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01/22/2011 09:56:45 AM · #1 |
Here's the highest rated free studies over the years. (not including master's free studies)
 - 2003
 - 2004
 - 2005
 - 2006
 - 2007
 - 2008
 - 2009
 - 2010
Realize that free studies weren't on a regular basis until 2007.
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01/22/2011 10:08:46 AM · #2 |
| That vulture in 2005 is PHENOMENAL! |
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01/22/2011 12:05:05 PM · #3 |
Lowest rated:
 2004
 2005
 2006
 2007
 2008
 2009
 2010
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01/22/2011 12:12:41 PM · #4 |
| They all pale in comparison to anything shot by this photographer (my personal favorite) |
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01/22/2011 12:14:00 PM · #5 |
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01/22/2011 12:16:43 PM · #6 |
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01/22/2011 12:50:14 PM · #7 |
Darn you,  smardaz!!!
I fall for that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. |
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01/22/2011 01:30:40 PM · #8 |
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01/22/2011 01:31:47 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by marnet:
Thank you! :) |
I fell for it!! You nasty thing! ;) |
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01/22/2011 01:56:35 PM · #10 |
LOL you got me!
Message edited by author 2011-01-22 13:57:22. |
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01/22/2011 02:15:19 PM · #11 |
| Interesting that 5 of the 8 are from Europeans, of which 4 are from the UK... |
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01/22/2011 02:22:40 PM · #12 |
Curious, just noticed that the best photos of 2009 and 2010 only had average scores of 7.6xx.
What are your thoughts on this. I don't mean to imply that 7.6 is not a good score, but rather what does this say about our voting that the best picture out of hundreds of challenges and tens of thousands of submissions is a 7.6?
What would it take to get an 8.0? Are we judging too harshly maybe?
Just opening this up for discussion..
Message edited by author 2011-01-22 14:22:55. |
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01/22/2011 04:31:28 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by gcoulson:
What would it take to get an 8.0? Are we judging too harshly maybe?
Just opening this up for discussion.. |
Actually, in only one year, 2005, did a free study entry score an 8+, and that was Imagineer's incredible vulture shot, easily one of the most striking images ever posted to DPC.
You have to understand that it's much harder to score really well in a Free Study, and the reason why is simple: where there is no theme, no specific challenge, wildly disparate sorts of images are competing together in the same pool. The "portrait people" don't score landscapes as high, the "landscape people" don't score portraits as high (I'm painting with a broad brush here) and in general there are so many examples of each genre that the top places get watered down a bit, score-wise.
By contrast, the same landscape, in a landscape challenge, might score half a point or more higher, because it would be competing against other landscapes, see?
Or that's what I think, anyway...
R. |
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01/22/2011 05:08:41 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by gcoulson:
What would it take to get an 8.0? Are we judging too harshly maybe?
Just opening this up for discussion.. |
Actually, in only one year, 2005, did a free study entry score an 8+, and that was Imagineer's incredible vulture shot, easily one of the most striking images ever posted to DPC.
You have to understand that it's much harder to score really well in a Free Study, and the reason why is simple: where there is no theme, no specific challenge, wildly disparate sorts of images are competing together in the same pool. The "portrait people" don't score landscapes as high, the "landscape people" don't score portraits as high (I'm painting with a broad brush here) and in general there are so many examples of each genre that the top places get watered down a bit, score-wise.
By contrast, the same landscape, in a landscape challenge, might score half a point or more higher, because it would be competing against other landscapes, see?
Or that's what I think, anyway...
R. |
I understand your argument, but I would think (maybe naively) that the freedom to shoot whatever you want, however you want, should lead to a much higher quality "product" since there is no restriction in place to limit the photographer. Surely this should lead to better picture with better scores? |
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01/22/2011 05:27:36 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by gcoulson:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by gcoulson:
What would it take to get an 8.0? Are we judging too harshly maybe?
Just opening this up for discussion.. |
Actually, in only one year, 2005, did a free study entry score an 8+, and that was Imagineer's incredible vulture shot, easily one of the most striking images ever posted to DPC.
You have to understand that it's much harder to score really well in a Free Study, and the reason why is simple: where there is no theme, no specific challenge, wildly disparate sorts of images are competing together in the same pool. The "portrait people" don't score landscapes as high, the "landscape people" don't score portraits as high (I'm painting with a broad brush here) and in general there are so many examples of each genre that the top places get watered down a bit, score-wise.
By contrast, the same landscape, in a landscape challenge, might score half a point or more higher, because it would be competing against other landscapes, see?
Or that's what I think, anyway...
R. |
I understand your argument, but I would think (maybe naively) that the freedom to shoot whatever you want, however you want, should lead to a much higher quality "product" since there is no restriction in place to limit the photographer. Surely this should lead to better picture with better scores? |
Perhaps you're looking at this the wrong way. Generally speaking, in free studies you're judging only the quality of the photography and in theme challenges you're judging topic relevancy first and foremost. In a theme challenge the best photograph rarely wins out. So you can't compare the two types of challenges as far as scores go.
Message edited by author 2011-01-22 17:32:15. |
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01/22/2011 05:37:32 PM · #16 |
| True, since there is no "topic or challenge", then your only goal is to make the best photo you can, since there is no limitation that is normally in place with challenges. So, if your only goal in free study is to take the best possible picture, then the photo's should be of much higher quality? |
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01/22/2011 05:39:32 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by yanko:
Originally posted by gcoulson:
I understand your (bear_music's) argument, but I would think (maybe naively) that the freedom to shoot whatever you want, however you want, should lead to a much higher quality "product" since there is no restriction in place to limit the photographer. Surely this should lead to better picture with better scores? |
Perhaps you're looking at this the wrong way. Generally speaking, in free studies you're judging only the quality of the photography and in theme challenges you're judging topic relevancy first and foremost. In a theme challenge the best photograph rarely wins out. |
Yanko's touching on the same thing I did, from a different perspective: challenge relevance can drive scores up, and often does. Major case-in-point would be  Scalvert: take a look at these:
 
These both were extremely high-scoring images. All the images on his profile page are extremely high-scoring, actually. And I'm pretty sure Shannon would be the first to agree that, as far as photographic skills go, these images demonstrate a high level of competence and that's about it. The "Wow!" in these images, that gets them the high scores, is on the conceptual end, and the conceptual aspect of them is directly tied in to the challenge theme.
In other words, these images would NOT have scored anywhere near as well in a Free Study, where competent, polished images are rather common, because there's no thematic "hook" to make them stand out. This is what Shannon's best at, arguably one of the 2 or 3 best in the history of DPC: he can come up with a completely creative, visual concept that ties into a theme, then execute it flawlessly.
Free Studies, as stated in my earlier post, are a whole different kettle of fish; and when apples compete head-to-head with oranges, the citrus lovers and the drupe lovers will drive each others' scores down a bit as they make their preferences known.
R. |
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01/22/2011 05:41:59 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by gcoulson:
So, if your only goal in free study is to take the best possible picture, then the photo's should be of much higher quality? |
You also get a whole month to shoot so they should be better. |
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01/22/2011 05:51:03 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by yanko:
Originally posted by gcoulson:
So, if your only goal in free study is to take the best possible picture, then the photo's should be of much higher quality? |
You also get a whole month to shoot so they should be better. |
It's not about whether we *take* better pictures anyway: it's about how people *score* Free Studies.
R. |
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01/22/2011 05:55:00 PM · #20 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by yanko:
Originally posted by gcoulson:
I understand your (bear_music's) argument, but I would think (maybe naively) that the freedom to shoot whatever you want, however you want, should lead to a much higher quality "product" since there is no restriction in place to limit the photographer. Surely this should lead to better picture with better scores? |
Perhaps you're looking at this the wrong way. Generally speaking, in free studies you're judging only the quality of the photography and in theme challenges you're judging topic relevancy first and foremost. In a theme challenge the best photograph rarely wins out. |
Yanko's touching on the same thing I did, from a different perspective: challenge relevance can drive scores up, and often does. Major case-in-point would be Scalvert: take a look at these:
These both were extremely high-scoring images. All the images on his profile page are extremely high-scoring, actually. And I'm pretty sure Shannon would be the first to agree that, as far as photographic skills go, these images demonstrate a high level of competence and that's about it. The "Wow!" in these images, that gets them the high scores, is on the conceptual end, and the conceptual aspect of them is directly tied in to the challenge theme.
In other words, these images would NOT have scored anywhere near as well in a Free Study, where competent, polished images are rather common, because there's no thematic "hook" to make them stand out. This is what Shannon's best at, arguably one of the 2 or 3 best in the history of DPC: he can come up with a completely creative, visual concept that ties into a theme, then execute it flawlessly.
Free Studies, as stated in my earlier post, are a whole different kettle of fish; and when apples compete head-to-head with oranges, the citrus lovers and the drupe lovers will drive each others' scores down a bit as they make their preferences known.
R. |
Robert, let me paraphrase and see if I'm understanding you. What're you're saying is that when there is a challenge, we (the voters) may give a point or two more for a picture because it met the challenge perfectly and was expertly done. However, if the same picture was taken in Free Study, that same picture would tend to score lower since the added points for meeting challenge would not apply. The photo would then solely be graded according to photographic technique.
So without a topic or challenge in mind, it is harder to score the sort of numbers since technique and execution are the sole points of reference? |
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01/22/2011 06:01:56 PM · #21 |
| 2007 and 2009, My favorite photographs ever! |
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01/22/2011 06:03:13 PM · #22 |
Originally posted by gcoulson:
Robert, let me paraphrase and see if I'm understanding you. What're you're saying is that when there is a challenge, we (the voters) may give a point or two more for a picture because it met the challenge perfectly and was expertly done. However, if the same picture was taken in Free Study, that same picture would tend to score lower since the added points for meeting challenge would not apply. The photo would then solely be graded according to photographic technique.
So without a topic or challenge in mind, it is harder to score the sort of numbers since technique and execution are the sole points of reference? |
That's half of what I'm saying. The other half is, in a themed challenge the voters tend to be a little more *directed* towards certain styles or approaches. The obvious examples are portrait challenges and landscape challenges, where neither of these genres competes with the other, but the concept extends more subtly through ANY themed challenge, where images that don't meet many voters' preconceptions fare poorly regardless of their quality.
In a Free Study, all the genres compete, and, since each has its champions, the highest votes get spread a little thinner, and consequently the winning scores are a little lower.
R. |
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01/22/2011 06:20:52 PM · #23 |
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01/22/2011 06:58:58 PM · #24 |
This is my example:
It received a 6.88 in the SPAM challenge. Somehow I don't think I would have hit a 5.5 in a freestudy.
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