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05/13/2005 04:17:29 PM · #1 |
In my last few challenge entries, Seems I"m too creative or Obtuse for the voters.
So I"M sitting the challenges out for a while and will only vote and comment.
My voting style only encompasses from 5 to 10. as I feel that voting low especially 1/3 is really just "punishing votes and I would rather reward especially those shot that have been well thought out but are not mainstream and thus seem not to be appreciated by the main. |
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05/13/2005 06:21:40 PM · #2 |
It took me a while, but I finally came up with a methodology for my scoring.
Base Points (relevance):
Either +1, +3, or +5
+5: Meets the challenge
+3: Only sort of meets the challenge, either by violating the spirit of the challenge, missing the point somewhat, or went a bit too far in trying to think outside the box, coming up with a very stretched metaphor.
+1: Did not meet the challenge.
Technical:
From -2 to +1
+0 is the baseline, for shots without any really glaring technical flaws, but no spectactular display of mastery or flawlessness. -1 for mildly distracting flaws. -2 for flaws so bad that it's hard to get past them to consider the main image. +1 from me is very rare, and generally denotes me going, "wow, I wonder how long it took to pull that off..."
Subject Interest:
From -1 to +2 points
To score a -1, you have to have come up with a shot with practically no points of interest whatsoever. +0 is "meh, okay, seen that before a lot". +1 is for shots that make me pause for a moment and think, "Hm, that's an interesting use of color/texture/placement/composition/metaphor/whatever". +2 is for shots that make me want to stop and just closely examine the image for a while.
Emotional Impact:
From 0 to +2 points
0: The default, and minimum value. I never penalize a shot for failing to tug at me, but it may not score more than 5 in the end, either.
+1: Evoked a flicker of emotion, either a smile, or a moment of peace, or a memory of pain, or some light introspection.
+2: Haunting, painful, resonant, or wildly funny imagery.
Personal Bias:
From -1 to +1
This will leak into every decisions subconsciously anyway, so you might as well make it conscious and account for it. If a shot is for whatever reason a turn-off (certain political messages, images of cruelty, something that strikes me as artificial use of sex appeal, a truly ugly shade of mauve, whatever) or something that appeals to my personal likes or interests (good shots of cats, astronomy, artificial use of cattle prods and certain political figures, a truly beautiful shade of puce, whatever), I recognize it here. This actually stays 0 much more than one might think, though. Not much really moves me, nowadays.
If you end up with a total tally of less than 1 (a blurry, noisy, blown shot of Rush Limbaugh's left buttock in a contest about interior decorating), it stops at 1, of course, and a similar limit is made for the rarer case where a shot would go over 10 (a close up shot of a scrawny russian blue with its tongue out in a contest about saliva that comes out so realistically that I find myself reflexively reaching for the windex to clean off my screen). In practice, though, this almost never happens on either end of the scale.
Being able to break down my scoring like this also helps me comment as to different aspects of the shot. |
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05/13/2005 06:30:21 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by kiwinick:
In my last few challenge entries, Seems I"m too creative or Obtuse for the voters.
So I"M sitting the challenges out for a while and will only vote and comment.
My voting style only encompasses from 5 to 10. as I feel that voting low especially 1/3 is really just "punishing votes and I would rather reward especially those shot that have been well thought out but are not mainstream and thus seem not to be appreciated by the main. |
In the last two challenges (one's still on voting) I'm doing real bad.
Definately not anywhere around my average. But I don't think that's a reason to step out. That's a reason to learn and submit to more challenges!
First - we (I anyway, and I hope you're too) are here for fun!
Second, we are here to learn.
How can stepping out help you having any of those?
As for the scoring method - I usually use the 4-10 scale. I agree about the lower scores, although I sometimes give those to photos who are both bad technicaly and do not answer the challenge. |
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05/13/2005 07:17:43 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by Jinjit:
Second, we are here to learn.
How can stepping out help you having any of those? |
Possibly because submitting doesn't really help any more than simply asking for feedback on the forums, and the comments you get on submissions often don't help you do any better in the next submission at all, anyway. I got 10 uniformly positive comments on my last submission... which tanked, at around 44%. The comments were helpful mostly in letting me know that the things I thought were going to work well on that shot did. The score let me know that it didn't matter, because it was only intellectually interesting.
I'm learning more about photography by observing other people's techniques than I am from my own submissions.
The important thing is to not stop shooting for challenges, even when you're not going to submit. What's taught me the most about pure photography is just getting off my butt and shooting things, and DPC has been good at nudging me to get out more and take more pictures. I'm trying to keep a promise to myself to shoot and edit as if I were going to submit for every Open Challenge (except for when I'm going to be out of town and will have no idea what the topic will be), even if I have no intention of submitting afterwards. I consider member challenges targets of opportunity, good to keep my eyes open, but not to stress over if a deadline approaches.
I don't see a lot of point in submitting a shot that I don't think will do well, just for the sake of having people tell me the same flaws I already noticed, or worse, not tell me anything about them at all. |
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05/13/2005 07:26:39 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Zed Pobre:
I don't see a lot of point in submitting a shot that I don't think will do well, just for the sake of having people tell me the same flaws I already noticed, or worse, not tell me anything about them at all. |
Well, in any of my submitions, no matter how well or poor they did on the challenge, I had at least one or two comments that were so helpful they worth for me the entire challenge.
As for what you think will do well or not, I don't know how objective you can say that. As for me, personally I submit photos I like. Shots I like taking, shots I like editing... whatever. But shots I like (with one exception to be my late night entry which did surprisingly well, and supply me with quite a few most helpful comments).
I agree you can learn a lot from others' photos, but not as much as being pointed to the flaws of your own. After all, you are mostly unfamiliar with technique and methods of others. And if you don't know how a certain photo was made, how can you really learn from it?
And the final thing for me would be the need to go out there and find the perfect photo for a challenge, within the time limits and editing premissions. This is what make your creativity grow more then anything else! |
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05/15/2005 03:16:33 AM · #6 |
Perhaps I should rephrase about submitting, I would rather be creativly inspired by the challeng and work for a good entry,rather than put something in just as an entry, Both moods and Late Night I really thought and tried to createsomething different,.
As far as voting and commenting, I think this is a way I can give back something to this site,. My comments are as I see them, and are more tempered to creativity, A creative image may lack some of the technicals but if it hits me I'll vote it up.There are a lot of both technical perfect images, technical and creative as well, but we are all individuals and whatfor me is a 10 may rate 4for someone else. |
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05/15/2005 04:28:18 AM · #7 |
I think that your idea to look for creative inspiration instead of just submitting something for the sake of submitting is something we should all think about, but I do not think we should expect others to see our inspiration. My last two inspired entries:
 
164/180 and 107/108 respectively, but statistically no higher than two 'challenge fillers' that I entered recently. It did sting a little (OK a lot) to see two inspired entries crash and burn in the voting, but in the end I like both shots and I'm glad that I took the time to think them out. I guess I'm just trying to say shoot for yourself, learn from your successes and mistakes, and have fun. |
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05/15/2005 05:19:46 AM · #8 |
Yes I generally like to submit what I like and hope that it might also do for entries in Camera clubs as well . Just mulling over a little something for "apple" singulart I believe. As they say down but not out.Originally posted by risu81:
I think that your idea to look for creative inspiration instead of just submitting something for the sake of submitting is something we should all think about, but I do not think we should expect others to see our inspiration. My last two inspired entries:
164/180 and 107/108 respectively, but statistically no higher than two 'challenge fillers' that I entered recently. It did sting a little (OK a lot) to see two inspired entries crash and burn in the voting, but in the end I like both shots and I'm glad that I took the time to think them out. I guess I'm just trying to say shoot for yourself, learn from your successes and mistakes, and have fun. |
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