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12/22/2005 02:45:54 PM · #1 |
| maybe its just me, but i have noticed that the quality of pictures posted in challenges lately, well how do i say it without offending the great resident photographers... mmm ... well not as it used to... maybe we need MORE CHALLENGING challenges ?.....i might be wrong.. i'm sure i am.. your thought? |
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12/22/2005 02:48:03 PM · #2 |
| I couldn't disagree more. Phobias seemed a little lackluster, but I thought many of the entries in Cheese and this weeks DOF II were excellent. |
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12/22/2005 02:52:24 PM · #3 |
Well my mediocre shots have gone downhill a bit too, so it's not solely a symptom of the better photographers.
The weather/light's been lousy, I've been sick, have no time ... I've also cut back on the number of entries overall.
I also think it's probably impossible to really tell -- we just had a photo win with one of the all-time high scores, so who knows ... |
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12/22/2005 02:56:05 PM · #4 |
yeah GeneralIE maybe the lousy weather IS the reason... i know its gettin to me.. i've been waitin for weeks for a good light to take my camera outside...
Message edited by author 2005-12-22 14:57:04. |
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12/22/2005 02:59:05 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Well my mediocre shots have gone downhill a bit too, so it's not solely a symptom of the better photographers.
The weather/light's been lousy, I've been sick, have no time ... I've also cut back on the number of entries overall.
I also think it's probably impossible to really tell -- we just had a photo win with one of the all-time high scores, so who knows ... |
Ya that challenge had tons of high scorers! I think they all got what they deserved. Im constantly suprised by the quality of photos as of late. |
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12/22/2005 03:00:14 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by rami:
yeah GeneralIE maybe the lousy weather IS the reason... i know its gettin to me.. i've been waitin for weeks for a good light to take my camera outside... |
At least, as of today, the (N. Hemisphere) days are getting longer again! |
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12/22/2005 03:08:01 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Originally posted by rami:
yeah GeneralIE maybe the lousy weather IS the reason... i know its gettin to me.. i've been waitin for weeks for a good light to take my camera outside... |
At least, as of today, the (N. Hemisphere) days are getting longer again! |
Yup, today was about 1 second longer than yesterday. ;-)
Message edited by author 2005-12-22 15:08:49. |
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12/22/2005 03:12:54 PM · #8 |
ya .. my light's been lousy also
hey ... wait a minite .. i do mostly table top stuff .. |
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12/23/2005 02:29:43 PM · #9 |
| The Phobia challenge really had some awesome images. Perhaps the overall average score is lower in that challenge but I gave two 9's, which I haven't done in quite a while. |
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12/23/2005 03:08:47 PM · #10 |
I thought the 4:00-5:00 AM challenge had some great stuff in it.
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12/23/2005 03:48:58 PM · #11 |
Maybe people are just getting bored with it. Maybe some are just fed up. Someone posted in another thread something to the effect, what's the fun anymore in entering challenges just to have some shallow minded person tell you it doesn’t fit the challenge? A lot of people spend time they really don't have to set up and take shots for challenges just to have them ridiculed and scored low with no explanation as to why. I often ask myself why I do it. But then I look at the bigger picture. I do it mostly for the fun of it. I don’t care if it wins or not. If it does good, great, if it don’t, so be it. I just like taking pictures.
One of biggest problems here at DPC is people’s interpretation of challenges. (I know everybody is entitled to there own opinion and interpretation.) Why can't people just accept the descriptions for what they say and are? IMO they are pretty self-explanatory. But there are always the ones that think there is some hidden message written between the lines. Take the 4-5 am challenge for example. It was very explicit in description: Set your alarm, and take a picture between 4:00 and 5:00 AM. This challenge may also be known as the "I can't believe I got up this early to take a photograph for a ^$&@*# challenge" challenge. Right away people were talking about changing times on there cameras, arguing over time zones (as far as I know it’s 4-5am everywhere in the world at some point during a 24 hour period) and saying things like "it doesn't matter what time you take the photograph, it just has to look like it was taken between 4-5 am. I’m pretty sure that if they wanted a picture that looked like it was taken between 4-5 am the description would’ve said so.
I think people just need to get back to the basics of this website and it’s intended use. Enter the challenges for the fun of it and because you love taking pictures. Stop trying to find the hidden message in the descriptions. They are self-explanatory. If says take a picture between 4-5am, get your butt out of bed and take a picture between 4-5am. If you can’t get up that early or don’t want to, then don’t enter.
Take photos and have fun. Enjoy the learning experience. After all, if it isn’t any fun to it, why do it.
So in the words of Forrest Gump, “ that’s all I have to say about that.”
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12/23/2005 03:51:46 PM · #12 |
It's because I haven't been submitting anything lately, you're just not used to not seeing my crap.
Yeah right, how can a little egoistic munchkin like me be modest?
Yes, I do not have anything helpful to add. |
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12/23/2005 04:08:49 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by Ennil:
Yes, I do not have anything helpful to add. |
Me neither. Besides, if I said what I really think I'd be called a scrooge and someone would threaten to leave the site over it.
=p
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12/23/2005 04:38:16 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by KaDi:
Originally posted by Ennil:
Yes, I do not have anything helpful to add. |
Me neither. Besides, if I said what I really think I'd be called a scrooge and someone would threaten to leave the site over it.
=p |
Speak your mind woman!!!
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12/23/2005 05:26:35 PM · #15 |
there is a very simple reason why the challenge entries have been going downhill for some time, here in Iceland we only get about 4 hours of daylight now, so we don't have enough time to shoot for the challenges, the daylight is when everyone is working ;)
but the dimmest day of the year was des 22th, and now we get about 3 minutes more daylight every day.. so just wait, the phenominal Icelandic scenery will be entering the challenges very soon.. but for now, we can only join nighttime challenges.. like the 4-5am challenge ;)
btw, in National Geographic's 100 best pictures there is a picture by an Icelandic photographer named Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson the image
just shows how good we can be :)
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12/23/2005 05:52:00 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by dsmeth:
Speak your mind woman!!! |
Ok. Ignoring the Icelander for the moment, this is what I really think.
I think the quality of images HAS been going down--because my snobbery has been going up.
Since I joined DPC I have become a more critical viewer of images. I have become more critical of my own images. I've seen so many ideas repeated that often I feel like saying "been there, done that"...and sometimes I think to myself, and it was done sooooo much better.
There are so many aspects to a good photograph that getting them all right is difficult--it's also truly impressive when it happens. By this I mean, it is well composed, has a clear subject, holds the viewer's interest, is well exposed, has competent post-processing, the things that should be in focus are, the things that shouldn't be aren't, there is nothing in the image that is not necessary to the image, the image "says" something...in short, an image is like a good poem, it makes you say, "I see" and then it calls you back to look again because you didn't actually "see" everything it had to say the first time around.
When I first came here I thought I had a pretty good idea about what made a good photograph, what appealed to me, what "art" and "artfulness" are....and then, I got a better idea of all those things. The once prettily clothed images now appear ragged, but the gems are so much more sparkling than before!
edit to fix typo....
Message edited by author 2005-12-23 20:46:25. |
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12/23/2005 08:47:24 PM · #17 |
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12/24/2005 07:13:02 AM · #18 |
I can understand about the whole "I live close to the artic and I don't have alot of light" but why does that stop you from taking photo's, I live close to the artic as well (well 49th parallel) and I have this amazing thing called electricity and it produces light ... when that fails I set my camera for longer shutter speads and PRESTO! it all seems to come together!
Originally posted by DanSig:
there is a very simple reason why the challenge entries have been going downhill for some time, here in Iceland we only get about 4 hours of daylight now, so we don't have enough time to shoot for the challenges, the daylight is when everyone is working ;)
but the dimmest day of the year was des 22th, and now we get about 3 minutes more daylight every day.. so just wait, the phenominal Icelandic scenery will be entering the challenges very soon.. but for now, we can only join nighttime challenges.. like the 4-5am challenge ;)
btw, in National Geographic's 100 best pictures there is a picture by an Icelandic photographer named Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson the image
just shows how good we can be :) |
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12/24/2005 08:27:26 AM · #19 |
When you look further than the technical aspects of the photographs there is little change over the years.
When you start from scratch you might consider every sharp, well saturated, good compositioned, lit entry supah dupah and rate it high. Once you are over that habit and start to value content, content presentation (the story) and the emotion a lot more than tech quality you might get the feeling that things have changed for the worse. No, you have changed (I'd say matured even) and that's a good change.
There is really only a top 2% of really good photographers and photographs. This has been ever since I first participated here and I am not one of them. Beyond that you have 8% good photographers, 40% who can make technical great stuff with zero emotion (only a couple of times a year they manage to make it all come together) and 50% who still need to find their mojo.
I do miss some photographers who made great photographs and don't enter so much anymore, but on the other hand there are new people everyday who surprise me.
When you get tired of it all, take a break of a couple of weeks/months. Sometimes you need to clear your head and search for new insights. Stop voting for a while and go a day to the museum to look at paintings. Ditch one of the nights lurking at dpc and go read a book.
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12/24/2005 04:08:44 PM · #20 |
ahhh yeh you're going to have to ignore this post ... I was drunk when I wrote it
Originally posted by seebrown:
I can understand about the whole "I live close to the artic and I don't have alot of light" but why does that stop you from taking photo's, I live close to the artic as well (well 49th parallel) and I have this amazing thing called electricity and it produces light ... when that fails I set my camera for longer shutter speads and PRESTO! it all seems to come together!
Originally posted by DanSig:
there is a very simple reason why the challenge entries have been going downhill for some time, here in Iceland we only get about 4 hours of daylight now, so we don't have enough time to shoot for the challenges, the daylight is when everyone is working ;)
but the dimmest day of the year was des 22th, and now we get about 3 minutes more daylight every day.. so just wait, the phenominal Icelandic scenery will be entering the challenges very soon.. but for now, we can only join nighttime challenges.. like the 4-5am challenge ;)
btw, in National Geographic's 100 best pictures there is a picture by an Icelandic photographer named Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson the image
just shows how good we can be :) |
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12/28/2005 09:58:27 AM · #21 |
What is really happening is that people are getting better so they are more critical, also there is a lot more people entering challenges now than say a year ago. Look back at some of the challenges and you will see 75, 100, maybe 115 entries. Shallow DOF had 300+. With so many people entering, obviously the quality of shots is going to be somewhat diluted. I think the quality of the top 30 is good, sometimes I am surprised by a winner for example the single light source challenge.
Overall I think it is just an illusion because you have to look through so many photos when voting that it appears to be endless crappy shots.
Another idea is that with challenges that can be interpreted in many ways you will see lower scores. People usually love em or hate em. Look at teh landscape challenge, scores are high, but it is straight forward, no interpreting what makes a wonderful landscape photo. Now look at the garbage challenge, scores are low, even the winner's. |
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12/28/2005 10:47:04 AM · #22 |
I know my shots are not the best in the world but ...
I have just voted on the oops! challenge and voted 1 (one) 6(six) times - images oof and other faults.
Not sure what the reason is, maybe there are a lot of new starters out there and if so we need to encourage them.
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