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11/28/2005 04:08:33 PM · #1 |
Lessons learned in little over a year on DPC and 50+ challenges
OK, now I've entered 51 challenges and my score has been all over the place.
And I've managed to learn a few hard lessons:
Lesson 1: Careful with the borders. Use ONLY black or white (or neutral gray). Or mixture there of.
Avoid:
 and 
Lesson 2: What seemed to be a good idea 2 minutes before the challenge rarely is. esp if you're drunk. (see my lowest scoring entry if you really, really must get a proof of this).
Lesson 3: Get closer - fill the frame.
Lesson 4: Keep it simple, less is more (Less clutter is more effective and more interesting)
too much clutter . . . . . . . relatively simple:
 
Lesson 5: Give comments. They force you to look at the composition, light, technical aspects and other factors. This will make it easier to understand and apply these factors.
Lesson 6: Have some human interest in the photo, people like to look at other people (and speculate about them). A beautiful girl always catches the eye, so get more of them into the photo.
Lesson 7: Draw the eye into the photo, make people want to read the photo or get them interested in what is going on in the frame.
 or photo for lesson #6 above.
Lesson 8: Reflections. Double the impact with a mirroring surface.
Lesson 9: Try to find your own take on common subjects.
Lesson 10: Avoid long titles.
Lesson 11: Sometimes nobody will understand you. You enter a photo, that is in your opinion a good one, and get below par score and no clues as why?
 and  and  and 
This year has been more successful for me at DPC than I expected. I set up a list of 4 goals for 2005 early this year, and I've managed to meet all of these goals.
DPC Goals for 2005
#1 to meet and overcome the avg score for 10D (5.598)
#2 to have made more helpful comments than I recive
#3 get into the top 10
#4 get a 7+ score
I met goal #1 simply by selling the 10D and buying a 20D which had a lower avg.score :) - anyway the agv.score for the 10D has dropped to 5.57 by now and my avg is at 5.59 :)
To meet goal #2 I've had to give out quite a lot of comments, and to some of them I've got interesting replies, for others thanks. The "triptych" challenge helped me alot there, because there were so many photos I could react to and comment on.
Goals #3 and #4 I met with the perfect puffin :)
Couple of standard puffin jokes:
If you think the puffin is nice, you should see it's big brother, the Huffin!!! :)
If you make a pie out of puffin, will you get a puffin muffin?
Never give them cigarettes :)
Because I met all the goals for 2005, I added some more:
Post Birds Challenge:
#5 Get another ribbon, just to prove I'm not a one hit wonder
#6 Get more 6+ scores
#7 Try to get 100+ favourites in photos.
#8 Get 50+ fav photog
#9 Stay off the beaten path
#10 Get better :)
Still working on #5. Got a few more 6+ scores for goal #6. I've got now 111 in fav.photos. This gives me a good ego-boost whenever I'm feeling down.
#8 will take some time, but slowly I'm getting more fans :)
#9 and #10 are default positions for me, so they really don't count as goals, but 10 is such a nice round number.
Even though good scores are fine, I give more value to the comments and favs. To reach out, connect to real people and get their reaction is more valuable than an abstract number. In the most of the last few challenges I've managed to get some favs and that gives me a buzz.
I've got in touch with a few people, that I didn't know before, through DPC and that is, of course, of the most value.
Message edited by author 2005-11-28 16:09:21. |
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11/28/2005 04:13:22 PM · #2 |
Good post Petur, and some great images there too, should have scored higher in most instances.
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11/28/2005 04:22:14 PM · #3 |
Thanks for sharing your photos and your thoughts.
Live long and prosper. (sincerely)
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11/28/2005 04:28:55 PM · #4 |
Lovely post, Petur. Keep on plugging away :-)
R. |
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11/28/2005 04:30:08 PM · #5 |
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11/28/2005 05:07:49 PM · #6 |
| most excellent post, petur! perfect encapsulation of the effort and introspection required to move your craft forward, regardless of whether or not you are competing here or simply shooting for fun. |
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11/28/2005 05:19:19 PM · #7 |
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11/28/2005 05:27:08 PM · #8 |
i agree - fantastic read, very inspiring.
I am curious as to how you found the average score for your camera.
Did you do the math, or am i missing a link somewhere? |
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11/28/2005 05:32:44 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by mesmeraj:
I am curious as to how you found the average score for your camera. |
Average scores are posted HERE (5.287 for your PowerShot G6). |
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11/28/2005 05:34:07 PM · #10 |
| Thanks Pétur for a very good summary. Your lessons are 100% valid. This site really works. |
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11/28/2005 06:14:10 PM · #11 |
| Very good post! Thank-you :-) |
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11/28/2005 06:45:00 PM · #12 |
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11/28/2005 06:46:09 PM · #13 |
| Thanks for the post, makes me realise that setting goals for myself here and meeting them is realistic! Cheers. |
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11/28/2005 07:30:49 PM · #14 |
<<>>>
For what it's worth, I thought they were all good pictures. :) |
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11/29/2005 06:50:08 AM · #15 |
Well, thank you all, esp Melissa/ragamuffingirl.
I've been thinking about this for a while, and DPC is well worth the effort to think more about photos and composition. And a great place to learn about technical details. The people here are so great and supportive.
For fun I had the same motive for my very 1st submission and the 51st, only did mariginally better 5.858 vs 5.668 |
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11/29/2005 10:30:31 AM · #16 |
| I strongly agree with all those points! and have one, the more you shoot the more you get an good feel for what too shoot. |
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01/13/2006 05:09:10 AM · #17 |
| Bumping up, nice points Pétur! Explains a lot of things people ask themselves when entries get low scores.. |
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01/13/2006 05:14:15 AM · #18 |
wonderful post - and interesting to look over the photos. You do have some good ones in there - at least when you're not drunk ;P
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01/13/2006 05:37:39 AM · #19 |
Great post, Petur. I've been at DPC for only some months (13 challenges) but I'm realizing about some of the lessons you explain. I hope that when I arrive to one year here I have same knowledge as you.
Keep going. |
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01/13/2006 05:46:33 AM · #20 |
| Terrific post. I've been here a year, too. Wish I'd learned that much! Hope you won't mind if I steal your wisdom instead? Cheers. |
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01/13/2006 09:15:10 AM · #21 |
I really enjoyed reading yoour post...it was the best one I have read in my 9 months on the site...well done. It should feature in the:
'tips for doing better in challenges' and 'how to set goals for each year'...Thanks again,
Enzo |
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01/13/2006 09:47:08 AM · #22 |
Gauti--Awesome post! I enjoyed reading it, and I learned a bit too. And after looking through your portfolio, I decided to add you to my favorites. I didn't do it just to help your goal, but it doesn't hurt. :o)
On a completely seperate note, it is interesting that hanae has single handedly made the Contax SL300R T* the camera with the highest average score. I never heard of that camera, but she sure puts it to good use. Check it out. |
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01/17/2006 08:07:05 PM · #23 |
Just posting my old goals for 2005 before I update them :)
edit:
and the gremlis ate the old goals, so there you are :(
Message edited by author 2006-01-18 07:34:00. |
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