Downward Spiral was the judge’s favourite image during our Open Print competition on October 25th. The image, taken on an iPhone, perfectly illustrates that expensive photographic equipment is not always essential to achieve a competition score of 10/10. The judge explained that generally about 70% of his score is for technical competence with the other 30% reflecting subjective items that enhance and detract from the image including the “wow” factor that makes the image stand out from the rest.

The appeal to the judge was also personal in that he had had a frightening experience whilst taking a similar shot so appreciated the author's intent in taking this image.

Alex commented that this staircase image was taken in a Paris hotel during a visit earlier this year, using my iPhone. The information on the phone reads 26mm @ f1.6. Which, of course, is automatically set by the phone. Very little processing was done except to darken the image for dramatic effect.