Experienced to judge others

[Garbz]

/ranting

A friend convinced me to enter this photo into a semi-local small town photography competition. It was entered in the experimental photography category. A kind of camera meets photoshop bonanza thing.

I unfortunately was sick so she took her camera and relayed comments and things back to me afterwards. Apparently the judge made a big fuss about how qualified he is to judge other people work and how long he's been doing this blah blah blah.

Anyway the winner was a photo of a possum, solarized (hardly experimental), and the best part yet the runner up didn't even have a photo. It was two rainbow gradients running down the frame on a brown background with a twirl filter applied in photoshop.

If the judge is so qualified then how come the runner up's entry DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A PHOTOGRAPHY ELEMENT IN IT. No picture at all! Just that crap swirly gradient thing that I would sooner burn than hang on my wall. Now I'm not angry about not winning, I don't think mine was the best there from the photos I've seen, but there were some digital artworks which were truly robbed by the trash which came first and second, and could have been pulled out of the "Idiots guide to Photoshop for those too old to turn on their computer"

/end rant

I reckon there should be a large international event where all the photographers can go and judge the judges who have been making bs calls blinded by their heads up their own asses.

 

[deudeu]

Photography is an art. It is all a matter of taste and is highly subjective.

Everyone has tastes. Everyone is qualified to judge.

To me, a contest needs to have more than 3 judges with different backgrounds to be legit.

 

[laxb0rder]

I agree with deudeu about multiple judges. And I love the picture, I have one question though, I'm new to this so please forgive me how did you take that picture multiple pictures and cut the moon out and put them on to one in photoshop?

 

[craig]

We are missing a ton of details here. Not even sure what a semi local photography competition is let alone the credentials of the judges. That being said I think this photo would fall short in the experimental category. Seems more landscape style and basically traditional.

Love & Bass

 

[JimmyO]

Ya, that is a bunch of BS. People like that tick me off also. Well if it means anything i really really like your shot =)

 

[Garbz]

That being said I think this photo would fall short in the experimental category. Seems more landscape style and basically traditional.

The experimental category was any photo that was rather heavily digitally altered in photoshop. They wouldn't let something like this into landscape because it's far from traditional in the eyes of people who should maybe one day travel to Brisbane to see what a city actually looks like >_< My only rant was that the runner up didn't have a photo to begin with.

laxb0rder Taking the pictures was done obviously during the luna eclipse, but the Brisbane photo was taken a day later, as for pasting together in photoshop I added the moon as layers and then used one of the blending modes (screen, overlay, lighten) can't quite remember but it was the mode that ensured nothing darker show than the layer underneath it. Which is exactly what you want when you have a photo of a moon on a black background and you paste it on a hazy light polluted cityscape.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, I've been through your feelings of frustration over self-proclaimed "photography judges" of local competitions, and I also know that it is not derived from you wanting to win by all means, but from seeing how little said "judge" actually seemed to know. I have seen also jury (3 judges) decisions on certain appointments which made the hair in my neck rise. Once there was a cute animal in the photo, you could rely on that one to win. No matter what.

I fear that is all small towns can offer (but on the other hand none of my photos would ever even have the remotest of chances in the city where the true experts are ).

 

[Photoguynorth]

I've entered lots of pictures (and done pretty well sometimes) in local shows. You need to look at what wins - you will get an idea of what the judge(s) are looking for, and incorporate that into the pictures you enter. If you do this, you run the risk of learning that the judges may have known something about photography after all (or sometimes not), and you **will** do better next year. Not that there were not lots of times I felt other pictures should have won, but it is very subjective.

In a perfect world, the judging would not be biased at all, but that is not our world (and if I could change 1 thing it would not be that).
And yes, cute kids, puppies, baby anything is good for a lot of points, but especially pictures of the local area attractions win lots. So use that to your advantage if you want to win.
Having said that, one of the earlier entries I made did not do really well, but I really enjoyed listening to comments people made - I heard 'that one should have won' more times than I could count. Having matured and gotten better, I now realize it shouldn't have - there were issues with it that kept it from being a winner. It is too bad you could not make it there - it sounds like the judge really emphasized 'experimental'.
Also - having volunteered at events like that - I would point out that a lot of shots would have done better in a different category (I understand where your example really did not fit any categories - these shows tend to disfavour photoshop in most categories). I remember helping register an elderly womans pictures - I convinced her to change categories with it and she took first prize. If she had entered where she wanted to it probably would not have. That was pretty satisfying for me too.

 

[cdanddvdpublisher]

Multiple judges can help to reduce some of the tension and frustration, but, i've got to say, in the case of the runner up not even having a photo, i can't see all of the frustration gone...

 

[Garbz]

^^^ Exactly.