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The search for the world’s best Nikon photographer of 2023 continues! In each issue of N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine, the monthly N-Photo POTY 2021 photo contest’s top 10 images are selected by the N-Photo team.
12 competitions will appear throughout 2023 via online photography contest website Photocrowd. The overall N-Photo Photographer of the Year 2023 – and winner of the grand prize – will be crowned in the January 2024 issue. So get out there and start shooting your best photographs today!
• Read more: Best Nikon camera
Read on to find out what you can win, to marvel at the winning image of each round – completed so far – plus, a sneak peek at the rounds that are yet to come. A £100 WhiteWall Photo Lab voucher is up for grabs each month – awarded to the winner of each round – as is the grand prize of a Nikon Z 9 for the overall winner of the competition.
Every year we receive thousands of incredible entries, so good luck, the next winner could be you!
WIN! A Nikon Z 9 flagship mirrorless camera!
The overall winner of N-Photo’s Photographer of the Year 2023 will receive the grand prize of a Nikon Z 9 – Nikon’s most powerful camera ever!
When N-Photo reviewed the Nikon Z 9, we called it: “Simply the best camera ever!” And now, together with Nikon UK, we’re giving you the chance to win the flagship Z camera. It’s an incredible prize that’s worth a whopping £5299/$5499. All you have to do is enter any of the 12 rounds of NPOTY 2023 to be in with a chance of taking Nikon’s most advanced camera home and being crowned N-Photo’s Photographer of the Year 2023.
WIN! A WhiteWall Photo Lab voucher Worth £100!
Witness your work as a glorious gallery-quality print from award-winning online photo laboratory WhiteWall. The winner of each round, as judged by the N-Photo team, will receive a £100 WhiteWall voucher to have their entry printed in a range of stylish options including acrylic, aluminium, giclée and canvas in a huge array of sizes.
Round 1: Still life
The beautiful Rembrandt-style lighting in this image was ‘light painted’ using a single light source. This was achieved by maintaining a fixed composition and photographing a sequence of images, with a continuous light beamed onto the image at various points. These images were then blended together in post. The attractive arrangement, seamless edit and beautiful, classic lighting earned this entry our top spot.
Round 2: Portraits
This cinematic still has conjured up ample storytelling potential. The mage gazes past the viewer, directing her magic towards something beyond the frame. Golden light pulls the subject from the dark background and the viewer is drawn to her clearly defined and pin-sharp eyes. The fiery sparks and glow complement the overall warm tones. A magical portrait and a deserved winner!
Round 3: Wildlife
This striking minimalist exposure has made use of high-contrast lighting and a dark background by exposing for the highlights and rendering everything else near black. The result is a low-key lighting effect that required little attention in post, beyond a mono conversion and a dash of contrast. It’s made all the more impressive when you consider that it was shot from a moving boat.
Round 4: Flowers & Plants
This crocus was severed due to heavy winds. After half an hour, sheltered inside, it opened up to reveal a magnificent, purple flower. We love how clean and crisp this portrait is. An aperture of f/14 has provided a large enough depth of field to render the stamen and surrounding water droplets tack-sharp. But the real genius is the choice of background. Pink and purple are analogous colours (neighbours on the colour wheel), while also complementing the green stem perfectly.
Round 5: Architecture
This look-up shot was captured within the Qasr Al Watan, Abu Dhabi. A wide-angle focal length, narrow aperture and accurate focusing has created front-to-back sharpness, but what makes this image really stand out is the composition. The symmetry is flawless; each corner lines up and the dome is positioned right in the centre of the frame. The icing on the cake is the spotlight starbursts.
Round 6: Performance
This entry is beautifully lit and perfectly sharp, but the real standout feature is the dancers’ dynamic poses. The graceful lines and shapes formed by their bodies are aesthetically pleasing and the couple’s faces haven’t been obscured. To top it off, the woman’s dress has been frozen while billowing beautifully, adding to the pleasing selection of shapes and conveying movement.
Round 7: Travel
The Northern Lights are notoriously unpredictable, but this image was captured – can you believe – on the first night of a trip to Iceland. An awful lot of work went into this image. It’s a four-photo composite, two for the sky and two for the foreground. The natural-looking blend – created using luminosity masks – and the way the aurora stretches right across the sky are standout features. A fantastic image.
What round is next?
Three rounds remain before we crown N-Photo’s Photographer of the Year 2023:
AUTUMN
Opens: 24 Aug Closes: 28 Sep
FOOD
Opens: 21 Sept Closes: 26 Oct
WINTER
Opens: 19 Oct Closes: 23 Nov
Entry details:
Do: Ensure your photo was taken on a Nikon camera (any photo not taken on a Nikon camera will be disqualified from the competition)
Do not: Have a watermark on your photograph
And to give yourself the best chance of being chosen...
Have EXIF data in your photo (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 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 10 images in N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.
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