I'm tempted to restart the competitions, discuss

robz21 said:
I like the idea, how about having it set that (as said by BF-Bert) , that the photo must be fresh and have EXIF to prove this?
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Exif data is easy to fake though.

Edit, I understand why some people like the tight deadlines and enforcing the photo to be with that month. However, I just see it as making people rush which is not inductive to producing great photographs. The more rules and regulations you add the more you stifle creativity, black the passion and emotion and reduce quality.
I guess I just envision a much more pure form of photography for the competition.
 
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I fail to see how a competition that requires absolutely no effort whatsoever will add any value to the forum. Just picking your favourite photo from the last 3 months will neither improve your photography or create any discussion within the forum. You would be far better off just posting this work in a c&c thread.

"pure form of photography " is just elitist twaddle.
 
cokecan said:
I love the idea of reviving the competition in one form or another and there are some interesting ideas in this thread.

For me I feel themeless is a bad way to go. I used the themes as a way to encourage me to try new styles/take photos of things I wouldn't usually do. Yes I struggled with some months but that was part of the fun for me. If it went themeless I think I'd lose the motivation to enter without a specific goal in mind.

My Idea: What if the themes were simply photography techniques rather than subjects? So February's competition could be Rule of Thirds, March could be Bokeh etc. It helps the beginners learn good technique and possibly even remind the more seasoned among us that don't necessarily use all the techniques very often? It also leaves the subject relatively open to be anything you want (i.e. if you want to enter a wedding photo every month that complies with that months specified technique, then go for it). They could also be specified in advance for the year if need be once everyone agreed on the techniques.

Monthly still feels fine with me, any less and I think people may lose interest while waiting between themes. Likewise the scoring should be done a bit quicker than the last competition was for the same reason.

As for voting/scoring....Peer marking by those that have entered seems like a good idea, whether its via email or a thread

Just my 2p :)
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I like that idea. Themed rounds but nothing too abstract. Technical themes but not too technical. Then you could have a mix of both say rule of thirds, landscape, bokeh, architecture, wildlife, golden ratio, people, B&W etc. You would only need 12 themes (can easily repeat the themes after a year) and it would make it more inclusive than themes like circles, anger, etc. No scores for themes specifically but the subject has to fit the theme (which should be easy to do with broad themes). That along with anonymous entries and weighted average score (say average percentage of vote for entries made) could make it more open and still have the effect of pushing people to learn new things and allow more people to enter.

It doesn't solve the problem of the forum having died but at least it may work better than the old, more formal competition. I'm with D.P. On that one, the themes were just too abstract for me to bother most of the time.
 
Rojin said:
That voting system would certainly be worth trying I reckon.



Exactly, the themes weren't always cryptic. They did occasionally also just cover a technique. This is why if themes are to be chosen it would be a good idea to have them all sorted before the competition starts (that'll take weeks in itself :D), the winner of a round then picks from the agreed list. You'll never please everyone, but at least there should be some months that people would be happy to enter?
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That could be easily organised. A thread up for a week called "theme suggestions", with guidelines on the type of theme recommended (such as techniques everyone can do). Suggested themes are collated and a poll, open for a week is started in a new thread. The top 12 themes are taken and ordered at random and them published. Theme list is followed for the rest of the year. That way those that want to spend months deciding what to shoot for each theme can do that and everyone else can see what will be available, possibly chooosing which ones they want to enter.
 
Rojin said:
I fail to see how a competition that requires absolutely no effort whatsoever will add any value to the forum. Just picking your favourite photo from the last 3 months will neither improve your photography or create any discussion within the forum. You would be far better off just posting this work in a c&c thread.

"pure form of photography " is just elitist twaddle.
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If no effort was put in then the chances of you winning are low, if you put the effort in then you will produce better results that are more likely to win. Great photos will generate lots of discussion.

I also fail to see how working towards an arbitrary abstract theme to an artificial date will really improve ones photography. As I said before, if we want something to really support beginners there are many better solution such as structured training exercises, critique threads, informative technique discussions etc.
I stand by my point, I just prefer a simpler freer competition where people submit their best recent work and the photos are judged as photos, not on some other random metric. Rules and regulations just stifle creativity, freedom of expression and inspiration.
 
D.P. said:
If no effort was put in then the chances of you winning are low, if you put the effort in then you will produce better results that are more likely to win. Great photos will generate lots of discussion.

I also fail to see how working towards an arbitrary abstract theme to an artificial date will really improve ones photography. As I said before, if we want something to really support beginners there are many better solution such as structured training exercises, critique threads, informative technique discussions etc.
I stand by my point, I just prefer a simpler freer competition where people submit their best recent work and the photos are judged as photos, not on some other random metric. Rules and regulations just stifle creativity, freedom of expression and inspiration.
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Yeah no creative photography has ever bern done by professionals working to a client brief and deadline has it?...

You are obviously happier staying in your own safe zone and don't fancy a challenge or something new? That's fine but it won't help the forum. A competition that you have to make no specific effort to enter has no value, unless you're after a bit of back slapping? Posting up your usual work in threads is going to drive discussion, the competition could be something in addition to that rather than something to just enter what you're already doing. Also nobody is proposing random abstract themes but you.
 
OK. I think we are both agreed that the competition should be started up so lets do that and see if it has nay issues.
 
I'm loving this idea. Themes are a must though, it would really make a difference to how one decides which photo to enter.
 
Right....the 1st Feb is coming up quickly and that would be a good date to get something started.

Jake, Mods......is it a starter?
 
growse said:
If we do get this going, I'm very happy to continue hosting / maintaining the results website.

Phate: if you want to put it entirely to the public vote, this could be automated through the site. People could also use that to submit entries etc. Let me know - can all be sorted out.
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Growse, that sounds good. I'll send you an email regarding this.

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Annnywhooo, so I have had a quick look through the thread, reading mostly all of it and caught up (mostly)

And I did like this one

This is my idea. It's a bit radical so you might not like it.


A season is made up of three rounds. The deadline for each round is the end of each month.
Round 1 - Themed round
Round 2 - Themed round
Round 3 - Free for all

The theme is a suitably generic theme to encompass multiple styles.
The winner of round 1 in the first season chooses the theme for round 1 in the second season
The winner of round 2 in the first season chooses the theme for round 2 in the second season

Photos can be taken from any point after the theme is chosen until the deadline for that round. Free for all can be taken from any time after the start of the season. So effectively you get 2 1/2 to 3 months for each round.

For each round, a public poll is started (possibly in GD) which is open for everyone to vote on.
Additionally, everyone who took part in the competition is encouraged to score other entries. This is not mandatory but if it is done, all other entries must be scored, including some comment as to why. Each user gives each photo two scores out of 10: one for Theme, one for Overall Impact & Quality

For the free for all round there is no theme score so everyone gets 10 for every vote (this has the effect of weighting the scores slighly in favour of the free for all round).

Voting is closed after a week.

At the end of each round there are three possible 'winners':
'People's Choice' Award
'Participant's Choice' Award based on the average total score given by other participants
Best overall, with some combination of the vote and the scores (aka strictly come photography) yet to be thought up.

At the end of the season, the winner for each category is the user with the best score from their two best rounds.

Realistically I don't think anonimity will work out due to watermarks etc. Honesty is the best policy, man.

This is probably quite complicated to administer and may be a little complicated to understand, it would probably need a dedicated mini-site which tells you exactly what's going on and all the deadlines at the current point in time.

This could also be changed to four rounds with three themed rounds, one or the other.
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Thank you Zogger.

Couple of changes though. Themes for Round 1 and 2 are pre-agreed by public vote, rather than winners, because for example if I win Round 1, and I have a wedding during Round 2, I'm potentially going to pick something relative to that :p - So it avoids any biased themes.

What do people think? We don't have to start this in Feb, we could spend February putting themes to public vote and organising the finer details, Growse to get the website up and running. It could also have the option of entering but not having to necessarily stick to the theme, it was mentioned that you could pick if your photo is relative to it or not, this could contribute to the scoring etc. Also it gives people the freedom to either go for the theme or enter in something that just happen to like.
 
Just do it, we've talked back and forth about it above. A short three round competition to get things going again and seeing what works sounds great.
 
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