Question 1

What image formats can be uploaded?

Accepted Answer

All common image formats can be uploaded to your photo contest. This includes for example files with the extension jpg, jpeg, gif, tiff and png.

Question 2

What are the correct security and access settings for my photo contest?

Accepted Answer

PollUnit allows you to configure your competition according to your needs. Regarding security, fraud and access control, you should consider the following aspects when running a photo contest.

Photos that do not meet your criteria can be excluded by activating the approval dashboard. Every uploaded photo can be checked there by an administrator. Rejected photos are archived or deleted and accepted photos are published.

As sad as it is, cheating is not unusual in competitions. How much motivation your participants have to win the contest by cheating depends on your contest. If it's a photo contest between friends or colleagues, the motivation for cheating is probably very low. If you offer prize money, the incentive for fraud is rather high. The more your competition is protected against multiple votes, the higher the hurdle to participate. Our article about the prevention of multiple votes will help you decide.

In addition, you should add terms which clarify under which conditions voting is allowed. You should also mention that cheaters who are caught will be excluded from the photo contest and their content will be removed.

Question 3

How can I split a photo contest into an uploading and voting phase?

Accepted Answer

If you want to run a photo contest over a long period of time, such as several months, it may be useful to split the contest into two phases.

In a first phase in which participants can only upload pictures and in a second subsequent voting phase. This way every photographer has the same chances of winning.

You will find the settings for this in step 4 »Advanced«. By activating the options »Allow new photos« and »Allow voting« you can start your photo contest flexibly. You can adjust this setting at any time.

In addition, the sorting of the photos can be randomized per participant. This way you can eliminate voting bias that occurs when pictures have a higher chance of getting votes at the beginning and end.

Question 4

How can I hide the votes and ratings?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can configure your PollUnit according to your needs and determine the visibility of different information yourself. To run a photo competition with hidden votes or voters, you can make different visibility settings in step 4 »Advanced«.

These include »Hide award of the best choice«, »Hide Votes (until your PollUnit is closed)« and »Hide participants«. You can find more information in our help section.

Question 5

How can i ask photographers for captions and other information?

Accepted Answer

PollUnit offers you different possibilities to request any information. The caption, which can optionally be hidden, is a standard field. You can also request a subtitle and link. This information is visible for all participants in the photo contest and can be activated in the first step when creating the contest.

In step 4 »Advanced« you can define any fields that your participants have to fill in optionally or mandatory. This information is only visible to administrators. PollUnit distinguishes between voting participants and participants, who submit photos. The additional fields can be defined per group.

Question 6

How to run a photo contest?

Accepted Answer

With the PollUnit Wizard you can create your contest in a few minutes. A click on »Create PollUnit« opens the dialog and guides you step by step through the creation process. There are various functions available for configuration.

Nevertheless, you should have a goal and an idea of how you like to run your photo contest. Starting with the topic of the contest. Do you divide the competition into a submission and voting phase or can participants rate photos at the same time as submitting them? How to vote - like, love or rate with stars. Can participants win something, who is allowed to vote and what data is required.
Check our participant limits and decide for a PollUnit account. If there are only a few participants, the free version might be enough.

Write the conditions of participation and list everything your participants should know. For example, how you use the photos during and after the competition, prize money, exclusion criteria, etc. . If prizes are awarded, there is an incentive to cheat and you should consider how to prevent double and multiple voting and how to deal with cheating.

Do not publish your contest until you are absolutely sure that all precautions have been taken. Is it a public contest? Then use all channels to promote your contest - write in social media, use your mailing list and publish the contest on your own site.

Question 7

Does PollUnit get usage rights on the uploaded photos? What happens with the pictures after the competition?

Accepted Answer

No, PollUnit does not receive any rights of use for the photos! We are a service provider for photo contests. Therefore we only act on behalf of our customers or provide functions with which our customers can manage content independently. We will never use pictures for our own purposes, share them without permission, sell them etc.

If you want the right to use the submitted photos, you can create your own terms and conditions and inform your participants about it.

If you delete your photo contest, we will mark it as deleted for a period of time before we actually destroy the data irretrievably. This is done because it sometimes happens that users delete a PollUnit by mistake and so we can still help. To delete a PollUnit you need to click the context menu of your PollUnit as admin.
If the photo contests should be deleted immediately, we can do this on instruction.

However, our system does not protect the photos against downloads of preview data / screenshots / photographing the screen and the like. If you want to protect the pictures from your own participants, we recommend to put a watermark on the pictures.

We also offer a Data Protection Addendum (GDPR) for our business users.

More about running photo contests.

Question 8

How do I create a Halloween Photo Contest?

Accepted Answer

Creating a Halloween-themed photo contest is easy as a breeze! Click »Create PollUnit« and choose »Photo Contest«. Now you're in the photo contest creator and you can set up your contest in four simple steps.

In the first step add a name, a description and choose one of our voting types like »star rating«, »likes« or »hearts« and got to the next step.

In the step »Images« you can batch upload a bunch of spooky images. Skip this step if you want your participants to upload their own images.

In »Design« step you can choose a creepy theme or create your own one. We also have a spider effect 😉

In the »Advanced« step you find various other features helping you to create your customized photo contest. Some of those features are automated submission and voting periods, require additional attributes, customized thank you page, terms and conditions, and much more.

For small teams you can run a halloween competition with basic features for free. For more pricing information visit our price list.

Question 9

How can I use PollUnit as photo club / camera club software?

Accepted Answer

The PollUnit poll maker is generic tool to generate various types of votings and surveys. This includes image votings and photo competitions.

Your entrants can use the web entry system to upload images. Visitors can vote on each image or you allow voting for judges only. Various voting types will help you to rate submissions. A voting category feature allows to rate each image in different categories e.g. light, quality and idea.

The PollUnit landing page feature allows you to group all your club competitions on a single page and make it available via a single link.

Using the organization feature allows you to share a single-paid account along with other users like the competition secretary. This way you can manage all PollUnits as a team.

Rich evaluation features enables you to understand the voting process.

Question 10

How do I create a  fundraising photo contest?

Accepted Answer

Creating a fundraising photo contest can help raise funds for your cause or support your non-profit organization, engage your audience, showcase creativity, and generate exposure. By encouraging people to submit photos and vote, you can build a sense of community and excitement, while also promoting your cause on social media and other marketing channels.

Fees and donations can be charged from participants who want to submit photos or cast votes. It can be especially rewarding to run a donate-to-vote contest.

A donate-to-vote photo contest is a type of fundraising campaign where participants donate money in order to cast a vote for their favorite photo entry. This type of contest can be especially effective for social media campaigns, where participants can easily share their entries and encourage others to donate and vote. People can view the photos and choose to donate to their favorite entry. Each donation is counted as a vote for that photo, and the entry with the most votes at the end of the contest wins a prize. The higher the donation, the more points the photo receives.

The first step to creating a fundraising photo contest is to sign up for an PollUnit account. Additionally you need a Stripe account to receive payments. Your Stripe account can be connected to PollUnit via a PollUnit Wallet. More informations can be found in our fees and donations tutorial. Once you've successfully set up your PollUnit wallet you are ready to run as many fundraising photo contests you want.

Start the PollUnit photo contest maker by clicking »Create PollUnit« and choose »Photo Contest«. Next, you can customize your contest by adding a title, description, and any necessary instructions. You can also add your own design, set the start and end dates for the contest, ask for contact information, as well as any entry requirements. Proceed to the step »Advanced«. Here you find a submitter and voter section. For both participant types you can ask for donations and fees by checking the »Fee and Donation« checkbox and choosing your PollUnit wallet.

Once your PollUnit is set up, you can promote your photo contest to your audience. Share the link to your PollUnit on social media, email, and other marketing channels. Encourage participants to share their entries with their networks to increase engagement and exposure.

As the contest progresses, you can manage your PollUnit by monitoring the entries and voting process. Once the contest is over, you can announce the winners and distribute the prizes.

Create photo contests

Vote for photos

»Love«, »like« or rate photos:
The PollUnit voting types

Review, comment and rate photos in full screen

Rate photos in categories

Evaluate photo contest

Run GDPR-compliant photo competitions

Submission Approval Dashboard

Photo Competition in Pairwise Comparison

Further alternatives to the photo competition

Receive submission fees or donations

No installation nor registration necessary

Become more creative with photo challenges

Create photo contest:
It's that simple

Frequently Asked Questions