Nightscapes (Nikon only)

The judges loved this image because it combined two very well-shot elements. The stars look magnificent, but the photographer has also found a landscape that's beautiful and composed a shot that would also look great by daylight. Under a dramatic cloudy sky, or backed by sunset, this bowl of craggy mountains around a lake would look every bit as good. The colours of snow and stars echo one another, while the warmish tones in the foreground and along the horizon stop the scene looking too remote or unfriendly.

Here's a different sort of light trail for you - one left by a train. The judges thought the colours in this image looked fantastic, with the orange sodium glow of the city throwing the Forth Railway Bridge into sharp relief, and the bold red lights of a train pulling the viewer's eye to the centre of the image and onto the bridge. The way the train's lights, and the light reflecting off the track, break up the foreground of a scene that would otherwise be a silhouette, is really effective.

A fascinating skyline, car light trails, an interesting sky – when it comes to nightscapes, this shot of Kuala Lumpur has it all. While the foreground is quite chaotic, the strong lines of the road, boosted by the glowing white of car headlights, pull the viewer into the picture. The iconic Petronas Towers are bright enough to stand out, small as they are in the distance. The shift from warm and close to distant and cool-coloured, aided by the patch of darkness between the foreground and high-rise skyline is really effective.

The peace in this image really struck the judges, because most of the photos you'll see of Varanasi, holiest city in India, show it bustling with pilgrims. The use of colour is clever, with the ghat and the boats in the foreground feeling warm, while things cool off and take the blue tone of the river and sky as they get further from the camera, though there are just enough receding bright lights to draw your eye along the curving edge of the water.

The judges felt several things helped make this image of the aurora borealis stand out from all the others of the same phenomenon. First, there's the way the lines of the aurora draw the viewer's eye into the picture. Then, there's the way that's echoed in the water, smoothed by a long exposure. Finally, the bridge also echoes the lines of the aurora, while the coloured points of light on it disrupt things, as bright as the green trails but geometric and in different colours, yet still ultimately help to draw your eye towards the centre of the aurora trails.

The first thing you notice about this image is colour – that plummy night sky is really dramatic. Splashes of other tones, such as blue from domestic lighting in the lower third of the picture, and a sweep of yellow light to the centre-left, stop the purple tones being overwhelming or looking too artificial. The judges liked the overall crispness of the scene, and the fact that the photographer has taken an ordinary town, with normal apartment buildings, and made an interesting and attractive image.

Starry skies are always popular subjects, and what the judges appreciated about this one was the way the dappled stars are reflected in the clear pattern of the stonework on the windmill, and the way the most clustered trail of stars seems to lead directly to the building, which distortion makes appear to lean to reach them. Without the mill, the stars would seem to have less purpose; without the stars, the mill would look lost. Together, they make a great image.