Pay judges for photography club competitions?

[shawl]

While this topic was discussed some years ago, since it was a long time ago I'd like to bring it up again now. Does your club pay outside people to judge your competitions? If so, how much?

As competition chair of our local club, I have been trying to get well known photographers to be judges. I have had some success but not 100%. My local club is paying $100; one prospective judge said he charges $150 while another said he generally gets $200. The competition is 1.5-2 hours on Zoom. The judge gets the images online in advance and can thus spend as much (or as little) time on the 30-45 images as he/she wants. So, we are talking about, say, 3-5 hours of time depending on how the individual operates. We do ask that notes be taken for use during the actual competition so keep things moving smoothly during the Zoom session.

Thank you for your response.

Steve

 

[Golem]

While this topic was discussed some years ago, since it was a long time ago I'd like to bring it up again now. Does your club pay outside people to judge your competitions? If so, how much?

As competition chair of our local club, I have been trying to get well known photographers to be judges. I have had some success but not 100%. My local club is paying $100; one prospective judge said he charges $150 while another said he generally gets $200. The competition is 1.5-2 hours on Zoom. The judge gets the images online in advance and can thus spend as much (or as little) time on the 30-45 images as he/she wants. So, we are talking about, say, 3-5 hours of time depending on how the individual operates. We do ask that notes be taken for use during the actual competition so keep things moving smoothly during the Zoom session.

Thank you for your response.

Steve

I have only judged just once. Not only was I not paid, but would have paid a good price to get out of there.

I had gotten roped into it by workplace politics and found it to be an aesthetic torture session. Technical quality was not especially the issue. It was a total absence of IDEAS. Maybe the members were always out to please judges rather than actually express anything ?

 

[shawl]

I have only judged just once. Not only was I not paid, but would have paid a good price to get out of there.

I had gotten roped into it by workplace politics and found it to be an aesthetic torture session. Technical quality was not especially the issue. It was a total absence of IDEAS. Maybe the members were always out to please judges rather than actually express anything ?

I’m so sorry the experience was so horrible. That’s terrible. All our judges have indicated a willingness to do it again. Best wishes to you.

 

[Golem]

I’m so sorry the experience was so horrible. That’s terrible. All our judges have indicated a willingness to do it again. Best wishes to you.

Perhaps If I had been hired for pay I might have had a rather different take on being asked to follow a page of instructions on how to score the members pix. I found the values expressed in those instructions antithetical to my own values, so I ignored them. The scores I delivered brought forth plenty of gasping and muttering. But if I were "hired help" then Im sure I would then have set aside my own values and just executed the (miserable) chore that I was hired to execute.

Bottom line is if you (unwisely) recruit an actual artist to apply dreary rules to dreary pix, then you really should sufficiently bribe that artist to set aside his real values so as to robotically apply the values required by the scoring instructions. Bad coffee and stale donuts is NOT a sufficient bribe :-(

 

[Jeff15]

In my neck of the woods, it is normal to pay the judge ...

 

[Thiophilos]

Back when I organized our judgings, we never paid the judges. It could be different now.

The time has come to automate judgings. That's how to get impartiality. And it doesn't cost anything. Here is a result on one of my photos, done by Rate-My-Photo. (I think the site is generous. )

 

[Thiophilos]

Perhaps If I had been hired for pay I might have had a rather different take on being asked to follow a page of instructions on how to score the members pix. I found the values expressed in those instructions antithetical to my own values, so I ignored them. The scores I delivered brought forth plenty of gasping and muttering. But if I were "hired help" then Im sure I would then have set aside my own values and just executed the (miserable) chore that I was hired to execute.

Bottom line is if you (unwisely) recruit an actual artist to apply dreary rules to dreary pix, then you really should sufficiently bribe that artist to set aside his real values so as to robotically apply the values required by the scoring instructions. Bad coffee and stale donuts is NOT a sufficient bribe :-(

LOL.

You should not judge camera club competitions!

One time at our camera club, we decided to invite an artist to judge our print competition. He was one of three... we thought it would be good to have a voice from someone with proper artist training.... cross-fertilization, you know.

Well, it didn't work out well at all. The artist saw great merit in absolutely drab photos (for instance a grainy pic of a small group of people waiting at a bus stop) and had no interest at all in proper exposure or sharpness in the images.

At another judging we had a guy who challenged our rules. He declared that prints should be printed by the maker and lab-made prints should be disqualified, or at least docked points. Even if we wanted to agree with him, we couldn't change anything then. After a half-hour of heated discussion, we were able to continue. We never invited him back.

So you think it's bad to be a judge? Try being a competitions chairman!!

 

[Golem]

Back when I organized our judgings, we never paid the judges. It could be different now.

The time has come to automate judgings. That's how to get impartiality. And it doesn't cost anything. Here is a result on one of my photos, done by Rate-My-Photo. (I think the site is generous. )

View attachment 277368

Yup. Generous. Wonder if you submit an absolute total disaster will rate it 50th percentile ? Sorta like doling out the Tee Ball trophies.

 

[Woolsocks]

Back when I organized our judgings, we never paid the judges. It could be different now.

The time has come to automate judgings. That's how to get impartiality. And it doesn't cost anything. Here is a result on one of my photos, done by Rate-My-Photo. (I think the site is generous. )

View attachment 277368

Aesthetically pleasing lol.


When it comes to judging. I was asked to judge 200+ images. And I did not much like it. It was more about making up dialogue and placing it with the pictures then judging the photograph.

 

[AlanKlein]

Here in NJ, there are half a dozen 55+ communities that once a year hire a judge for let's say 125-150 pictures total. We have an inter-community contest. They charge $75-100. Before Covid, they would judge it in one of the community's clubhouses where all the photographers would meet. We'd have refreshments as well. Since Covid, it's all been online with Zoom so the judge doesn't have to leave his home. One year, the judge was into cars and gave nice marks to closeups of details of automobiles. The next year we had a bunch of car shots entered. Unfortunately, we hired a woman judge who hated car shots. The judges are pros who sell training and other services. So the exposure as photo judge, I assume, helps their other commercial photography endeavors.

 

[smoke665]

The time has come to automate judgings. That's how to get impartiality. And it doesn't cost anything. Here is a result on one of my photos, done by Rate-My-Photo. (I think the site is generous. )

Yah think? LOL I tried multiple different images from serious portrait work to rough stuff for FB marketplace, they all scored the same 8.39 97%, and all "very aesthetic". Forget generous.....it's bogus.

 

[JoeW]

I've been a judge for multiple competitions for multiple organizations. Here is my take/experience.

1. I usually get paid. Usually it's $150-200 per event. Sometimes I've been solo, sometimes a pair of judges, and twice it was a trio (an end of the year competition). Also, I was once hired to photograph the awards ceremony of a painting competition (with an artist brought in to judge and then verbally critique) so I saw how that worked.

2. Yes, increasingly it's harder to get people to do it in-person. Some of my judging was via Zoom, most in-person. The dynamics are different. The pictures/work is viewed differently virtually vs. in-person.

3. It's very different if you're just asking someone to judge and rank vs. provide critique (I almost always provide critique --especially if I'm there in person.) And you need to set those expectations. Some people are just looking to win an award or prize, others are looking to improve.

4. Ideas for judges: nothing wrong with bringing in a painter or other visual artist but do not assume they have training (I know some professional trainers who are basically self-taught plus some classes on technique). If you're looking for advice on improving your photography (lighting, sharpness, shutter speed, DoF) you need to get a photographer. If you're looking for advice about vision and composition, nothing wrong with going outside of the photography field. But manage expectations (for the judges and for the people submitting photos). What do you expect? What kind of feedback? What criteria will the judge use (other than "I like this"). For instance, I once won a show and the judge's comment about my photo was "it spoke to me." I felt less value from that win then from other instances where I wasn't selected but got more details about what worked and didn't work with stuff I submitted.

Where to look for judges? If you've got a small club, be willing to use Zoom to pull in some people outside of your area so you get different perspectives. Curators at museums--I've judged a couple of times with such people and it was good--very diverse but trained perspective. University instructors are options (beware--some of the intro photography people may be grad students or people who don't have a lot of expertise at judging). If you can't pay and you're approaching a professional (someone who does this for a living), tell them that then can provide a 20 minute show of their work or most recent passion project and then offer their critique of the submissions, so they get a chance to gain exposure. Check to see if there are any Tamron, Canon, Nikon, Sony reps/ambassadors in your area--they will usually jump at something like this (they can tell the Mothership "see, I'm out spreading the word"). Look at some areas of expertise where the people aren't photographers but they'd have insight. For instance, food stylists or naturalists or architects if you had a monthly theme like: food, or wildlife, or abstracts/buildings. You won't get a lot of detail about camera technique but probably good insight on composition and stories.

 

[AlanKlein]

I've been a judge for multiple competitions for multiple organizations. Here is my take/experience.

1. I usually get paid. Usually it's $150-200 per event. Sometimes I've been solo, sometimes a pair of judges, and twice it was a trio (an end of the year competition). Also, I was once hired to photograph the awards ceremony of a painting competition (with an artist brought in to judge and then verbally critique) so I saw how that worked.

2. Yes, increasingly it's harder to get people to do it in-person. Some of my judging was via Zoom, most in-person. The dynamics are different. The pictures/work is viewed differently virtually vs. in-person.

3. It's very different if you're just asking someone to judge and rank vs. provide critique (I almost always provide critique --especially if I'm there in person.) And you need to set those expectations. Some people are just looking to win an award or prize, others are looking to improve.

4. Ideas for judges: nothing wrong with bringing in a painter or other visual artist but do not assume they have training (I know some professional trainers who are basically self-taught plus some classes on technique). If you're looking for advice on improving your photography (lighting, sharpness, shutter speed, DoF) you need to get a photographer. If you're looking for advice about vision and composition, nothing wrong with going outside of the photography field. But manage expectations (for the judges and for the people submitting photos). What do you expect? What kind of feedback? What criteria will the judge use (other than "I like this"). For instance, I once won a show and the judge's comment about my photo was "it spoke to me." I felt less value from that win then from other instances where I wasn't selected but got more details about what worked and didn't work with stuff I submitted.

Where to look for judges? If you've got a small club, be willing to use Zoom to pull in some people outside of your area so you get different perspectives. Curators at museums--I've judged a couple of times with such people and it was good--very diverse but trained perspective. University instructors are options (beware--some of the intro photography people may be grad students or people who don't have a lot of expertise at judging). If you can't pay and you're approaching a professional (someone who does this for a living), tell them that then can provide a 20 minute show of their work or most recent passion project and then offer their critique of the submissions, so they get a chance to gain exposure. Check to see if there are any Tamron, Canon, Nikon, Sony reps/ambassadors in your area--they will usually jump at something like this (they can tell the Mothership "see, I'm out spreading the word"). Look at some areas of expertise where the people aren't photographers but they'd have insight. For instance, food stylists or naturalists or architects if you had a monthly theme like: food, or wildlife, or abstracts/buildings. You won't get a lot of detail about camera technique but probably good insight on composition and stories.

Joe, do you provide private reviews of portfolios to help individuals improve their photography? What do you charge?

 

[Thiophilos]

Yah think? LOL I tried multiple different images from serious portrait work to rough stuff for FB marketplace, they all scored the same 8.39 97%, and all "very aesthetic". Forget generous.....it's bogus.

It is a beginning. It is definitely sensitive to the photo submitted. It's just generous (OK, dumb). Here are two more of mine.

There is a review of the site.

 

[JoeW]

Joe, do you provide private reviews of portfolios to help individuals improve their photography? What do you charge?

Joe, do you provide private reviews of portfolios to help individuals improve their photography? What do you charge?

Yes, I do provide private reviews. I've sent you a message with more details.