Original subtitles

Hello friends, how are you?

How are things going?

Welcome to a new chapter on Patreon.

In today's video I want to talk to

you about something that I have not addressed

so far.

I'm talking about contests, but I would not

like to go deep or I would not

even like to give my opinion of the

different types of directories or contests that you

can find as a wedding photographer.

If not, what I would like to talk

about are the different tips and ideas that

I have, or simply rules, when I want

to send my photos to a contest.

So the mission of this video is to

help you or to shed some light for

some of you who have doubts when selecting

or what images can work on one side

or the other.

The first thing we have to know is

that this is a game, therefore, as we

well know, when we participate in a game

we have to be prepared to win and

to lose.

To this day I can say with total

certainty that I am prepared to win and

just as I am prepared to lose, but

in the past I was not entirely prepared

to lose and I was one of those

photographers who, after not winning, wrote to the

organizer of the contest to ask me, hey,

excuse me, have you received the photos that

I sent?

Yes, yes, it was so with which we

have to be really prepared for that, it

is super important, right?

Second and not least, as I have told

you, there are a multitude of directories and

a multitude of contests, all with different styles

and all with different criteria, we have to

understand it, we will have to know.

I think I have sent to many contests

and some very, very different, in some I

have won and in some, as is obvious,

I have not done it.

What I would like to deepen in two

directories, which are almost like, I really don't

know if to call them almost opposite, but

I would like to explain to you, for

example, an example, I am talking about Fearless

Photographer and Jump Back Weddings, both have a

completely different style, therefore, if a photo is

awarded or you have achieved that one of

your photos is awarded in one of those

directories, for example in Jump Back Weddings, it

is more than unlikely that it will be

awarded in Fearless Photographer and vice versa.

Therefore, we have to study in detail, in

detail, first of all, what our work is

like, what kind of work we do and

where that work can work better, because depending

on the style we have, we will know

where to send it.

Do you understand me?

That is like the most important thing, almost

everything.

Once we have decided what style or what

directory suits us best, by its style, by

its criteria, by the type of colleagues there

are, by the type of couples that we

are going to find thanks to that directory,

remember that the ultimate goal, no, sorry, not

the ultimate goal, the main one, the main

goal of a wedding directory is that it

provides us with clients or that it provides

us with couples, therefore, winning or receiving awards

has to be designed for that, okay?

So, to what I am going, that I

am entertaining myself too much, if we already

decide that we are going to send a

guy, for example, from a directory, we are

going to study it in detail, but we

are going to study our work in more

detail.

We have to analyze it as if we

were the worst judges, that is to say,

we have to demand the maximum and be

consistent, think about it, okay, this photo works,

let's not do it or let's not fool

ourselves, right?

And something that has helped me enormously is

to count on colleagues, but with colleagues who

do not have hair on their tongue, they

do not give them any cut to tell

you, Víctor, it does not work, Víctor yes,

Víctor no, that is to say, I have

used as a multitude of colleagues, Susana Barbera,

Citra Lirico, Fran Boutounet, that is, I could

list 40 and the mother, right?

But that is super important because that, as

I tell you, is going to help us

grow, select and send, in short, the best

possible work.

It is not only worth that we control

the technique in an incredible way, it is

not only worth that our photo has a

really interesting composition, but it also has to

have incredible lighting and it also has to

have a moment that stands out, that is,

I mean, our photos have to stand out

from the rest, okay?

Keep in mind that a directory, whether it

is Fearless or Jamba Weddings or MyWeb or

ISPWWP, receives around 10,000 images, 15,000

images, with which the jury does not have

5 minutes to stop in each photo, simply

the time that each jury has to review

or the time they are going to dedicate

is something like this.

Therefore, our images have to stand out, that

is, they have to have something really special

so that, suddenly, that jury stops in our

photo and, in short, as that, that is,

as I ended up selecting it, right?

Something also important and that I have said

a lot of times, right?

Don't think that, I mean, something like the

following, right?

Okay, well, I send this image because I'm

not sure, but since I've seen images that

have won, like this one or even worse

than this one, is it possible that I

win?

No, in my case no, in my case

not, and in most of them I can

tell you that it sounds like a flute,

it's rather complicated, right?

I mean, it's a stroke of luck, maybe,

and it's like you almost get the lottery,

with which forget a little about that and

think that you send what is really good,

and what is not good, well, no, you

don't waste time or your money, because, as

you well know, in many directories, or in

most of them, you will have to pay,

that is, losing money is not a plan,

right?

There is a really important point, and it

is about photo clichés.

What is that about photo clichés?

I mean, of the 15,000 images that

are sent, for example, to a contest, there

is a certain percentage of photos that are

very similar to each other, and there are

patterns that are repeated, and I could almost

say that there are three patterns that are

going to be repeated, and there is a

certain percentage, very high, of that type of

images that are received and that, consequently, do

not end up being awarded.

I mean, there is a certain percentage, very

high, of images in which the couple looks

super small, and the space or the landscape

is very, very large.

I mean, either you present a photo that

breaks legs, or it is more than unlikely

that a photo like that will win an

award.

Why?

For the mere fact that there are many

photos like that, and the jury will not

finally discern which is perhaps the best, right?

There are other types of cliché images, which

are the images with a flash in contrast,

or with a flash that has used a

color gel, as in the images that I

am showing you, right?

Therefore, even if your image has a good

composition, good light, it is still following the

same pattern, with which it will not end

up working.

Other photos or other types of cliché photos

are, as you know, the photos in which

an iPhone or a phone has been placed

under the lens and that double reflection occurs.

Believe me, you see a multitude of images

like those, and you no longer know if

this image is better than the other, or

the other is better than that, so that

will cause a bit of madness among the

jury, and I myself, when I have been

judged, I have not directly awarded those, because

they have all seemed very, very similar to

me, you understand me?

And there is another super important thing, you

have to be honest with yourself, it is

not worth copying, it is not worth being

too inspired by images that have been awarded

in, well, in other summits, why?

Because the jury is not stupid, the jury,

like you, observes images from other contests, from

other rounds, from other summits, well, the jury

will see it and will find out, they

will say, okay, this photo looks like the

one that the photographer from the United States

or Spain took, and I already know that

the original is that, so avoid that, right?

In addition, I recommend that you be honest

with yourselves, and the good thing about being

honest is that in the end you will

find the most important thing of all, it

is your own style, and I know what

I'm talking about, right?

I mean, thanks to finding your own style,

you are going to reap more fruit than

other photographers who have not achieved, or have

not thought, or have not worked to achieve

that own style, with which it is really

important that we think about how, not how

to elaborate photographs for the contest, but how

to achieve your own style, or how to

elaborate your weddings so that, in short, your

images are really different from your competition, okay?

Speaking a little about preparing photos for a

contest, and I know that a lot, when

I started I thought about that, like many,

even if they say no, no, I mean,

damn, I'm going to work on such a

scene or such a photo to see if

I can scratch such a prize in such

a contest, that you are going to go

crazy, and you are going to screw it

up, and you are going to sink, and

I know a lot about that, I mean,

I know what I'm talking about, and be

careful with that, I mean, forget all that,

okay?

I mean, don't think, think about yourselves as

photographers, and think about your client, think about

your wedding, and how to give the best

of you, and I assure you that the

fruits will come, surely.

There is also something very important, which is

the luck factor, what is that about the

luck factor?

With many colleagues, we have talked about it

many times, and it is that depending on

where or what place your photo is located,

in the 15,000 that have been sent,

you can have more chances of winning or

not.

What does this mean?

It means that if in front of our

photo, of our image, there are five very,

very powerful images, for example, we have this

one, we have this one, this one, this

one, and this one, if our image is,

so to speak, of an average level, and

the previous five are of a higher level,

you already know what is going to happen,

the jury is used to a level so

high that it will not award for our

image, on the contrary, if the jury finds,

or if our image, sorry, is found after

five images that are, in quotes, very, very

normal, then we have more chances that our

photo is awarded.

Do you understand where the luck factor is

going?

And what is also something very, very, very

important that I had forgotten when I was

talking about that your photos have to have

composition, that is, moment, incredible light, it also

has to have coherence in your edition, in

your revelation.

If my edition is about playing with pronounced

shadows, with a high contrast, with very bright

lights, with slightly elevated colors, that is, therefore,

those images, that set of images, according to

which directories are going to stand out the

most, for example, we could say fearless photographers,

and there are going to be directories that

are not going to work as much as

you could say jump back weddings, you understand

where I'm going, right?

A little bit.

And finally, that is, we have to be,

as I say, prepared to lose and prepared

to win.

That we win a contest or that we

win an award does not mean that we

are better photographers than other colleagues, or worse,

obviously.

Remember that it is only the opinion of

four people who are part of a jury,

or five, or six, but that has to

be clear, right?

I mean, if we win, perfect, we celebrate

it, but we can't go up to La

Chepa thinking that we are already above anyone

else, and of course if we lose, neither.

I mean to lose, if we don't win,

if they don't score it, it's the opinion

of four, five, six colleagues.

The most important thing, as you already know,

is that our clients, or our clients, like

our work, that's the most important thing, and

if we don't win today, we'll do it

tomorrow.

Calm down, okay?

And finally, to finish, depending on the type

of contest that we present ourselves or want

to send, we have to think that, well,

if we want to win just for an

image, perfect, any image, well, any image that

picks up everything that I have mentioned now,

may be lucky enough to win, but if

you want to compete a little more, that

is, to be a little more or to

be a little better in what would be

an annual contest, you have to know that

depending on where you send, you don't just

have to be good at capturing moments, but

you also have to be good at capturing

portraits or poses, or knowing how to direct,

for example, in the couple, in addition to

having really incredible ideas and getting both poses

and moments that come out of the ordinary,

so you should control both disciplines, because for

everything to work in the end, for you

to get a good position in the final

ranking, you have to have absolute control of

everything, okay?

So I think I didn't leave anything, so

far more or less the things that I

thought were important that I should share with

all of you, so I hope you liked

this, I hope it helps you, and nothing

else, simply, well, if you are going to

send photos, well, I wish you luck and

calm, okay?

So nothing else, friends, I hope you liked

everything, until next time and see you soon

on Patreon, bye bye!