Proline Photo Contest Tips
Calling all home chefs and photography enthusiasts! Our Proline Photo Contest is open for submissions. This is your chance to show off your cooking skills and your unique kitchen style for a chance to win great prizes.
We're looking for high-quality, well-composed photos that showcase your Proline range hood as the star of your kitchen. You only need to submit one photo to enter, but you're welcome to submit multiple entries to increase your chances of winning.
Before grabbing your camera, review our photo tips below. We want to help you submit eye-catching, high-resolution photos that truly highlight the craftsmanship of your Proline hood, your kitchen, and that give you the best chance of winning! Read on for tips on lighting, angles, styling, and more. We can't wait to see all your amazing kitchen shots!
Note - In addition to the ideas below, shoot your images as high a resolution as possible. The best size for images is 5 MB or higher.
1. Make sure your hood is in focus.
Since this is a range hood photo contest, it’s important that we can see your range hood clearly. Take multiple photos and choose the clearest ones for your submission. If you struggle to keep your camera or smartphone steady, you should use a tripod for added stability.
For smartphone users, it’s important to be aware of the many different ways that you can adjust your photo settings.
First, we recommend using your rear camera and not your front-facing camera. This will result in a higher quality photo. By default, all phones are set to the rear camera so you won’t need to make any adjustments here.
Second, depending on the phone you have, you should be able to adjust brightness, flash, and zoom at a minimum. Tap the screen to bring up more settings or look for a gear icon or drop-down menu.
Increasing or decreasing the brightness is encouraged if the photo doesn’t turn out sharp and clear on the automatic settings.
Before you take your picture, make sure the flash is off, and if possible, avoid zooming in to preserve its resolution and quality. Too much zoom will result in pixelated, fuzzy, or blurry photos.
Some phones will allow you to adjust the aspect ratio or set a timer before you take the shot, but you won’t likely need these to take a photo of your kitchen.
2. Make sure your kitchen is clean.
Clear excess stuff off floors and countertops and clean them and your appliances. Wipe down your stove, range hood, sink, and other items that will be in the photo. Stainless steel shows smudges and fingerprints really easily, and nothing ruins a picture faster.
Put away little appliances like your blender, toaster, juicer, and others. Also, be minimalist about your counter space. This will make your kitchen feel even cleaner.
3. Make sure your kitchen is well lit.
Natural light will brighten up your kitchen photos nicely. It will help the photos appear natural and unaltered which is what we are looking for in this year’s contest.
Lighting is crucial when taking the best possible photo. Great lighting helps you see everything clearly and the range hood stands out, as in the photo above. However, poor lighting makes it difficult to see the hood or other parts of the kitchen.
4. For the most light, take your photos during the midday.
As long as the weather is nice, take your photos in the middle of the day when the sun is shining. This will add another dimension to your photo. Just look at this beautiful shot from our September 2019 photo contest winner!
And our March 2020 photo contest winner!
Note: If you have a little too much light coming into your kitchen, consider using white curtains to decrease its intensity. If you are still having trouble with shadows, try different times of the day. An overcast or cloudy day can be just the ticket as well. They will provide flat even light and no shadows.
5. If you don’t have a lot of windows in your kitchen, use lamps and other lights around your house – not just the ceiling lights – to brighten your photos.
If you don’t have windows in your kitchen, it’s still important to shoot a bright photo. So use the lights in your home to your advantage! Ceiling lights, hanging lights, under-cabinet lights, range hood lights... you have a lot of options here!
6. Clean your camera or phone lens. This eliminates streaks or light bleed from the lights in your images.
Here are a few kitchen photos taken with a smudged lens. These pictures don’t do well with the judges. Clean your lens, and you won’t see any streaks!
Not clean:
Not clean:
Not clean:
Clean:
7. Take photos from a variety of angles.
Sometimes you want to show off not only the range hood, but also the surrounding kitchen or landscape. Taking photos at different angles can establish an entirely different mood and send a unique message.
Light will bounce off your range hood in different ways as well, so try several different angles until you find one you like best!
8. Use small decor to personalize your kitchen, if that suits your style.
Adding some small decor is a great way to show your creativity and personality in the kitchen. These items may include dishware, house plants, centerpieces, fruit bowls, or fun knick-knacks that you have tucked away in your basement.
9. Make sure your range hood is straight.
A straight range hood looks elegant and modern. Be sure to hold your camera with a steady hand or use a tripod to align your camera properly before taking your photos.
10. Be Creative
We love to see creative submissions in our contest! Is there an angle that you haven’t tried shooting from yet? How about a prop that will make the space pop? Are the holidays approaching? Maybe tackle a holiday-themed kitchen. You have a lot of possibilities when it comes to creativity.
11. Plan Ahead
Where will you shoot your photos? Will you be standing up or sitting down? Will you use a tripod? Do you want to use your phone or your camera? How do you want to decorate the space?
These are just a few questions you might consider before you take and submit photos to our contest.
Planning ahead is especially important for ‘before and after’ shots. When possible, take these from the exact same angle so it’s easy to see the difference between the two photos.
12. No Flash
Flash throws the exposure of your photos out of balance. Consequently, it may dilute the colors in the picture and it can also cause the photo to look out of focus. The photo above is crisp, taken with no flash.
Did you know?
You can submit multiple pictures each month!
This year, we're only requiring one quality photo of your Proline hood to enter the contest. But we encourage everyone to submit as many quality photos with their hood as possible!
Types of Photos
Here are five types of photos we love to see entered into our contest:
Wide Angle: Shots of your new Proline hood installed in its kitchen environment. They include more of the room than just your hood. Here are some examples:
Medium Distance: Closer to your Proline range hood but you can still see what is around it. Here are some examples:
Closeups: All that is visible in the image is your Proline hood or a part of it. Here are some examples:
Before and After Photos: We love kitchen makeovers! Take a photo of your kitchen environment before your new Proline Range Hood is installed. Typically this is before you start your demo, renovation or remodel has begun and everything is still intact.
Then take a picture of your new kitchen environment after your new Proline hood is installed and after your renovation or remodel is complete. Feel free to submit multiple pictures from different angles as well.
Before and after photos can be taken at a medium distance or wide-angle but they are most impactful when they are from as close to the same place as possible. That makes it easiest to see the difference.
It's a good idea to plan out your location before taking your first shots so they can be as consistent as possible through the whole process.
Hopefully, these tips on taking photos and the types of photos that we like will help you out with your submissions.
Good luck in our contest!
Check out some of our past winners on this page.