Thank you to everybody who entered the first round of our Epic Mega Contest. Many superb portrait photographs were submitted and it was no easy decision to pick the winner. However, in the end it was unanimous.

Lukas Furlan, 21, a student from South Tyrol, won round one with this untitled portrait:

The judges found that Lukas’s photograph demonstrates a great mix of expression, lighting, use of props and post-processing. The tongue-in-cheek portrait has a minimalistic yet effective lighting setup, illustrated below. You can also see the image before and after retouching.

Yongnuo YN460, 1/8 power, in softbox above camera & slightly right

Lukas is studying media informatics and visual computing in Vienna. He says,

A few years ago I bought my first DSLR (out of curiosity) and from that point away I was fascinated with photography. I love taking landscape pictures, but also photos of people such as portraits and sport. My non-term time I try to spend in my home country of South-Tyrol.

Congratulations to Lukas, who receives a free set of Ojecoco H-430 wireless flash triggers, courtesy of CotswoldPhoto. You can view his photography portfolio on 500px here. Well done to everyone else who took part in the competition. You can browse the rest of the entries in our Flickr pool.

The next round will be themed “Winter Wonderland”. Keep an eye out for future announcements.