s” rule. It is always more desirable to position your subject off center by 1/3 or keep the horizon at 1/3.

Make sure your subject is sharply focused and utilize DOF (depth of field) to make your subject stand out. A crisply focused subject against a blurred background or foreground is always more attractive than a photo where everything is in focus.

Also, remember the KIS rule (Keep It Simple)! Don’t clutter your photo with distractions. Key in on your subject and use DOF, reposition the subject to a less cluttered area or change your position.

Exposure

A photo must have the correct exposure to be considered good. Make sure your photo is not too dark (underexposed) or too light (overexposed). If you’re not sure about the exposure, use the bracketing feature on most digital cameras. That gives you a choice between multiple images of the same subject. After all, it’s only going to cost you space on your memory card.

Keep a high level of contrast without losing detail in the dark and light areas of the photo.

Pay attention to color saturation. Make sure there is enough saturation but not so much that your photo looks unnatural.

Avoid hotspots and lens flare.

Creativity

This is the one area where a photographer has to display his or her own special talents. After going over all the previous rules, this is the one that gives the artist a license to ignore them in certain situations. Each individual must look to themselves for this inspiration. Many times a good photograph will violate one or more of the traditional rules because the photographer is trying to express a feeling, mood, message, etc.

Things You Can Do To Improve

Learn your camera! Take the time to read your manual and if necessary purchase a third party book that might explain in easier terms the functionality of a particular camera. Above all, turn off the date and time stamp function of your camera (if it has one).

Search the internet for articles about photography and photographic tips and tricks.

Participate in the Photo Critique web sites. There are many free ones for you to get constructive criticism on your photos before entering them to contests.

Take a photography class at your local school (if offered) or at a community adult education center.

Learn how to effectively use a Paint program to process your photos. Many of the undesirable qualities of a photo can be corrected (i.e. overexposure, underexposure, noise, saturation, contrast, etc.) if you take the time to learn the program. You can even change the composition of a photo with the use of the cropping tool. Remember, this program is a darkroom to the digital photographer!

Participate in the Forum. If there’s something you don’t understand or a particular technique you want information about, ask about it in the Forum.

Above all else, practice, practice and more practice! Photography is a skill! If you intend to improve, you must take the time and put in the effort.

Our Process

Submissions are received via email and are automatically forwarded to our judges. We purchased a software package called “Attachment Executive” from Mad Solutions (www.madsolutions.com). This program works with any version of Microsoft Outlook and gives the users a great deal of control over their email (similar to the “Rules” tool). We have rules built to look at any email with a jpg attachment and the text Animals, Macro, BandW, Open, People, or Scenic in the Subject Field of the email. (That’s why we require the category in the Subject Field of the email). Once the submission is received, the rule kicks in and actually MOVES the file to another folder with the appropriate category name. At the same time, the software places a link in the body of the email to the file’s new location. The submissions are held on file for about 2 months.

The judges then use a software package (ThumbsPlus) to view a slideshow of the submissions and make their selections. We DO NOT just look at thumbnails. Every entry is viewed in its full screen format. After their selections are made, the judges return to Outlook and perform a search for the file name. When a match is found, the pertinent information (Title, Name and Camera) is then recorded for posting.

We realize some skeptical people could question the anonymity of this process. In response to them, we can only say we are honest and do not preview the emails ahead of time. Nor do we change a pick because the photographer won too many times or we “don’t like” him/her. That’s something you’ll have to trust us on. POTDs for each category are selected daily by our judges.

There are six Best of Category winners each month, with each Photo-of-the-Day being eligible. These are chosen by popular vote from you folks. Then from these six winners, again by popular vote, an overall Photo-of-the-Month will be selected. This winner will have their image prominently displayed in our Photo-of-the-Month Gallery. They will also receive a $50.00 gift certificate from our friends at Thomas Distributing. All category winners will receive a copy of ThumbsPlus from our friends at Cerious Software (prizes subject to availability and can be changed or discontinued without notification). Voting will be held shortly after the first of each month and all winners are notified via email.

Please Note:

Even though our process is anonymous, we do reserve the right to censor any submission due to a variety of reasons. Pornographic material, nudity, violence, and deliberate attempts of individuals to sabotage or in any way demean our site ARE NOT tolerated.

In Closing

Remember that BestFoto is dedicated to providing a venue for serious digital photographers to compete with their peers. All the multiple winners here a very dedicated to their art and take photography very serious. Many of them honed their skills by reading, taking classes and shooting thousands of photographs. This is dedication and that’s what it takes to become a good photographer.