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DPChallenge Forums >> Current Challenge >> I think I took the Candid thing too seriously
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09/03/2002 02:24:12 PM · #1
I'm sure it's just me, but for some reason I think most of the photos in the Candid challenge are... well... boring. Please don't hate me, but it appears that absolutely anything can be considered candid. When I took my camera out, I was hardpressed to notice something that was interestingly unprepared. But I look at the photos and most, while technically well done, are not very interesting.

But there are a couple particular photos I really like... like the one with the football player on the bench next to the water cooler. That's a double whammy! hahaha!

What are your thoughts? Should I have been taking more pics?
09/03/2002 02:41:43 PM · #2
Many have already confessed to entering something less than their ideal. If you think about it geting a really good candid in the classic sence requires time and luck equivilant to winning the lottery in addition to haveing a good eye and a quick sutter. A scense of personal isolation doesn't help either. People did remarkably well. Study the boreing ones again and looks for subtle signs of meaning, beauty, irony.

aelith
09/03/2002 03:16:41 PM · #3
Originally posted by aelith:
Study the boreing ones again and looks for subtle signs of meaning, beauty, irony.

aelith


I tend to agree. I always go back after I have voted to look again and add comments. This week when I went back I certainly developed a new appreciation for a lot of the photo. I too had a hard time finding just the right shot this week. I don't have a telephoto lens so it is hard to get a candid shot without shoving the lens in someones face. I am relatively happy with my shot and that is about what the scoring is showing as well.
09/03/2002 03:43:58 PM · #4
im sure people will flame me for this but this challenge was to get high quality 'candid' shots. that means going beyond one's immediate comfort zone and trying to get or see something that's not the norm :).

to me that excludes family members, shooting the intersection outside your window, and any other just completely random type of picture that doesn't really carry a story.

the ones that i'm giving better scores to are the ones that seem to tell a story or are actually the visual transcription of an occurrence. there's quite a few in this category

a portrait of a family member looking away from the camera, or pensive, no matter how well done, doesn't really say 'i challenged myself to get this shot' to me. (Although some are very very well done shots, bravo).

maybe im confusing candid with photojournalism, but what can i say? i wouldnt ask of anyone else anything i didn't expect from myself.

let the flames begin :) ..
09/03/2002 04:00:12 PM · #5
No flames from me, magnetic.

Some pictures I scored 10 because thought they were just brilliant. More than a handful of 9s, quite some 8s, lots of 7s. Most of these were good shots in and of themselves. To think though that they were taking under candid circumstances add to them a lot.

I tended to come on harder with my vote of pictures of kids. I'm sure most of these were candids but how hard is it to take a candid picture of your child? It's actually much harder to take a posed shot of a child. How hard is it to take a picture of your pet sleeping?
09/03/2002 04:06:48 PM · #6
Originally posted by Journey:
I tended to come on harder with my vote of pictures of kids. I'm sure most of these were candids but how hard is it to take a candid picture of your child? It's actually much harder to take a posed shot of a child. How hard is it to take a picture of your pet sleeping?

Not all of the child shots were the photographer's own child. I know of one entry in particular that is probably getting hammered for being of children, even though the children were unknown to the photographer.

-Terry
09/03/2002 04:10:58 PM · #7
Over the history of these challenge, I have just simply grown weary of the shots of children. There are a few occasional exceptional shots though.

I'm trying to remember a few things though... there are some participants here who strive to make great photos. There are some participants here who just want to post photos to see what happens... There is nothing wrong with either method...
09/03/2002 04:29:58 PM · #8
I do not really agree with pushing the comfort zone, but it definitely takes effort.

Invite friends of for dinner and photograph them as they sit around and talk.

Photograph kids at play.

Just make sure there is good lighting, a good background, and compose the imgage.

Originally posted by magnetic9999:
im sure people will flame me for this but this challenge was to get high quality 'candid' shots. that means going beyond one's immediate comfort zone and trying to get or see something that's not the norm :).

to me that excludes family members, shooting the intersection outside your window, and any other just completely random type of picture that doesn't really carry a story.

the ones that i'm giving better scores to are the ones that seem to tell a story or are actually the visual transcription of an occurrence. there's quite a few in this category

a portrait of a family member looking away from the camera, or pensive, no matter how well done, doesn't really say 'i challenged myself to get this shot' to me. (Although some are very very well done shots, bravo).

maybe im confusing candid with photojournalism, but what can i say? i wouldnt ask of anyone else anything i didn't expect from myself.

let the flames begin :) ..



09/03/2002 04:53:05 PM · #9
I tended to come on harder with my vote of pictures of kids. I'm sure most of these were candids but how hard is it to take a candid picture of your child? It's actually much harder to take a posed shot of a child. How hard is it to take a picture of your pet sleeping?

I agree 110% on that, Journey. I am also coming down a little harder on things that fall into the "public performance" category. My feeling is that if you're performing in public, whether in a sport or singing, etc., being photographed in those instances isn't all that "candid." I did find a couple creative exceptions, though...
09/03/2002 05:00:58 PM · #10
Originally posted by magnetic9999:
im sure people will flame me for this but this challenge was to get high quality 'candid' shots. that means going beyond one's immediate comfort zone and trying to get or see something that's not the norm :).

to me that excludes family members, shooting the intersection outside your window, and any other just completely random type of picture that doesn't really carry a story.

the ones that i'm giving better scores to are the ones that seem to tell a story or are actually the visual transcription of an occurrence. there's quite a few in this category

a portrait of a family member looking away from the camera, or pensive, no matter how well done, doesn't really say 'i challenged myself to get this shot' to me. (Although some are very very well done shots, bravo).

maybe im confusing candid with photojournalism, but what can i say? i wouldnt ask of anyone else anything i didn't expect from myself.

let the flames begin :) ..


I agree with your attitude to trying to define candid photography e.g photographing a stone is not candid how about a sleeping person or a tiger at the zoo. In my opinion it's about the same, the subject reaction is indifferent . candid and photojurnalism are very close so a smling pet is definitly not a candid shot.


* This message has been edited by the author on 9/3/2002 5:01:58 PM.
09/03/2002 06:51:56 PM · #11
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
Over the history of these challenge, I have just simply grown weary of the shots of children.



Would'nt you like to see a shot of a child with some kind of fruit?? :)
09/03/2002 06:57:52 PM · #12
Originally posted by Indigodingo:
Would'nt you like to see a shot of a child with some kind of fruit?? :)

How about a child candidly eating a piece of fruit stuck on the end of a pencil?
09/03/2002 07:02:57 PM · #13
Originally posted by jakking:
Originally posted by Indigodingo:
[i] Would'nt you like to see a shot of a child with some kind of fruit?? :)


How about a child candidly eating a piece of fruit stuck on the end of a pencil?[/i]

That would be great but only if the child is stationed right in front of the headquarters of General Motors. (and is wearing his very old sneakers while sitting on his brandnew tricycle).
09/03/2002 07:08:30 PM · #14
my post has officially been hijacked.

hehe

09/04/2002 01:04:14 PM · #15
People do look to these forums for advice on how to interpret the challenges. There were quite a few threads last week discussing exactly what would/should be considered candid. Lots of ppl don't have a clear understanding of what it is. The consensus seemed to be that it is a shot that isn't posed or set-up PERIOD. To now change the interpretation and score pics based on a different criteria isn't exactly fair imho.
09/04/2002 01:16:40 PM · #16
Originally posted by indigo997:
To now change the interpretation and score pics based on a different criteria isn't exactly fair imho.

Given that the vast majority of voters do not read the forums, I am not sure what value this "criteria" ever had.
09/04/2002 01:21:55 PM · #17
Whether a shot is candid or not is hard to determine.

Lets say you want to get a cool action shot ( a juggler or a frisbee catch..whatever). You work your way into position to get a nice background and light..you check exposure, aperature..blah, blah..and you shoot...

OOOpss!! too low a shutter... Cut!!! Cut!!! You say outloud. Excuse me..could you repeat that..I didn't QUITE get that shot. "Sure say's your subject".

THAT isn't candid.

However, lets say you are hanging with these people..shooting the breeze while they do their juggling or frisbee thing while you casually shoot a photo here and there as you talk or look around for various angles. That is pretty much candid.

I think most people will say thats splitting hairs and how do you even determine if the person that entered the shot didn't let the spirit of competition cloud their judgment and they staged a photo?

My opinion is ..who cares. Maybe in future challenges we need to be careful about how easy it would be to fake a photo experience but Candid is probably going to be the only challenge I can think of where the challenge could be totally set-up and who could know?

As the mafia boys would say "Fugetaboutit" ;-)
09/04/2002 02:07:38 PM · #18
Well, I am writing this within the forum. It seems that the same folks post here regularly so it does apply somewhat. If you had an opinion on what candid is then why not mention it before the challenge instead of after? PPL did ask for help on this.


jakking: "Given that the vast majority of voters do not read the forums, I am not sure what value this "criteria" ever had. "
09/04/2002 03:37:36 PM · #19
Candid Shlandid, I'm sick of the sight of the word. Roll on next week.

* This message has been edited by the author on 9/4/2002 3:36:38 PM.
09/04/2002 10:43:39 PM · #20
What do you do when you go to work? Do you just work with your coworkers or do you do other things? Meaning it call socializing you talk about other things than just work or forum about photography. By The way it is the 2nd inning and Oakland is in the lead 7-0 for their 20th straight win. Candid can be intimidating for taking close ups of someone you don't know. The subjects can duck or turn away to keep from getting their picture taken. I had one old guy once that did a hang ten for me on the concrete, so surfers do get old and take being photograph in stride.

* This message has been edited by the author on 9/4/2002 10:43:18 PM.
09/04/2002 11:11:25 PM · #21
I think my photo was WAY above average... Obviously some don't think its good I have a 4.72 :(
09/04/2002 11:26:18 PM · #22
You are doing better than me, mine only just climed past 4.5 for the third time. lol
09/05/2002 12:11:47 AM · #23
Originally posted by magnetic9999:
im sure people will flame me for this but this challenge was to get high quality 'candid' shots.
<clip>
to me that excludes <clip> any other just completely random type of picture that doesn't really carry a story.

<Stokes up the fireplace> (kidding)

Actually, I don't see why the "story" connection is being made... The challenge said nothing about "tell a story"... It was to take a "candid" (ie. unposed, unsetup) shot...

I think "Tell a Story" would be an excellent challenge, but that wasn't what was asked for...

The real challenge lately has been trying to figure out what 'additional' constraints will be added to the challenge by the voters... Last week was "Childhood", but many voters decided it was "Happy Childhood" or "MY Childhood"... This week was "Candid", but it's being voted as "Candid People" or "Candid People Telling a Story" or even "Candid People over the age of 18 Telling a Story while Fully Dressed"...

That won't change, and I don't expect it to... It's just part of life in the fast lane...

But that's just me... :)


* This message has been edited by the author on 9/5/2002 12:54:16 AM.
09/05/2002 12:35:53 AM · #24
My pic is stuck at 5.27 with over 200 votes. I suck. But hey, it's my very first post! *finds a corner to pout*

:P
09/05/2002 12:44:16 AM · #25
bamaster - 5.27 is good! Look at past challenges, you're not doing very badly at all.
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