Thursday just gone was competition night at the club, the set subject print competition for "liquid". The judge, Ken Wood LRPS, was introduced, and a comment was made that his Flickr page showed a lot of close-up and black and white shots. Which instantly had me thinking I was in with a chance for some good scores for my submitted prints.
Camera club judges are always a difficult bunch to please. Some will be very strict on what they want to see in a subject competition, and in this case Ken was very specific - he wanted to see motion, he wanted to get a fluidic feel from the image, and it had to be the main subject of the composition. If a photograph didn't have any of the above, then it received a poor score.
The club's scores are out of 20, though images rarely get less than 15. I think the lowest score I've seen is a 12 (which tells me that the range should be reduced to something like 10), but an average score is 17, with anything above classed as very good indeed.
A friend of mine had put in a print of a skull in water, having ink poured over it. It looks absolutely amazing, different colours dripping down over it and out of the eye sockets. An astoundingly stunning piece of work. Yet because of the judge's concrete ideas of what constituted the subject, it only got the average 17.
I was flabbergasted. I honestly thought it would walk away with a 20.
My iris shot received a 19. The judge liked how the flower was offset from the centre, the darkness on the left making you move around the image to get to the detail. The flower itself looked like a water drop. And he loved how almost pattern-like the sharp water droplets were. None of this seemed to fit his previous ideas, so I'm somewhat perplexed why he rated it so highly.
On the other hand, my "Pour" photo matched everything he wanted - movement, fluid, the light catching, the drops flying out of the glass. And it was also in black and white. 20 points and best in group (advanced). More than happy with that.
As you can see, it always pays to put in a variety of shots (each competitor can enter two images), neither too similar but also matching the subject as you see it.You never know which way a judge is going to jump.
Camera club judges are always a difficult bunch to please. Some will be very strict on what they want to see in a subject competition, and in this case Ken was very specific - he wanted to see motion, he wanted to get a fluidic feel from the image, and it had to be the main subject of the composition. If a photograph didn't have any of the above, then it received a poor score.
The club's scores are out of 20, though images rarely get less than 15. I think the lowest score I've seen is a 12 (which tells me that the range should be reduced to something like 10), but an average score is 17, with anything above classed as very good indeed.
A friend of mine had put in a print of a skull in water, having ink poured over it. It looks absolutely amazing, different colours dripping down over it and out of the eye sockets. An astoundingly stunning piece of work. Yet because of the judge's concrete ideas of what constituted the subject, it only got the average 17.
I was flabbergasted. I honestly thought it would walk away with a 20.
| Picture info: Lumix GH4, Lumix G Vario 14-140mm @ 140mm, ISO200, f/16, 1/80 sec |
My iris shot received a 19. The judge liked how the flower was offset from the centre, the darkness on the left making you move around the image to get to the detail. The flower itself looked like a water drop. And he loved how almost pattern-like the sharp water droplets were. None of this seemed to fit his previous ideas, so I'm somewhat perplexed why he rated it so highly.
| Picture info: Lumix GH4, Voigtlander f/0.95 17.5mm, ISO200, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec |
On the other hand, my "Pour" photo matched everything he wanted - movement, fluid, the light catching, the drops flying out of the glass. And it was also in black and white. 20 points and best in group (advanced). More than happy with that.
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