Critique the Community
Print Worthy
Submit your best Print Worthy photos
Congratulations to the winners!
Congrats to all the winners from the March Print Worthy Critique the Community. You can see the finalists above as well as see every image featured in the video episode. If you want to check out all the amazing submissions, scroll down below the comments and you can even sort by the highest rated to see how our community rated the images.
Rules & Prizes
Welcome to the March Critique the Community! This month we want to see your most "Print Worthy" photographs, and the first place winner will receive a $1000 credit to print their photos through Lumaprints!
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 "print worthy" images, we are imagining a single image printed large and making a statement within a room or space. Your images could be abstract or literal, fine art or a family memory, or simply an awesome photograph that demands being printed large.
- 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, why this photo would do well as a large print, and some of the challenges you faced when capturing the image. Any photo with a single sentence description will not be included.
Prizes
First Place - One lucky winner will receive a $1000 print credit to use through the print lab Lumaprints. Lumaprints is one of the top print labs in the US and they offer both traditional print lab services as well as customer drop shipping, client online store integration, and bulk order printing. Some of the most popular products they offer are Fine Art Paper Prints, Metal Prints, and Foam Mounted Prints, but they also offer framing for many of these traditional printing options too. This prize is valued at $1000
Second Place - The second place winner of this critique will receive a full copy of ACDSee's Photo Studio Ultimate 2026. This power photography editing suite gives photographers the ability to edit, cull, catalog, and retouch all of their images in one easy to use program. Packed with some of the latest Ai tools like Sky Replacement, Face Detect, Auto Selections, and Splotch Removal, Photo Studio Ultimate gives photographers state of the art editing tools that both save time and produce professional results. This prize is valued at $109.
Third Place - As always, our third place winner 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.
Good luck to everyone who enters and we look forward to seeing your best Print Worthy photographs!
Sun, 03/29/2026 - 23:30
This contest has ended.
250 people have cast a total of 15,093 votes on 512 entries from 239 participants
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.
80 Comments
People are so brutal with their ratings! I feel like there are so many beautiful photos in here, and yet they are "Needs Work" down at the bottom. It's so discouraging for all of us photographers who work hard on creating an image! I would also like to point out that while photography is an art and it's very subjective in terms of "I like this" or "I like that", there is still a general "this is a good image". If you don't like the image personally but think it's a good image for other people, then please don't say "Two stars because I don't like it." Instead, say "I think this is a photo that others might like, and thus, I am going to leave it four stars." Please and thank you.
I think this contest has really caused some confusion when it comes to voting, so I don't think you should judge people based on how they voted on this particular contest. From reading all the comments, it seems as if some are voting 1s and 2s because they don't think the photos are print worthy of hanging on a wall, not based on the usual "snapshot" and "needs work."
This contest taught me the following things:
-When you get 24 votes "Needs work" it actually means your work is worth something :))
-Low voters think the voting is anonymous... but I'm not really a revengeful person.
Hi Dave, Glad to hear you are not revengeful! :-)
I would suggest a different way of looking at the scores for this contest. Remember, the scores in this particular case have only one purpose: to identify the best images among the pictures submitted for the purpose specified in the contest rules. Thankfully, the score doesn't affect the score.of the same image if it is also posted on your portfolio page!
Think of the contest scores like a test which is graded "on the curve." The score itself is not the issue. It's how the score of a particular image compares to the scores of the other images.that were graded at the same time.
IMHO, I think the system works. The 15 images with the highest scores happen to include the images that I rated most highly. And any of the numerical top 10 is easily deserving of one of the top prizes. And the rest of the images, however good they are, are not quite as good as the top 10.
Is there a way to sort images by total votes etc...
Hi RishI,
If they do the same thing as in the past, once the voting is over they add a "Best Rated" button to the submissions page. Check out the "Best of 2025" contest to see the button.
Hi, Robert!
My biggest issue is that I'm an old school. I look at any single image as a photograph which I would like to have on my wall. The wall can be in the office, in the garage, at the bar, therefore the images are of a different nature. I'm that old school that I don't like any annotation to a photograph, as I believe the photograph itself should tell a story, just like a painting. Imagine asking Rembrandt to put 10 words under his masterpieces to describe what he meant by this.
I can't rate a photograph from 1 to 5, as I just like it or not. If I don't I just don't touch it at all, if I do I put all 5, I don't feel it's unjustified. Also, it takes me 20 seconds to like it or not.
But I'm having fun participating in any way, cause it's the way to meet very talented people around me, be inspired and be part of it.
As per "the system works", even democracy is not always working, so I don't judge :))
IMHO, the simple voting having just one button "like" would work even better as eliminates deliberate low voters completely. But, most likely, eliminates the fun effect as well.
So, good luck in the contest.
Well said Dave, I must be old school too. I began photographing In 1958 and I'm still having fun!
Well said indeed! I look at the great images on fstoppers, and am constantly inspired to use what I see to improve my own pictures. And talking with members who are equally passionate about photography is always a pleasure!
I have no doubt about it!
Thank you! Fun - is the most important factor when doing photography as a hobby. I hope I won't lose it due to social media, avoiding the pressure the youngsters have these days.
Dave, Robert and all others concern love of the medium, subject and the art of photography are the ultimate in the finale desired image.
I have a proposal.. can we just agree to drop the rating descriptions from the contest entries? It seems most people ignore them anyways when they are voting. I think the descriptions make sense for what is in our portfolios/accounts, but for contests let it just be a rating from 1-5 for how much you like the photo.
Sounds good to me.
Excellent point! And I am looking forward to the announcement of the winners.
Sounds awful to eliminate something because of lack of use, the comment section in the general forum is rarely used shall that also be eliminated? Might as well just use "mass media social media"!
As I mentioned and has been discussed at length above, its being used incorrectly by most voters.. and it’s a well known fact that the only thing worse than no data is incorrect data.
I honestly don’t see the relevance of your comment since incorrect use is very different from not used.
I agree with you. I'm reasonably sure that the majority of people either do not understand or have not even read the criteria for the voting system. It's also pretty easy to miss the fact that there are any sort of stated criteria associated with a vote.
I'm not even convinced that the judges, Lee and Patrick, follow their own criteria. I have watched them numerous times in the past critique an image for something they don't like or would change (presumably saying something about the image that needs work) and then give it a score of three or four. It seems like virtually all of the images they critique need work, but score portfolio-worthy or higher. So if that's true, then the scoring system does not have clear dividing lines. Instead, it appears the image can fall into two scoring categories at once. In other words, it can need work and be portfolio-worthy at the same time. And it's also possibly true that the judges are biased in reverse of the popular vote. Lee and Patrick over rate image scores and community voters under rate them.
So, yes, a scale that simply measures how well someone likes the picture makes more sense. Every contest generates these sort of comments in frustration with the scores. If the system is misunderstood or confusing, it should be fixed. Then the only thing we'd have to get mad about is how voters could like some other picture more than our own. At least we'd be admitting though that scores are entirely subjective. And we wouldn't be left to wonder what it is that needs work about the majority of photos entered into the contest.
Again, this is a reminder to the Fstoppers team that I have not received the tutorial that I won in the color contest. Will somebody even respond to my messages?
I agree with some others that the voting system should be 1-5 depending on how much you like the photo based on the contest criteria. How much do you like the photos based on you hanging it on your wall…
I seems that the "you haven't rated" view does not work - it shows images that I have rated.
I've had the same trouble voting, there is something wrong with the voting system. I've never had this problem voting in earlier contests.
I have rated photos in the general memberships portfolios and the rating records in both their portfolio and CTC Entries that I didn't rate! ?