Photo: Subhrajit Basu.

“It’s not often that a photograph draws you in when you can’t see the person’s face,” Gary Cameron told me. “But this photo takes you into the gritty reality of this woman’s life.” Jez Coulson agreed: “It’s a proper piece of reportage,” he said.

Gary and Jez were two judges in the 2008 CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest. And they were commenting on Subhrajit Basu’s black-and-white image of a woman returning home after a day of selling milk in the Calcutta market—one of more than 700 entries in this year’s Contest.

They both know a thing or two about taking a good photograph. Gary is a photo editor for Reuters, and he was their White House photographer for many years, capturing minute-by-minute the US President’s every move, from Bush 41 to Bill Clinton. And Jez is a photojournalist—you may have seen his photos of the war in Bosnia, or events in Gaza or Rwanda on the cover of Time and Newsweek, or the Sunday Times Magazine (you can see his work here).

The photo made the cut. Whittled down through three rounds of voting, and up against entries from more than 40 countries around the world, it was one of the final 25. (You can see a slideshow of all the winners here.)

At each stage, the judges analyze the photographs from a technical perspective—the composition, the exposure, the balance of the image. Gail Fischer, senior photo editor for National Geographic, was particularly eloquent on this last point. But they also constantly discuss the story captured in the photos. Ultimately, they bring a professional eye to a universal question: what’s appealing about this image? And what makes it stand out against the hundreds of others entered every year from all around the world?

Often, they pinpoint qualities in a photograph that you’d never have noticed. The time of day it was taken, the perspective, or the lighting conditions, for example. Or even the type of lens that was used.

This year, even though the Contest is open to both professionals and nonprofessionals, the finalists were dominated by amateur photographers. Somenath Mukhopadyay, a teacher in a government-run school in West Bengal, India, won with his photo of a young girl preparing radishes to take to market. Accountant Ellen de Leon, who won third prize with her photo of a Muslim woman drying corn, and husband Samuel de Leon, who was also a finalist, are keen amateur photographers in the Philippines and members of a local photography club.

So you don’t have to be a professional to win the professionals’ seal of approval. But you do have to combine technical skill with a great story.