What could I have done to make this better???

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

01/08/2009 08:25:19 PM · #1

Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed with the 5.7 score that this shot received ... I expected a 6.1 - 6.2. I realize that based on the comments that some people found the foreground flower distracting, but did it really deserve to score so low? Be honest, I truly want to know what I could have done (other than pick the flowers and scare the butterfly away) to make this score higher ... what were the voters looking for???

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

01/08/2009 08:50:43 PM · #2

Nothing to be disappointed in. Let's look at some details I can see in the voting breakdown:

-94 people thought it was worth that 6+ that you hoped for. More 6 votes than anything else. (My vote was an 8, FWIW)
-It came in well within the top half of a freestudy. Freestudies are tough. The expectations are VERY high.
-Exactly 1/3 of the voters thought it was good but not outstanding with a 5. I attribute this to flowers and butterflies being subjects that are very easy to get a pretty picture of, so that people are a little harder on them than other subjects.
-Only 14 people out of the 162 that voted on it thought it was poor with a vote of 4 or less. You successfully avoided having people dislike your entry.

DrAchoo mentioned a while back that the trick to scoring high is not getting the high votes, but avoiding the low ones.

You did well.

Pentax DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6ED AL [IF] WR DC

01/08/2009 08:54:39 PM · #3

thanks for that analysis ... I guess looking at some of the images that finished higher than mine did is partly why I'm disappointed ... I thought that mine was better than quite a few that scored in the top 100 ... but you're right, Free Study Challenges are tough onaccounta so many good entries ... I usually don't enter them unless I have an image that I think is worthy (which isn't often)... oh well, back to the drawing board!

fldave

Pentax K5II

01/08/2009 09:12:10 PM · #4

I know how you feel... it is really hard to tell what voters will like. (I felt that my Sand entry might break the 6's but is sitting at 4.8 right now!) But I agree with Steve that a 5.7 in a free study really is strong, and even getting into the low 5's and high 4's the shots are still quite good.

Perhaps the large flower bud on the left pointing toward the camera was the cause of a lower than hoped-for score. I really like selective focus shots, but they don't seem to fare well on this site unless you use a Lensbaby.

01/08/2009 09:22:03 PM · #5

thanks ... I kinda felt the same about my Sand entry also, but it's also at a 5.7 ... apparently that's where I belong right now! I still really like my shot and I guess, in the end, that's all that really counts ... thanks for taking a look and rendering an opinion, much appreciated!