Competition Advice

These articles should help you understand the judging process better. 
 

Judging Poor Pictures, by Chris Forster EFIAP FBPE

We all enjoy looking at interesting, well-executed photographs. However, it is a fact that judges at camera club competitions will spend much of their time considering average or poor pictures. What advice can we give in this situation?

Firstly, we should agree on a standard for “good” photographs. Any photograph that is technically adequate has some merits, but since the camera does most of the work for us these days, we should try to move beyond “point and shoot”. I believe that club photographers should be aiming to achieve photos that would be likely to be accepted at national exhibitions. A judge who is asked to compare a photograph to exhibition standards obviously has to have some personal experience of national exhibitions. This is not always the case and is, in my opinion, a major cause of poor judging at camera clubs.

So, let us assume that we know what a good picture contains, how do we judge pictures that fall short of this standard? Judges are required to give useful, honest assessments in order to separate good pictures from bad pictures and to be able to explain their decisions to an audience. Judges are not required to make friends or to maintain egos.

On seeing a picture, all people will have an instant feeling or gut reaction. This is very important and a judge must consider why the picture caused such a reaction. You must not hide your emotions, a picture might:

Delight        What exquisite lighting. What lovely colours.
Intrigue       What is this person doing? How did you set this up?
Confuse      I don’t understand this. Why did you take this?
Bore            No centre of interest. Seen it all before.
Disgust       Environmental damage. Starving beggars.
Astonish     What an amazing event. How did you capture this?
Dismay       Ordinary picture. Poor quality.
Etc.

Strong emotions may be positive or negative, but both may add to the strength of a photo when combined with a strong story telling content. A judge must recognise the emotive content or story telling aspect of the picture, but note that emotions will vary from person to person because of their own personal life experiences.

Next a judge should consider how well the story has been told by considering composition and content. Lastly the judge should consider technical quality. I consider the emotive content to be most important, the layout of the picture next and the technical quality after that. Unfortunately, it is much easier for a judge to talk about the technical aspects and I believe that this is the second major cause of poor judging.

Let’s consider a couple of examples. You are presented with a small print of a cute child eating an ice cream. The background is cluttered with slightly out of focus people and what looks like fairground equipment. The bright sunlight has burnt out the child’s white hat and left the eyes in deep shadow. There is a small patch of light sky in the top left hand corner. What would you say? Your heart sinks when you see the picture, because you know it is miles away from exhibition standard, but you don’t want to upset anyone’s feelings especially if the parent is in the room!

Consider emotive content and story telling. For many people, the picture will remind them of their own children and fun days out during the Summer. In other words, the emotive content is strong. However, most people will not know this particular child and, unless the ice cream is about to drop onto someone’s bare tummy, the story telling aspect of the picture is weak.

Next consider composition and content. The child eating the ice cream is the focal point of the picture. Has the child been visually isolated or placed correctly relative to other objects in the picture (maybe another jealous child looking on)? The background is distracting and weakens the composition. Could a different viewpoint have been chosen? Could the bright patch of sky have been excluded?

Lastly consider technical quality. There are obvious exposure problems with both the highlights and shadows. A judge can offer advice (maybe move the subject into shadow, possibly use fill-in flash to reduce the shadow). A larger aperture could have been used to simplify the background by putting it more out of focus.

Sadly, many judges would have mentioned the bright patch of sky first and then probably have kept coming back to it. They may even hold up bits of card to try to crop the area out. They may mention the messy background, but that’s it. They know it is not a good picture, but because they can’t really explain why, they give it 15 out of 20. No-one has gained.

Lets consider another example. A print of a pleasant landscape comes up on the easel. It was taken with a wide angle lens and the weather was rather dull. The top third of the picture is filled with quite interesting looking clouds, but the foreground is rather dark. There are a couple of people wearing red anoraks in the lower left hand corner walking out of the picture. The whole image is not very sharp. What would you say?

Again you know that this picture is not up to exhibition standard. Consider emotive content and story telling. Most of us enjoy walking in the countryside, or at least enjoy the idea of freedom to roam. We can identify with the disappointing lighting (been there, done that!). Again the emotive content of the picture is quite strong. However, the story telling aspect is completely lacking (Why were you there on that day? Which path were you taking? Did you go to look at lovely Spring flowers or Autumn colours?).

Next consider composition and content. The composition is rather poor. There is no strong focal point and no lead in lines. The lack of suitable lighting has made it impossible to get any feeling of depth, drama or contour. Maybe by using a longer focal length lens to concentrate on just part of the landscape would have strengthened the composition. The size of the figures would determine if they are a distraction or if they give a useful sense of scale. Who cares which way they are walking? Really the best advice is to find a good viewpoint and return to it when the lighting is more photogenic.

Now consider technical quality. Even on the obviously dull day, the exposure range between the sky and ground was too great. Advice may be given to overcome this (use of graduated filters, concentrate on the ground or the sky, mix different exposures in post processing). The dull day has probably led to the use of a slow shutter speed and, without a tripod, could easily have lead to camera shake and hence the lack of sharpness.

Most judges would have mentioned the figures first (should they be there, does the red distract, should they be walking into the picture?). They would then have inspected the print from two inches away and pronounced “it’s not as sharp as it could be but it doesn’t really matter”. They would then finish by saying that it was a nice enough landscape, but “there are better pictures here tonight, 15 out of 20”. Utter drivel and of little help to anyone!

Having had lots of experience at national exhibition level, I am perhaps guilty of applying a Selector’s eye and judging a picture too much by gut reaction. I am probably also guilty of upsetting lots of people by giving low marks. Why mark out of 20 and give no lower than 14? I don’t apologise for giving low marks if I feel I can explain my reasoning. I do also give high marks to good pictures!

A judge may be asked to judge a “beginners” section and, in this case, the standard for a good picture may be lower. I think that the same judging process as for advanced workers should still be used. The scoring may also be a bit more generous, but is less important than the advice given.

In conclusion, I recommend that you judge all pictures by considering emotive content and story telling first, then consider composition and content and finally consider technical quality. If you do not have experience of national exhibitions, then get some (either by entering or by attending presentation nights). When an average or poor picture comes before you, judge it as you would a good picture. You do not need to start off with praise and then damn it with details. Express what you see and what you feel. Judge it and then mark it appropriately. Don’t shirk your responsibility.

If you judge poor pictures badly, then you will help no-one, you will annoy both good and bad photographers by giving inappropriate marks and you will lose respect. You will also probably not enjoy judging as much as you could. It needs some practice, but it’s not difficult to judge correctly.

Chris Forster EFIAP FBPE, May 2010

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Thoughts of a Judge………. By Gordon Roberts CPAGB 
 

I have been judging for 30 years for the CACC. Some judges are better than others, it’s a fact. Some competitions are easier to judge than others. When faced with over 110 images in an evening it is too many. The most I have done is 99 and at the end of the evening I felt like a wet rag, and you know you probably haven’t done justice to them all because of the time constraint. If you have 110 images that is less than 1 minute to see it, assess it and talk about it. It’s too much to ask. 

Judging prints is the easier section. You can see them all together and so it is easier to assess, but with dpi’s you have to carry them in your head and as you start to score you have to remember which ones deserve a good mark, what that mark is and how it relates to the others to come – “all on the hoof”. 

I get it wrong at times. Gaynor and I will discuss images from a competition I have judged and she will say “why did you give image A 20? it was too much” or “why did you not like image B? I thought it was good”. 

You get differences in judging all the way up from Club Competitions to International Salons. I am sure Mike, Martin, and I know Gaynor and I have had the same image in different exhibitions and a 12 out of 20 in one might get 8 out of 20 in another! That’s how it goes I am afraid. By the way, after looking at the top scores on our website I have to say that some people have got more marks than I would have given. A number were not sharp when in a closeup and macro event they should be, and one was not a close up either. So if you feel robbed by having a low score, there some of you that should be delighted at what you scored, as in my opinion, they should have scored less. But that is my opinion and that is what judging is all about.

Do not let it put you off - please do enter your work. At these three events form an opinion of each image and see if it is in line with that of the judge, remember you only have minutes to do this, just like the judge. Give it a mark before the judge does, and see if you are within one mark of the judges score. By doing this you will learn to assess images and see how to improve your own. Talk to other members and see if they agree with you or not. 

Please do not be put off by any judge. If they like your work that’s a bonus, if they don’t then they could just be wrong.

Gordon Roberts CPAGB, March 2014