Interesting observations Mark. I'm sure Mark Robertas and Doug Brewer will chime in , as they are part of the judging at GFM, but i think they will agrre with you fo rth emost part, at least from what i got from the late night conversations i heard.
I often wonder what judges look for myself. Photos 100's of people like, seem to be dismissed, and photos i throw in at the l;ast minute, seeem to do well. Oh well Dave On 4/30/07, Mark Cassino <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Had a new experience last Saturday. A consortium of camera / photo clubs > in SW Michigan had their regular photo contest at the local community > college, and I was invited to sit as one of the judges. I've entered a > fair number of contests, but this was the first time I ever judged one. > > The judging as done by teams of three judges. We used USB numeric > keypads with a keys programmed for "in" and "out". > > A few thoughts - > > 1. The process was very fast. Possibly even too fast. I looked at my > watch after the first run through and started keeping time. In the > course of 3-4 run troughs (acceptances on the first round, honors, and > then prizes) we averaged about 30 seconds per photo (based on the the > total number of photos in the first run through.) With about 200 photos > to judge it almost had to be that fast. A lot more time was spent > evaluating the prize winners vs the first cut. (I should comment that > the entires were in 3 categories - prints, slides, digital.) > > 2. A lot of technical aspects of the shots just slap you in the face > when you do the quick assessment. Bad lighting, bad color balance, > awkward models (I was assigned to the portraiture group) just hit you > like a baseball bat. Similarly, very good but low impact shots were at > bit of a disadvantage. > > 3. I was surprised and how consistent the judging seemed to be. I'd > estimate that my vote went with the majority about 90% of the time. > > 4. It only happened once - but one shot I initially voted against that > got in I wound up voting _for_ in the next round. Made me think of some > of the comments re the Pentax gallery. > > 5. Color calibration and contrast control was a real issue with the > digital shots. A lot of the photographers were sitting in the room and > the feedback with digital often was "that's not how it looks on my screen." > > Overall - it was a pretty interesting experience. I always imagined > judges looking at my photos like I look at them - pouring over them for > a long time, looking at the nuance and detail. I should of put 2 + 2 > together - when you consider the numbers of photos they are looking at, > it's a pretty snap judgment process. And the slightest technical fault > can get your image booted... > > Anyhow - it was fun and I saw a lot of excellent photos. I observed the > judging of the nature category as well - a bird shot took first place > but I was surprised at how hard the judges were on the bird images. The > standards for bird photography are sky high (no pun intended.) > > - MCC > -- > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Mark Cassino Photography > Kalamazoo, Michigan > www.markcassino.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > -- Equine Photography www.caughtinmotion.com http://brooksinthecountry.blogspot.com/ Ontario Canada -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
