Kodak photography competition: the entries so far (gallery one)

I’ve been given the task of sifting through a selection of the entries that have arrived for The Independent’s Kodak-sponsored photographic competition, and I’ve tried to be as honest and as positive as I can here. There are some great entries mixed in with a few that have missed the mark, and as you read through maybe you’ll find a few pointers as to what might make a competition winner.

Terry Hope

Click on the pictures for a larger version

Lack of attention to detail has diluted the impact of this picture. The person on the steps is too far away and sitting in shadow, while the people wandering behind are brightly lit and very distracting. A higher viewpoint would have revealed more of the ornate pond behind the subject. Related articles The winners of the Independent/Kodak photography competition Kodak photography competition: the entries so far (gallery two) Picture this...	An interesting scene, but there is absolutely nothing happening to grab the interest. The main thrust of the picture is an empty road, while there is not even a contrast in terms of colour to lift the scene. Perhaps one of the windows could have been used to create a frame for the scene: it needed something.	Looks like a classic holiday location, and yet where are the holidaymakers? Deep shadow in the foreground has reduced this table to a mere silhouette: perhaps shooting at a different time of day might have evened the light out a little, while a small burst of fill in flash could also have worked wonders.
Standard holiday snap fare, and it's a shame the lighting is a little dull. Maybe it was impossible to return later, but the picture could still have been improved a little by moving slightly to the right and trying to hide that lamp post in the background behind the bull's tail.	A nice looking château, but this is much too much of a record shot, without any attempt made to raise the level of visual interest. The picture has been complicated by the fact that the light is really coming from the wrong direction, and the contrast levels are too high.	I love this picture too, but for all the wrong reasons. It just shows what can happen if you set up a picture and don't check out the background carefully enough. This poor girl looks like she has antennae coming out of her head, thanks to those umbrellas behind her.
This is a decent shot, even if the overall scene itself is not that inspiring. By waiting for a boat to come along the river, the photographer has created some foreground interest and has avoided the water becoming too dominant. The scene would have been improved, however, if the light had been hitting the front of the boat.	Sunsets on holiday are virtually mandatory, and this one has been done really well. The photographer has shot over water to allow the warm glow of the sky to reflect back, while the positioning of the three characters in the foreground has added real interest to the composition.	A nearly picture, and the subject matter is worthy of a better result. Flash has obviously been used, and the result is the dreaded 'green eye.' A simple piece of software would allow this to be corrected, and a crop to an upright format would get rid of the wasted space on either side of the subject.
I'm not quite sure what the point of this picture was. It almost looks as though something has either just happened or is about to happen. Have we just missed out on the feeding of the crocodiles here? For good measure the foreground is messy and intrusive, too.	Now here's a quandary: was that reflection of the sun from the window of this building deliberate, or was it a complete accident? Either way, I'm not sure that it works that well: it's where the eye goes immediately, and yet it's not really a very interesting area of the picture.	London in the rain: now there's something that's becoming a rare sight! I like the humour here, and the British brolly being resolutely carried by someone who's determined to do some sightseeing come what may. It's just a shame that string of light bulbs cuts across the top of Tower Bridge.
Sunsets are great for pictures, and this one almost works. Because the light is so low, however, the subject's face is in deep shadow: a pop of fill in flash from the camera would have lifted the whole scene and balanced everything out much better.	Not a bad landscape shot, although one suspects that it's from a well used vantage point. Still, the rather dark and threatening sky in the background adds some interest and proves the point that bright sunny days are usually the last thing you want for a scene such as this.	What can you say? This is a picture that falls between two stalls: the person walking away down the path is neither particularly in nor out of the frame, and they have instead become a rather annoying distraction that suggests the photographer didn't get his timing right.
Quite a good attempt at showing this building within its environment, and the lighting is hitting it at quite a pleasing angle. There is, however, a little too much shadow in the foreground for my liking, while the silhouette of the signpost slap bang in the middle of the composition is a distraction.	I can only assume that the camera went off by accident here, since I can't believe anyone really wanted to take a photograph of a rather bland empty road and to frame it with a reflection of a box of Kleenex. Was there a reason perhaps why it wasn't possible to get out of the car to take this shot?	A spectacular snowscape for sure, but it's crying out for something in the foreground to add some visual interest. As it is, the contrast levels in the scene are so high that all of the highlight detail has been lost, adding still further to the rather bland nature of the scene.
I'm really intrigued by this picture and would love to have known where it was taken. Although there is plenty of interest scattered around the frame, however, the two people who are presumably the focus of the picture are too small and look rather awkward. Perhaps they could have sat on the step and the photographer could have moved closer?	I quite like this: the act of tilting the camera is something that trendy portrait photographers do on a regular basis and it can add a certain dynamic to the picture if it's not overdone. Who says that a picture has to be level in the first place?

The winners of the Independent/Kodak photography competition

Gallery two: click here to view more photos from the Kodak competition

www.kodak.co.uk