Chimbala took this portrait at a Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City. His model certainly looks the part, wearing full decorative Catrin skull face makeup as well as an embellished jacket and Sombrero. His creative decision to desaturate the image in post-production works really well as it accentuates all of the intricate bright lines and highlights in his face and outfit. Great job!
Melinda has captured a magical moment from the carnival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She’s done well to frame up with the two waving people on the left with a wonderful stream of confetti spiralling towards them from the right. My only criticism is that the focus has locked onto the Church in the background, rather than the two people. That small niggle to one side it's still a great shot, packed with colour and detail.
Vasanth has come first in our Celebration of Culture contest this month, beating off the competition and securing the top spot with his outstanding capture from the Dussehra Hindu festival. We love his central composition and use of a wide-angle lens as both really ramp up the immersion of this shot, I feel like I've been transported to India when I look at this shot. It's also a technical marvel because he's frozen the moment this figure jumped up and makes them appear to be levitating and has also impressively retained bright highlight detail in the sky that would be all too easy to blow out. It's a fantastic shot and well-deserved winner of our contest - congratulations!
Stefan shot this wonderful portrait at the 2019 Venice Carnival, and rather than take a candid snap he's decided to ask his model to pose with the mask to one side of her face which has paid dividends. The eye contact is strong and he's focused on the eyes to make sure they're the obvious focal point. I like the vibrant colours in the mask that draw the eye in and the duality of the woman's face and the mask which balances the frame and adds an element of intrigue too. If I was being picky I'd change the crop slightly to make the central eye sit in the middle of the frame to make it more balanced. Great job!
401 Images entered
258 Photographers
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In this Canon-only contest - brought to you by PhotoPlus magazine - we’re asking for your images that best show off a celebration of culture. This could be images from your travels around the globe or perhaps a festival that brings the whole community together in brilliant fashion. We want to see your best Canon shots that fit the brief! DO: Ensure your photo was taken on a Canon camera. Have EXIF data in your photo (or supply the camera settings in the info section). Provide a title for your photo. Write a description of the photo you're entering of at least 50 words to give us the background of what the image is of and how the it was taken. A little context can go a long way! Check your photo has a resolution of at least 3000 pixels on the longest edge of the photo as we will be printing our top picks in PhotoPlus magazine. DO NOT: Have a watermark on your photograph. Supply images taken on camera systems other than Canon. Submit low-resolution pictures.
There's a lot to like about JMorley's shot. love the big bold lines from the steps, handrails and abstract shadows cast by the sun too. It's also packed with interesting textures and the rust pattern does look remarkably like a ghostly silhouette of a person and works well as a focal point. However I don't think it quite fits our brief of 'Celebration of Culture' this month, but we look forward to seeing more from you in the future as you clearly have a keen eye for creative and abstract images.
