DPReview March 2026 Photo Challenge Invites Night Lights Submissions

DPReview's March 2026 Editor's Photo Challenge has arrived with a theme tailor-made for photographers who do their best work after sunset. The challenge, "Night Lights," asks members to submit images featuring artificial light sources and nocturnal lighting scenes, according to the announcement written by Dale Baskin for the DPReview editorial team. The theme went public on March 8, 2026, when DPReview's Threads account posted at 10:59 AM: "Get ready for another fun photo challenge! Announcing our March photo challenge: 'Night Lights'."

The challenge follows DPReview's standard community competition format, which the site describes plainly: "Challenges are photographic mini-competitions (with no prize other than glory) open to all dpreview members and judged by popular vote." Entering is straightforward. Members find any challenge listed as "open for submissions," navigate to that challenge's page, and click the "enter" button. No gear requirements or membership tiers are specified beyond holding a DPReview account.

The broader DPReview challenges ecosystem is active right now, which gives some sense of the community's appetite for these competitions. The "Music with Instruments" challenge, currently in its voting window, has drawn the maximum 50 entries and 463 votes. "A Big Year 2026" has logged 31 entries and 217 votes in the same window, while "Hot Air Balloons" sits at 24 entries and 96 votes with four days remaining to vote. On the submission side, "Fortnight 71: My Best Non-bird Photo Shot after 2026-02-23" has filled 44 of its 50 available entry slots, and "Flowers - taken on or after 2026 Mar 1st" has 31 of 50 claimed.

Recent winners across DPReview challenges include "Almsee Reflections" by community member supernaut, which took Fortnight 70 (the "My Best Non-bird Photo Shot after 2026-02-09" category). Other recent winners span a wide range of subjects: "Out for a stroll" in Person and Their Shadow, "Lilies" in Still Life Photography, and "Three Dudes-Big horn sheep" in Fortnight 69. The February 2026 Editor's Challenge, themed "Canine Capers," was won with an entry titled "My glorious girl."

For anyone interested in shaping future challenges rather than just entering them, DPReview keeps an open application process: "Got an idea for a challenge? Apply to become a dpreview challenge host. If you already a host, please login."

With "Night Lights" now announced and the challenge listed as opening imminently in DPReview's challenge queue, anyone with a catalogue of neon signs, long-exposure cityscapes, light trails, or late-night street scenes has a reason to go digging through their recent shoots.