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Photography

A photography awards platform where image quality survives the submission process

Your judges need to evaluate at full resolution, not squint at compressed thumbnails. Zealous losslessly preserves every pixel from upload to final round.

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Used by 500+ incredible orgs worldwide including:

Stop losing image quality to lossy compression

Photographers spend hours calibrating colour and sharpness. Then your platform compresses their 50MB TIFF into a muddy JPEG and judges score what‘s left. That‘s not a fair programme.

Zealous uses lossless image compression. What your entrants upload is what your judges see. Full resolution, accurate colour, no degradation.

Uploading a series shouldn‘t feel like a workaround

Photo essays and documentary series need sequencing. Most platforms treat multiple images as a clumsy gallery dump, breaking the narrative your entrants worked to build.

Unlimited file uploads per entry let photographers submit ordered series with full control. Judges view them in sequence, in-browser, at the quality intended.

Zealous is more sophisticated than the other platforms we have used and also very user friendly

Michael Weir,
Belfast Photo Festival

Judging thousands of photos without burning out your panel

High-volume photography programmes exhaust judges fast. Fatigue sets in, scoring drifts, and your most experienced panellists stop responding to emails by round two.

Multi-round judging lets you screen entries down before your expert panel sees them. Real-time progress tracking and automated reminders keep everyone on schedule.

From 200 entries this year to 2,000 next year

A successful photography award grows quickly. Camera manufacturers promote it, photo festivals share it, and suddenly your spreadsheet-based workflow collapses under the weight.

Zealous handles 50 to 10,000+ entries on the same platform. Clone your programme for the next edition and launch again in minutes.

Zealous proved critical to the success of our region-wide photography competition

Sally Shaw
Firstsite

Launch your photography programme today

Set up in under 48 hours. Preserve full image quality. Give your judges the tools to evaluate properly. Monthly billing, cancel anytime.

Launch in minutes, not months

Pick a template, add your branding, set your categories (single image, series, emerging talent, whatever you need) and open for submissions. Most photography programmes launch within 48 hours. Sign-up takes two minutes.

On the Pro tier, you get a branded programme page with your logo, colours, and all the details entrants need. It looks like yours, because it is.

Built for how programmes actually work

Run open calls alongside invited submissions. Set up separate categories for professional, amateur, and student photographers. Combine public voting with expert judging in the same programme. Your rules, not ours.

Welcome every type of content and talent

Photographers upload high-resolution images with no storage restrictions. Need video for multimedia categories? Files up to 4GB are supported. Embedded Vimeo content works too, for those crossover documentary projects.

Judges view entries in rich visual presentation directly in the browser. They can open multiple entries in separate tabs to compare work across submissions.

Judging that gets completed on time

Anonymous judging mode hides photographer names, bios, and personal details automatically. Your panel scores the photograph, not the reputation. Criteria-based scoring with variable weighting keeps evaluation consistent across hundreds of entries.

Track every judge‘s progress in real time from your dashboard. See who‘s fallen behind, send a reminder with one click, and export scores when you need them.

Scale smartly without surprise costs

Monthly billing with no annual lock-in. Pause your account between award cycles and only pay when you‘re running a programme. Entry fees go directly to your Stripe account with no commission taken by Zealous.

Organisations that switch to Zealous see an average 22% increase in submissions year on year. More entries, more revenue, same workload. Scale without hiring.

Intuitive awards management to reduce your workloads

Save everyone time at each step of your process.

FAQ

Does Zealous compress uploaded photographs during submission?

Yes. but Zealous uses lossless image compression at every stage to present the image in the most accurate way across devices. This guarantee effective loading times across devices without impacting the visual accuracy of the image.

How do photographers submit a series or photo essay?

Each entry supports unlimited file uploads, so photographers can submit an ordered sequence of images as a single entry. Judges view the series in the intended order, in-browser, at full resolution.

Can judges view photographs at full resolution on screen?

Yes. Images display in rich visual presentation directly in the browser. Judges can also open entries in separate tabs to compare photographs across submissions without losing quality.

How does anonymous judging work for photography awards?

Anonymous judging mode automatically hides all personal details from judges. They see only the photographs and any accompanying statements you choose to include. Names, bios, and locations stay hidden.

Can we run separate categories for amateur and professional photographers?

Yes. You can create as many categories as you need. Single image, series, emerging talent, thematic categories. Each can have its own criteria, entry fees, and judging panels.

What happens to entry fees from our photography programme?

Entry fees go directly to your Stripe account. Zealous takes a small commission on payments. You control your funds and can customise your normal payout schedule on Stripe directly.

Can we handle over 5,000 entries in a single programme?

Yes. Zealous handles programmes from 50 to over 10,000 entries. Multi-round judging lets you screen high volumes down efficiently before your expert panel reviews the shortlist.

How do we relaunch our photography awards for the next edition?

Clone your existing programme with one click. All your categories, criteria, branding, and settings carry over. Update the dates and details, then you‘re open for submissions again.