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05/18/2005 09:44:33 AM · #1 |
Just wondering. I am sure some go by scores in here. But I just do not put much stock in that. Their are tons of great photgraphers in here that don't even crack the top 50. I guess you could use scores to see improvements from beginner to mediocore. But after that it is pretty much anyones guess.
Do you just have to judge for yourself? Compare your beginning photographs to the ones you currently take? Or it is a better understand of DOF and lighting and negative space ect ect?
I have improved my scores almost in each successive challenege. My score has not always improved but my percentile has. And I feel better about my photographs. Before DPC I mostly just took photo's here and their. Mostly for stuff on ebay (lol they are going to hear me roar now). Just like most things artistic, has to bring joy to yourself. |
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05/18/2005 09:50:12 AM · #2 |
I feel like I am getting better as I go... And since this isn't what I do for a living, that's what counts in my opinion.
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05/18/2005 10:00:16 AM · #3 |
I feel that I'm learning a lot from this site, but I'm not sure if that's taking away from my artistic side. My scores have been going down with every submission.
Message edited by author 2005-05-18 10:01:29. |
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05/18/2005 10:04:28 AM · #4 |
| Whenever I am not sure I am improving I go and look at the pictures I was taking a year ago, then even I can see a marked improvement. |
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05/18/2005 10:06:24 AM · #5 |
| Well I have read alot of posts about members liking a lower scoring submission over a higher one. I like them all or I wouldn't submit them. I guess it is just a feeling you are progressing. I am sure ameturs progress faster at first then professionals do. |
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05/18/2005 10:08:13 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by DustDevil:
... I feel better about my photographs. |
That's the most important thing.
Using dpc scores is a legitimate way to measure your improvement but if you limit your photographic activity to only dpc you will become jaded over time, bent to the tastes of the voters.
Message edited by author 2005-05-18 10:09:47.
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05/18/2005 10:09:39 AM · #7 |
| I use my profile average as my benchmark and try to beat it with every challenge (which ain't gonna happen in Apples). A higher score on one photo doesn't necessarily make it better than any other, but raising ALL my scores as a group suggests that I'm getting better or at least appealing more to this group in the context of the challenges. |
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05/18/2005 10:11:40 AM · #8 |
To me it has nothing to do with scores. Comments help, if you get them. Trying new approaches and learning from them is where it is. Also, learning from looking at others entrees. Kind of like learning how to ski, if ya don't get wet each time out, ya ain't trying to improve, your just trying to keep from falling. So, just keep doing different thinks, while learning as ya go. I may never get a ribbon, but learning is where its at.
Message edited by author 2005-05-18 10:12:59.
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05/18/2005 10:21:27 AM · #9 |
I don't go by scores here - I know i am getting better even if my scores do not reflect it - they include others as well as the 'idea' and how much time or resources you have for a given chalenge are also in that score.
How do you define better? Better art? Better technically? Wider appeal? The first one cannot really be measured, can it?
So my method of self assessment is more of a proficiency thing - I got and shoot 100 shots - how many of them are crap compared to keepers? For example, I went to the national Aviary twice, a year apart. The first trip I got 4 or 6 keepers. Second time 15. And many fewer crap photos.
The second measure will be later today when i look at the images I got on my trip. I shot a party and will be able to compare those shots to the last similar thing i shot back in march. I was a bit dissapointed with my march photos.
Comments can mean improvement - I am getting pretty good at submitting a photo and predicting the comments (good composition or the BG or focus). |
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05/18/2005 10:35:08 AM · #10 |
Increases of your average score or average percent placement in challenges over time is generally a good, unbiased benchmark for evaluating your own improvement.
However, your "best" pictures will not necessarily be your highest rated ones. The reason is simple; voters take the challenge topic so seriously they will vote a poor quality image higher if they feel it meets the challenge well and a high quality image lower if they feel it does not.
Concentrate on improving the technical quality of your images. You will never go wrong doing that. After all, most people that see your images will never know or care what a challenge topic is. All they care about is seeing a good picture.
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05/18/2005 10:45:33 AM · #11 |
| Actually, if there's anyone here who sells photo art professionally, what's the relation between DPC scores and what would do well elsewhere? Is there one? I find myself completely unable to get a grip on exactly what DPC voters like, it appears. I was almost certain that my current submission would do very well, and it's getting hammered worse than my previous ones. |
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05/18/2005 10:54:58 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
How do you define better? Better art? Better technically? Wider appeal? The first one cannot really be measured, can it? |
I believe that's perfectly put.
As I see it you can find out easily if you are getting technically better here at DPC unless you continually jump out of the box and then you'll see varied results in your scoring based on ideas and taste.
If you play your entries safe, your technique will be judged ahead of your artistic flare(s). If you see techical improvements then you can start to incorporate the artistic side and then you may better be able to isolate your progress in different areas.
I need to stick more with the technical side of things, for example because I don't seem to be pushing the whole package too well.
My scoring and understanding gets better when I focus on a simple idea.
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05/18/2005 10:55:57 AM · #13 |
well i must be getting better because it took all night for my score to go from 5.7 to 5.0.. Normally I start low and climb a bit, but alas not this time.
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05/18/2005 11:15:54 AM · #14 |
Better for me is measured as follows:
Comments in the beginning were about what my pictures were lacking, they are slowly becoming more weighted to what people enjoy about my pictures.
Photos chosen as favorites
Average score climbs over time
I see less wrong with my photos
I am more conscious about what is going into my camera before I press the shutter release and that awareness is an improvement over the "buck fever" approach I used to have.
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05/18/2005 03:16:57 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
...How do you define better? Better art? Better technically? Wider appeal? The first one cannot really be measured, can it?.. |
I think it (art) can (be measured). Technical accomplishments can be measured by comparing the given visual data with an intended and/or recognizable aesthetic. The paradigms are generally known or can be acquired relatively easily by anyone who can see.
Artistic accomplishments can be measured by comparing specimen of one genre or emotional sense with another of the same or similar genre/sense. The paradigms for an artistically accomplished piece have grown out of an emotional, cultural and historical context which cannot be acquired by an examination of physical (visual) properties of the photo alone.
Art, however, does not exist in a vacuum. When divorced from life, it atrophies. It would make sense, therefore, when evaluating art, to have life experience to draw from and to compare to. The method used to make such comparisons should just as scientific as an examination of physical evidence, even though its subjects are of an emotional and sensory nature.
I believe that a good, practical measuring rod would be a kind of voltage meter. What we are dealing with, after all, are forms of energy. I, for my part, am concerned most of all with the kind of charge an image packs. I cannot connect myself to someone's photograph via wire to get a decent reading, but I can, as a human being, connect and act as a conductor of such energies, if I have lived consciously and apply what I know conscientiously.
An artist, as someone once said, is the antenna of society. If art does indeed represent something akin to a collective conscience, the method(s) we apply to an examination of art should and can, IMO, be free of conjecture and as scientific as the study of anything else we value and are curious about.
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