The close-up portrait, often stripped of a contextual setting and penetrating deep into the personal space of the subject, gives us a chance to examine an individual’s features, expressions and emotions with a degree of intimacy not often experienced outside of art. It can be an intense experience for the subject and photographer alike, and generates memorable work. On a technical level, considerations of lens focal length are important, with wide angle lenses having a distorting effect on close-up subjects, and where the subject is looking, the angle of the head, and the lighting make for an infinite variety of outcomes.
Our Premium Contests are judged by some of the world’s finest photographers, who select the best submitted imagery, and provide valuable feedback that explains their choices, and helps you improve. Judges are confirmed towards the end of a contest. Premium Contests also carry more ranking points, so if you’ve got your eyes set on climbing the leaderboard, they’re a great way to achieve that.
Every photo submitted will be available for the crowd to rate once the submissions period has ended. You can see all the images uploaded to a contest, but will need to rate them to see how they’re ranked once the rating period begins.
Some contests on Photocrowd also have a judge. After the submission period closes the judge chooses their favourite images and writes some image reviews. The crowd and judge results will be announced on the same day.
For a more detailed explanation of how rating works, see our FAQs