i.
Pay-to-enter, per photo.
Set a price per photo and optional bundles. Stripe collects entry fees and deposits them straight into your account.
Standalone photo contests — Summer 2026
Fill your next pageant
with a photo contest.
A pay-to-enter online photo contest runs start to finish on your screen — no stage, no venue, no season. Contestants submit and pay per photo, your judges score the images, and every entrant leaves with a certificate. It's the low-effort way to find new contestants and earn between pageants — all from a free Bombyhead account.
Free · No credit card · 30 sec
✦ Photo Contest ✦
Certificate of Merit
Ava Delacroix
First Place · Open Division
The Magnolia Photo Contest
Chapter01
Three steps — set up to certificates.
No stage, no venue, no printing. The whole thing runs online, on your schedule.
1· Set up
Create the contest.
Name it, set a price per photo, and add your judging criteria. Divisions are optional. Two minutes, start to finish.
2· Share
Share one link.
Contestants upload their photos and pay per entry online. Photographer, hair & makeup, and coach credits are collected right on the form.
3· Judge
Judge and crown.
Your judges score the images from a private link — no login, no app. Results tally automatically and every entrant gets a certificate.
Chapter 02 — Between pageants
Revenue and new names in your off-season.
A photo contest keeps your brand in front of contestants when there's no show on the calendar — and every entrant is a warm prospect for your next pageant. Run it yearly, quarterly, or monthly. It's entirely online, there's nothing to print or set up on site, and you keep 75%.
New names
Every entrant is a contact for your next pageant — a feeder for your roster.
75%
Your share of every entry, before Stripe's card fee. Bombyhead's only cut is 25%.
Any season
Yearly, quarterly, or monthly. Revenue and engagement between pageants.
Chapter03
What's built in.
Everything a pay-to-enter contest needs — and nothing you have to wire up yourself.
ii.
Blind judging, no logins.
Each judge scores from a private link with a name you assign — no account, no app to install. Scores tabulate in real time.
iii.
A certificate for every entrant.
Winners and entrants alike leave with a branded certificate — a keepsake that keeps your pageant's name in circulation.
iv.
Credit the whole team.
Entry forms collect the photographer, hair & makeup artist, and coach, so everyone who made the shot is named in the results.
v.
Divisions, if you want them.
Group by age or category, or run one open field. Divisions are supported but never required.
vi.
One platform.
Photo contests run on the same Bombyhead account as your pageants — one Stripe connection, one photo library, one login. There's nothing separate to set up.
vii.
Sell judges' feedback.
An optional add-on: contestants pay for written notes from your judges — real critique, not an algorithm. A second revenue line, and a reason entrants come back to find out which photo to lead with next time.
For future directors
Dreamed of directing? Start here.
Almost every pageant director was a contestant first. A photo contest is the low-stakes way to find out if directing is for you — no venue, no stage, no big budget. You set the theme and prizes, invite your circle to enter, ask a photographer or coach you trust to judge, and Bombyhead handles the money, the scoring, and the certificates. Run one well and you’ve learned the real skills of directing — pricing, promotion, judging, results night — before you ever book a ballroom.
No stage
Entirely online. If it flops, nobody rented a venue. If it works, do it again next month.
Your circle
The contestants you already know are your first entrants; your photographer and coach are your first judges.
Real practice
Pricing, marketing, judging, results — directing in miniature, with 75% of every entry yours to keep.
Chapter 04 — The price
Free to run. You keep 75%.
No monthly fee. No setup cost. No credit card to start. Bombyhead earns only when your contest does — a flat 25% of entries, and never a cent more.
Free — always
- Create & price the contest
- Blind judging & tabulation
- A certificate for every entrant
- Public results page
- Photo library & reuse
$0to set up and run
Paid options
- Entry feesContestants pay per photo to enter and be judged.
- Judges' feedbackOptional written critique; you set the price, keep 75%.
Keep 75%before Stripe's card fee · 25% is our only cut
Run it once between seasons and see who turns up. Most of the names will be new — and every one of them is a contestant you didn't have before.
The full platform Bombyhead for directors →