Some of the photo's for the photo contest I noticed are not retouched yet they get votes, when I look at the photo's I look at composition, lighting and pose. What do you look at/for.

And some have too much retouching!   I look for composition and pose, lighting is important too.  If the retouching is too much, insufficient or simply doesn't work for me, that's a big negative.  The model's facial expression is another factor.

agree