What makes a good picture?
You can make your dog a winner with the "perfect" photo. You will get a better picture with a digital camera, but, if your phone or tablet has a good camera on it, you may be able to get some nice pictures. Try and set up a staged setting, or, if you're lucky and can catch your dog looking particularly good, take a candid shot. Take many pictures and then look to see which one is the best one. Clarity (don't send a blurred image), background choice (make sure you don't have clutter in your background), good coloring (faded, washed out pictures do not jump out as a winner), good lighting and "personality" are what make your snap shot turn into a photograph. You may enhance a picture digitally to brighten it, make the color more pure, but you may not modify the actual dog. We are judging the dog, but, the composition of the picture is what will make or break your dog as a winner. If we have two dogs we are considering for Best in Show, and both dogs are just stunning, we'll look at the composition of the picture (is it clear, uncluttered, colored nicely, good background setting, etc.) and present the Best in Show prize to the better picture. Just like in a dog show, two dogs could be very equal when visually looking at it, beautifully groomed and presented well but the judge has to decide which to put up for Best in Show. It will come down to the perfection of the picture you send. Is one groomed better, is it nicely presented (nice background, good lighting) is the composition really appealing? The most finite detail could be what makes your dog a winner. So, pay attention to the image you send and you'll have a much better chance of being considered for the winner.
Here are some samples of good and bad images
Examples of good images
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Examples of images that are not set up to highlight the dog and wouldn't win a photo contest (blurry, poor composition, too busy, etc.)
(Disclaimer: These images are not being criticized, and are obviously well loved dogs, but they are examples of images that won't win a photo contest.)