Best Solo Portrait Award: 2024 SmokeNINJA Portrait Contest

May 30, 2024

Congratulations to the winners of the SmokeNINJA Portrait Contest! Your innovative use of PMI's fog machines has captivated and evoked emotion, demonstrating your creativity, technical mastery and artistic vision. We are thrilled to present you with the incredible prizes provided by our partners Laowa, Zhiyun, and SmallRig. Thank you to all the participants for your inspiring commitment to the art of portrait photography. Congratulations once again to the winners, and we look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

All winners will be contacted via media@pmigear.com in the next few days regarding their win!

BEST SOLO PORTRAIT AWARD

@paulwilkinsonphotography

JUDGE COMMENTS:

"I really like how the photographer made the empty space around the model look busy utilizing the SmokeNINJA, but still make her the main subject of the photo. The lighting is also adding the perfect mood to the whole photo." — Daniel Do

"I love the mood on this photo. I know it's not easy to manage smoke in a wide space. And it filled beautifully, it's not too much and it's not less smoked. The texture is in there and it filled all over the frame. The model also has a very nice expression & pose. Light control also very nice on it. Great job." — Martha Suherman

"At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much storytelling within the image. However, I do really enjoy the visual execution of it, the backlighting and high-key lighting lends itself to a wonderful overall tone and the smoke is well placed to bring up the overall ambience and contrast of the image. It can be really challenging to have smoke bring up black levels and have to re-introduce contrast with lighting but this photography did it very well and the image doesn’t feel flat or washed out despite the high level of smoke atmosphere. I like the grade, choice of outfit and umbrella prop." — Jon Simo