Critique the Community
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Enter your Best "Dark" or "Low-Key" images
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Rules & Prizes
Welcome to the April Critique the Community! For this contest/critique, we are doing another abstract theme that should allow more photographers to enter. For this month we want to see your most "dark" or "low key" photographs. If you have images that play off of darker tones or contain mostly black, unlit areas, we would love to see them!
Rules
- Each photographer may submit up to three images.
- This month's contest features a pretty broad theme, therefore any type of photograph is acceptable. When thinking about "dark" or "low-key" images, your photo must primarily feature dark colors and tones.
- 10 Images will be chosen by Lee and Patrick for the video critique.
- Finally, every image submitted MUST HAVE some written commentary on how the image was created, what gear was used, and some of the challenges you faced when capturing the image. Any photo with a single sentence description will not be included.
Prizes
First, Second, and Third Place - This month the top 3 images will receive their choice of any Fstoppers photography tutorial found in the Fstoppers Store. Our elaborate and exhaustive photography tutorials not only help photographers immediately start taking professional quality images, but most of our tutorials also share business and marketing techniques that can help make photography a full time income. With genres like Headshots, Landscapes, Architecture and Real Estate, Fashion, Macro, and Product Photography, there is something for every photographer no matter what genre you specialize in. This prize is valued at $299.
BONUS SPRING OFFER
We have decided to extend our 50% off an additional month. For the entire month of April we are offering you, our valued community members, the largest single sale on EVERY Photography Tutorial in the Fstoppers Store.
From now until April 31st you can use the discount code "CTC50" and save 50% on anything in your cart. We are only offering this sales here to our most loyal Critique the Community members as a thank you for all the support you've given us over the years and for participating each month in these photo contests.
Good luck to everyone who enters and we look forward to seeing your best "dark" photographs!
Sat, 05/30/2026 - 12:30
New submissions are closed.
172 people have cast a total of 8,283 votes on 428 entries from 222 participants
Winners have not yet been announced.
Contest Submissions
Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.
Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.
32 Comments
Images in your gallery will always rate higher than contest, and those selected may or may not follow the posted theme.
That's actually not true. The contest works are really being sandbagging. The simplified score system might actually solve this issue, eliminating biased downgraders.
So images are not rated lower in contests than your personal gallery?
So the images are rated fairly throughout the contest.
I am not seeing any "ai photographers" in the submissions...
it could be that the other competitions you've tried were more street photography oriented. For this contest, if you read what each rating actually means on this platform, your score will make sense to you.
It is also interesting to see how the same image on average gets higher ratings out of competition. That curious pattern does imply that something is going on. Maybe it is a strategy some people use to do better themselves?
The low ratings are anonymous, and the competitions get more visibility and attention than individual posts
Due to higher visibility the rating for the contest photos could be higher or lower, as it depends. Here in contests the contest ratings are constantly lower, the images are constantly downgraded by competitions, because there is a prize involved.
It could also be that folk rate a picture lower if they feel it doesn't meet the brief.
That cannot explain the on average lower ratings in contests. Everything equal images should on average get the same rating.
Its a mixture of people intentionally giving low votes and all us of not having work as strong as we think it is.
Absolutely agree. The current contest scoring system is highly vulnerable for abuse. If a group of people downgrade all of the entries and upgrade the group's entries, it makes the group entries contest favourites. In case the group scores first three places, they can share the prize.
Again, I could be terribly wrong :))
And I thought I was cynical, LOL...I really doubt an actual "group" would conspire to do something like that, I think it would have to be a pretty large group...plus the populous vote aren't the judges of the winners either, technically.
But I think it is plausible that a single individual could have many accounts and do as you suggest, although I don't think it would result in their success in winning.
But the "voting trends" in these contests does affect us as individuals with feelings, especially when we are sharing "our art" and know that what we have shared should never receive anything less than a "2" at least by definition stated in the scoring explanations. And then injury added to insult - no constructive critique provided.
It can be discouraging, but if you like your images and are satisfied personally you have succeeded, perhaps not in a high community voting scenario, but you are getting out there doing what you love, photography - and sharing your passion, that's confidence spreading it's wings! Keep standing tall and dismiss the "naysayers"!
As I told my husband this morning, when one of my videos got a bad comment from someone, "It's the internet." I've been online since before the internet became a thing, running my own BBS from my home computer in the late 80's, and am a global moderator for a software company's forum, so none of this surprises me. There will always be people who can only feel good by making others feel bad. I choose not to let them have that power.
100% agree. Haters will hate. And the reason they do it more often on social media is because they are incognito, mostly private accounts (e.g. on Instagram).
Identifiable members usually behave :))
You're right, Frank... voting does take a toll. My 20 portfolio images are rated between a low of 3.2 and high of 4.3 for an average of 3.65. I have never scored at 3.0 or higher though in a contest. I can't remember for sure that I've even made it as high as 2.5. Every last photo I've entered into a contest needs work. That's discouraging. It's also not true. In fact, I can tell from the math in the first few votes that I'm even getting some 1 votes. So some people think my images are snapshots? Really?
Okay, whatever the reason or theory behind that doesn't really matter. And I realize their votes don't decide the contest winners. But I'm no longer going to give those people the satisfaction of using my images to make them feel better. These complaints about low-ball scores have been happening in every contest since I can remember. And I'm done entering these contests until it changes. Not that anyone else cares, but I won''t feel so bad. There are other places to share photos without the insults.
Ed, I’m sure you are not alone in your method of protest - abstaining from entering, but doesn’t that still give the lowball-ers a win? I get it though, and I have not always entered the monthly contest, sometimes for the same reasoning, but I think still sharing our “art” here on this forum is a gift that I should take advantage of. I think I can risk the absurd negativity (the countless number of “1” votes), in the hopes of constructive critique and in sharing my vision and art with the community.
Does it give them a win? I don't know. I don't know who they are, or for sure why they vote that way. I'm pretty sure it's just a simple matter of how much (on a scale of 1-5) someone likes the picture. And even if it's a world-class photo, some people won't like it because the subject is of no particular interest. Photography is subjective that way for many people. However, if there were an accompanying critique, I could appreciate where someone was coming from, and take the vote for what it was worth. Alas, although those sort of suggestions have been made before, the rules and contest guidelines never change. Voters are anonymous and no explanations for their votes are given, so without learning anything constructive about the images, I see this format as a waste of time.
Marian probably has the better approach, if you can handle it that way. I'm better at just removing things that bug me. And go elsewhere. The Fstoppers articles provide a place to exchange ideas and photos, mostly without the mystery of who is trying to sabotage the system. And the best of all places for me to share photography is a local group of 10-12 people who meet once a month to share prints and discuss them. You'd be amazed how much more gracious people can be in real life than in an online forum.
Frank, you are right. Scoring systems, internet votes, instagram constant algorithm changes won't change my attitude towards my favourite hobby - photography.
Even if at some point I decide not to post, I will print and hang it in my garage or office :))
How do you know the other photographs scores? I can't see them, only the score on my own photo. Am I missing something?
You have to vote in them first. Then you can see the score.
Looking at the rating, i typically vote above the average, and i think there is a heavy element of strategic voting here
So many really great photos.
The level of photos entered in this contest, in my opinion, are really, really good! I'm glad I don't have to narrow down the field to just 10, and select only 3! Fantastic job to the photographers!
There are about 500 photographs; I checked a handful of them, and the majority can barely reach three stars.