How to win photo competitions: tips and tricks
Are you a creative comper? I love entering photo and video competitions, and have been known to spend far too much time planning my daft entries! But as well as photo competitions with detailed rules and judging criteria, there are also lots of simple random prize draws that you can quickly enter with minimal effort!
In this post, I’ll share tips on choosing the right competitions, taking great photos, and creating winning entries that stand out – as well as sharing some of my own successful prize-winning snaps. Entering photo comps adds a fun element to your comping hobby, and can give you some brilliant memories.
Finding the right competitions to enter
As a comper, my focus isn’t on entering photography competitions like those in fancy travel or photography magazines, and I don’t aspire to have my pictures displayed in a gallery in the near future! I’m not a skilled photographer, but I do like to have fun and enter competitions on social media and brand websites where creativity and imagination is required. Anyone can win a photo competition, and my tips are designed to help you win the kind of fun competition you might see on a brand’s Instagram or advertised in their email newsletter!
You can find lots of great photo and video competitions shared on my Lucky Legends forum (members only – find out more at www.superlucky.me/membership). Legends members love to put the effort into entering unusual competitions and in many major competitions the members have won more than half of the available prizes, so if you love creative and effort-based comps you’re in great company.
You can also find comps on Google using searches by combining keywords like photo, upload, Instagram, share, win, competition! Here’s two example search links you can use and adapt:
- Search Google for UK photo upload Instagram competitions posted in the past week
- Search Google for fun photo comps posted in the past week
You will have a better chance of winning:
- Photo comps that are ongoing, with daily, weekly or monthly winners
- Photo comps where the photo has to be taken in a specific place or event (eg. at a local supermarket or at a festival!)
- Photo comps that require you to buy or own a product (eg. wearing a certain brand of clothing or creating a recipe using a specific ingredient)
Plan your entries in advance
For most photo competitions, you’ll probably need to take a brand new photo rather than use one you already have on your camera roll. Make a list or create a spreadsheet of photo competitions you want to enter, with closing dates and your creative ideas. Decide when you’ll do the shoot, and get hold of any relevant products or props beforehand.
For some photo comps you’ll need to go to a certain venue and take the photo – I like to plan a trip out which enables me to enter multiple location comps. For example if I need to travel to London, I search for London based photo comps and will use my travelcard to zip round the city taking photos at shops and restaurants, or looking for specific adverts on buses, taxis and billboards! These location-specific comps usually only get a handful of entries and I’ve won some nice prizes with them – I won £200 of Korean skincare by taking a photo of this Erborian ad in a tube station and posting on Instagram.
Take photos of things you’re passionate about
Take photos to share on your Instagram profile and story even when they’re not for competitions. If you’re really passionate about a hobby, could you start a second Insta account focused just on that – eg. for garden, home or baking photos? You might be into vegan food, cocktails, kids, craft, sport, fashion, pets, nature, home decor, football, cakes, etc. Lots of Instagram brands check profiles before they choose their winner, so make sure your bio and grid look good and reflect your personality and hobbies. Read more tips for Instagram.
Another tip is to always take photos of your prizes and tag the promoter to thank them – share on your Instagram story, or tweet them, if you don’t want them to be permanently on your Instagram grid. It gives you good practice for taking photos, promoters love it and you might even get a bonus prize if they want to use your shot elsewhere.
I love food and cooking, and tend to take a lot of photos of meals at restaurants! I prefer to take an overhead shot – I usually take this from quite a distance and experiment with the cropping until I’m happy. The photo below won me an Argos voucher from Tenderstem broccoli.
Get your family, pets and friends involved
A photo competition can be a nice way to get all the family together doing something fun and the photos are great memories to look back on. If you can involve kids and grandparents in a multi-generational shot it’s a bonus. And if your pet is photogenic and patient, they could be a winner!
Can you team up with a comping friend to work on your entries together? If a simple photo is required, you can help out by taking photos of each other. A couple of years ago there was an Instagram random prize draw where you needed to share a photo drinking Kopparberg with friends. I took cans to my local comping club meeting, then we all took lots of different photos with each other so everyone had an entry. We all won a prize!
Below is a lovely family photo with my husband Rob and son Ryland – we took it on Halloween at our local churchyard for full spooky vibes, and it won us a chocolate hamper!
Read the rules carefully
For any competition that needs time spent on it, you should read the instructions and the T&Cs carefully. Does the product need to feature in the photo? What are the tags and hashtags to use? Can under 18s feature in the photo? For a photo competition it’s essential to know if the winner is randomly chosen, or judged according to a set criteria (these criteria should be listed in the T&Cs – it’s usually a combination of creative, original, innovative or relevant to the brand). If the winner is chosen at random, you don’t need to dedicate as much time to your entry as you would if it was judged – but you should still check it follows the rules and is decent quality. Some promoters do hand pick ‘random’ winners rather than using a randomiser tool, so if it’s a prize you really want it’s still worth putting the effort in – just in case!
For some photo comps you can enter multiple times, and this will give you a better chance of a win. Take a whole set of slightly different photos as a batch, then enter one a day to increase your chance of winning (I suggest entering via Insta story, Facebook or Twitter rather than filling your Instagram grid with repetitive photos). Doritos ran a competition to promote their special limited edition ‘Doritos Loaded’ bag at KFC – it ran for two weeks and you could upload an entry every day, so my husband helped me with a photo shoot to get lots of different photos. Each week, they chose 100 entries at random and THEN judged them – so I wanted to make sure as many of my entries got through to be judged as possible.
In the end it was this Finger Lickin’ Good shot that won me the top prize of an iPhone 18 Pro…
If you’ve put a lot of effort into a comp and there weren’t many entries, set a reminder to check back and see that a winner was chosen or announced – and also check that the winner followed the rules. In several cases it’s been pointed out to promoters that the winning photo wasn’t a valid entry, and they’ve had to choose a replacement or additional winner! If you don’t think they’ve chosen a winner, be persistent in chasing them up – there’s advice in this blog post.
Use a timer and tripod to take photos
If you don’t have anyone to take your photo, use the handy timer setting on your phone. On an iPhone, select a 3, 5 or 10 second timer by tapping the small up arrow at the top of the screen, then the clock icon at the bottom. After pressing the shutter button you get an on screen countdown. This is great for selfies so you can reach your arm out further away, or if you need to balance your phone somewhere so you can get yourself into the shot. Using the timer can also help keep the camera steady, without you worrying about pressing the shutter button – use both hands to hold the phone! I’ve used my timer to take photos when I’ve been out running, cycling or walking alone. If you have an Apple watch or a stylus, you should also be able to use that as a remote to take a photo.
If you enjoy making videos, you might want to invest in a tripod to keep your camera steady – it’s helpful for making selfie TikToks or Reels for Instagram. The photo below won me a £250 Decathlon voucher in an Instagram competition – it took a few attempts to get the timing of my jump right! I now have a great tripod with a remote that clips into the leg, so I can have that in my hand and press the button to take a shot – it was £20 from Amazon (my affiliate link)
Make your entry stand out
If the competition entries are public (using a hashtag, in a gallery or as comments on a post), have a look through before taking your own photo. What can you do that will make your entry stand out? Think about bright colours (or even black and white!), using relevant or funny costumes, props, etc. Sometimes all you need is a human in the photo to make it different to the other entries – or maybe yours could be the only entry without a human!
Adjust the brightness, sharpen the image, add a vignette or use filters and effects to improve the shot you should be able to do all of this on your phone or using Instagram filters! And experiment with unusual angles – take your shot from high up, or from near the ground. The Lego photo below taken close to the ground won a family holiday to Denmark in a Shell competition!
Don’t let a lack of skill or equipment put you off
For a judged creative competition, sometimes it’s the idea rather than the execution that matters. If your idea is original and the judges can see how much effort you put in, that’s more valuable than a photo that’s fantastic quality, but isn’t original or creative. For a randomly chosen winner, it shouldn’t matter what the quality of your photo is, as long as it’s a valid entry and has followed the rules.
If you can’t get out and about to take photos, you can get creative at home with household items. Create a scene on the carpet and take an overhead shot, or take some fun before and after photos. Use wallpaper or fabric as backdrops for overhead ‘flat lay’ type shots.
For Halloween pumpkin competitions, don’t worry if you’re not an expert carver. If the competition rules don’t specify the entry must be a carved pumpkin, you can paint or decorate your pumpkin instead!
Recycle your photo entries
If you’re setting up a photo specifically for a competition, take lots of photos rather just a single shot – you might be able to use the photos in future competitions. Some brands do specify the photo must be original, or it must never have been entered into a competition before. Taking slightly different versions of it will help you get around this rule.
If it’s a photo that requires a product to be featured (eg. a cereal box or drink), take extra photos without the product in shot that you can use in other comps. You can also recycle your photo by sending it off to a magazine – you might win cash or a prize! Try Chat or Pick Me Up. Most magazines specify that the content you send should be original, so don’t send the same photo to several publications at the same time! Popular themes are recreating family photos, a favourite recipe, retro photos, fancy dress outfits, children’s craft projects, or naughty pets. Send themed content for events such as Easter, Halloween and Christmas up to 6 months in advance of the date – magazines will be planning ahead.
Compers News award lots of prizes for photos too – send in photos of your prizes, your holiday wins, and your funny entries. If you win a photo competition, send your winning entry to CN along with a photo of the prize too! Find out more about Compers News at www.superlucky.me/compersnews. If you’re a current CN subscriber, don’t miss my exclusive photo comp on page 11 of the October 2026 issue!
Recycle old family snaps too, by taking photos of the prints with your phone – vintage photos are great for Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Valentine’s photo comps (especially if you have a good story to accompany them in the caption).
Don’t be afraid to have fun!
Lots of compers win big prizes because they’ve been brave enough to get out in public and take silly photos! Promoters love to see you’ve gone the extra mile, especially if you make the effort to include something relevant to their brand. If you have a daft idea, go for it! Even if you don’t win you’ll always have the photo as a funny memory. Read more about extreme comping and see some more of my own fun competition entries here.
Use props in your photos
Collect wigs, hats, sunglasses and fancy dress costumes – you never know when they will come in handy (and if you don’t like selfies, they can be a good way to disguise yourself). If you need to take a photo at a venue, take a relevant prop with you (eg. a Santa hat for Christmas comps). For foodie photos, collect unusual crockery, napkins, cutting boards and tablecloths from charity shops or second-hand markets. Collect cardboard, paint and packaging items if you have room – dolls, cuddly toys or Lego figures are great to include in creative photos.
Organise photos on your mobile device
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got thousands of photos on your phone. But if you need to find a specific photo quickly to enter a competition, it can be a nightmare finding it!
It’s a good idea to organise your camera roll into themed albums – do this when you’re stuck somewhere with no WiFi or mobile data coverage (on a flight is ideal). Systematically work through your camera roll, filing photos that you might be able to use for competitions – favourite bakes, DIY projects, pet photos and fun selfies. You could also create folders for your competition receipts, important ID, prize photos, etc.
The latest iPhones have AI so you can search for ‘cocktails’ for example, and it will show you photos that feature cocktails. This was handy to use for a recent World Egg Day comp where the first 200 entrants who shared a photo of an egg dish won a prize – a search on ‘eggs’ pulled up four photos of ramen bowls I had made!
I hope you found these tips helpful – Lucky Legends members can also view an accompanying video with more tips, featuring guest compers Naomi and Sophie from A Little Friendly Competition podcast. Find the link to watch on the Lucky Legends forum.
There’s lots more tips on photo comps and organisation in my BootComp Comping Challenge Workbook too!
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