What we look for in an image

It's fun to be published. No question about that -- seeing your image in print in a magazine is a GREAT feeling regardless of whether it's a smaller magazine like ours or a huge one like Vogue or Cosmo. Obviously, it's nicer to be published in the big ones, but for the rest of us mortals, magazines that focus on quality over quantity tend to be where we focus.

FTP is focused on a magazine that is literally "For The Pictures" and, thus, we look at a few key things initially.

Lighting, Image Clarity & Focus

Two things that we first look for are lighting and focus/clarity. These are two of the most critical components of an image. The model’s eyes are the key, so use that as a baseline point to check out. If you can’t see the eyes clearly due to lack of lighting, the image probably doesn’t meet what we’re looking for. If they’re out of focus, it probably doesn’t either. Below is an example contrasted image (zoomed in at 100%) of in focus (right) and out of focus (left) by the same photographer, the same model, same shoot.

Every rule is made to be broken, so it doesn’t mean we’ll never publish images that don’t meet these two requirements, BUT it does make it more difficult for us to accept them! Keep that in mind while you’re shooting for submissions to @ftp or ANY magazine!

Interest / Emotion

Does the image convey something beyond "This is a picture of a 'pretty person'"? Some shots work well for that, but most of the time, we're looking for something that evokes a thought, an emotion, or some sort of interest.

By making someone feel, an image can be elevated to the next level. The image of Samm Sky by Brittany Curie Photography on the right is a good example of an image that, to us, conveys a warmth and an airiness that isn't usually captured. It pushes colors mixed with an interesting transparent dress and a watery backdrop to round it out.

Not all images have to have this, but it certainly helps.

Story

Stories can be told in many different ways. They can be in a single image or a grouping of images; they can be told simply through the eyes or pose. This is a second component to interest / emotion. By telling a story, you engage someone looking at your image.

Savanah pulls this off with ISO Glamour Photography in a great way. There's no question about the anguish, challenge and difficulty that the character in this image has to go through on a regular basis. This one happens to be an image that is part of a series, but could easily also have stood on its own.

Summary

In short, an image that doesn't hit at least some of the above is not something that we'll probably look at twice. We're not going to post examples of those that "didn't make it", but there are definitely images that we turned down during our selection phases.

We continue to look forward to your submissions and really love it when we get some awesome shots!

#SelectionCriteria