I'm tempted to restart the competitions, discuss

[Steeps]

I see from the other thread the Mods want to inject some more life into the forum, the simplest way to get something off the ground or reboot is to offer an incentive.

Why not have the competition monthly with a theme which is optional. All entries that don't want to follow the theme get their theme interpretation score as an average of their technical/impact scores. Those who do enter for the themes are also entering for a chance to win a prize each month, also with a prize at the end of the year to encourage entrants every month.

 

[LOAM]

I personally think it needs a theme, how do you judge one against the others if there is no common ground (at least context) to compare. In addition many people will have strengths and weaknesses in different topics and I feel the whole point of it would be to make people come away from their usual shot and do something uncomfortable.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Why don't we have just have a simple and short "general" competition with no theme to start and see where that goes. Since it's a "General free for all, then providing it's ok with the admin team, we can announce the competition in GD.

If it's successful, then we can think about expanding and getting more adventurous as interest increases.

One step at a time approach.

edit.. SuB said he would even promote the shops Twitter/FB feed but my feeling is that is has to be a generic thread.

What do you say?

 

[King4aDay]

I personally think it needs a theme, how do you judge one against the others if there is no common ground (at least context) to compare.

Generally I find I either go "Oooo" if something is really pretty or dramatic, "Heh" if something is really clever or just sit and drool a bit if something is really exceptional. Not too taxing

I feel the whole point of it would be to make people come away from their usual shot and do something uncomfortable.

Why can't people be pushed to do something really excellent in their preferred field instead of something adequate in an arbitrary one?

Why don't we have just have a simple and short "general" competition with no theme to start and see where that goes. Since it's a "General free for all, then providing it's ok with the admin team, we can announce the competition in GD.

If it's successful, then we can think about expanding and getting more adventurous as interest increases.

One step at a time approach.

Sounds sensible.

 

[ElDude]

Just avoid portraits from being a theme, with his studio setup and processing, scottfree would win with his worst offering

 

[Rojin]

Just avoid portraits from being a theme, with his studio setup and processing, scottfree would win with his worst offering

Environmental portraits versus studio.... Interesting

 

[Rojin]

Why can't people be pushed to do something really excellent in their preferred field instead of something adequate in an arbitrary one?

Well mainly because it just isn't challenging? You're just doing what you're already doing with no real consideration for a specific competition entry. This may well be what's needed at this time though in order to get some traffic, I don't know.

I liked the old competition as it made you think about an entry and possibly actually learn something new which would further your skillset. Entering something that you're already competent doing isn't going to progress you very much if at all.

 

[growse]

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.

 

[Columbo]

Why don't we have just have a simple and short "general" competition with no theme to start and see where that goes. Since it's a "General free for all, then providing it's ok with the admin team, we can announce the competition in GD.

If it's successful, then we can think about expanding and getting more adventurous as interest increases.

One step at a time approach.

edit.. SuB said he would even promote the shops Twitter/FB feed but my feeling is that is has to be a generic thread.

What do you say?

Although I am in favour of a themed approach, this sounds like a good suggestion of somewhere to start and if it gets more traffic and ultimately a healthier comp / forum I don't really care whether its themed or not.

Something moving is better than nothing stood still so lets just get anything in place, get some interest and some entries and then tweak it from there.

 

[King4aDay]

Yeah fair enough, I guess we're not going to meet in the middle on this one. I'll stop arguing it now; we'll just have to see what the mods decide.

 

[ElDude]

There's no real right or wrong way of doing a competition. I suppose you could do both types as other forums have multiple ones running. The only way to keep everyone happy would be to do a themed one, an un-themed one, then you'd have two to judge. Although you'd then have those that wanted monthly and others quarterly, so would have four running at once

 

[Columbo]

Just avoid portraits from being a theme, with his studio setup and processing, scottfree would win with his worst offering

No sodding wedding theme either......

 

[cokecan]

It feels like there are 2 levels (if you will) of competition emerging here. One that is themed to cater more for the beginner/novice that has some direction and one for the more established photographer that is themeless so they can focus on their preferred field.

Personally I'm with Rojin on this. I don't have a preferred field as I am still an amateur so giving me a completely blank canvas with no theme and asking me to take a photo of anything I want is going to result in either any old shot I pick up while out and about or I just won't bother entering

 

[Rojin]

Well you could cater for all I guess. Just have the "Best photo I took this month" competition, but the ability to also follow a theme if you elect to do so. There will be an overall leaderboard for the competition including everyone but also a separate leaderboard for those also following a theme. This would only really work with just a voting system for the scoring, tech/impact/theme marks obviously wouldn't work.

As Growse has kindly offered to keep the competition thread going I'm sure this is something that could be catered for easily enough. The difficult bit would be picking themes!

I still think the winner of a round should also have to give C&C on the next rounds entries, just so good feedback is being generated?

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Yeah fair enough, I guess we're not going to meet in the middle on this one. I'll stop arguing it now; we'll just have to see what the mods decide.

We can't make that decision for you, it's really up to what the majority decide.

Mine is only a suggestion.. just get something up and running. We/you can asses thereafter.

Maybe we could have a poll?

1. themed,
2. non themed?

I also think that voting should be made available to everyone. Again, just my thoughts.

 

[D.P.]

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

You've just highlighted one of the issues of themes though. Rule of 3rds is a horrible compositional tool and is highly damaging for beginners to learn. As for Bokeh, that is a highly specific topic that generates interest in a small subset of people and furthermore massively separates people by what gear they own. Those with a point and shoot will clearlybe at ahige disadvantage.

 

[D.P.]

Well you could cater for all I guess. Just have the "Best photo I took this month" competition, but the ability to also follow a theme if you elect to do so. There will be an overall leaderboard for the competition including everyone but also a separate leaderboard for those also following a theme. This would only really work with just a voting system for the scoring, tech/impact/theme marks obviously wouldn't work.

As Growse has kindly offered to keep the competition thread going I'm sure this is something that could be catered for easily enough. The difficult bit would be picking themes!

I still think the winner of a round should also have to give C&C on the next rounds entries, just so good feedback is being generated?

This is exactly what I was thinking last. Isn't but was too tired to post.


It is possible to have a theme as long as the scoring is entirely seperate. Those of us that don't give a flying fig about a theme can concentrate on taking great photos of things we enjoy, those that want a theme can work towards that. Scoring is entirely independent, there would be 2 winners, best photo and best theme comceptualization.

 

[Rojin]

No he just highlighted themes that you personally don't like. This is the main problem with themes. If a list of themes can be agreed then at least you may like some of them, but also be out of your comfort zone with others. Themes could also easily include the suggestions you made below that helped you with your photography:

Bring it on!

On Topic:
It is obvious the competition is popular with beginners. I just wonder if there are specific things that could be done to support them. Not competitions per se, but training exercises. Some things that I read about and practiced which helped me tremendously were things like:

• Spending a few weeks only using a 35/50mm prime, zooming with the feet
• Spending a few with only with a UWA 10-20, learning about perspective, depth, learning how to make such a difficult lens work.
• Spending a few week only with a tele lens, see how compression of perspective can flatten images but highlights details, textures and shapes.
• Keeping a tally of how many photos I took and paying 1 quid into a jar for every photo, forcing you to think of every photo, getting the framing and exposure right. They money can then be spent on gear/vacation/charity/etc
• Learning about a few core compositional techniques such as balance, leading lines, S-curves and going out into the world examining the shapes, lines, textures, tones and colors.
• Only taking photos in portrait orientation, learning why and when it works

These kinds of structured exercises give a deeper understanding of what, why and when of photography.

Of course just making them optional may be a whole lot easier!

 

[D.P.]

I still don't see how a themeless comp can be judged without context, as I said previously how can one of Ray's wedding shots be judged against a macro shot or an urbex shot from mrk without knowing the context by which it was entered.

The judging will be a random as the entries.

Without themes all we'll get is landscape shooters entering a landscape for every comp or people photographers entering portraits everytime.

We'll all have different opinions on how we'd like to see it done but ultimately we need to just get something going, anything, everything........just lets get something started.

Hell the 1st months theme could even be 'free for all' and if we get a shed load of entries then we know a themeless comp could be the way forward....or not.

It's not as random as awarding points for an arbitrary theme. It is much easier to judge a wedding photo as a wedding photo and a landscape as a landscape than it is to judge how a random theme like circles has been incorporated into a wedding photo. I wouldn't even know where to begin to judge theme incorporation but I have a good idea how I personally perceive and like different photos, and the technical side is even easier and more objective.

 

[D.P.]

No he just highlighted themes that you personally don't like. This is the main problem with themes. If a list of themes can be agreed then at least you may like some of them, but also be out of your comfort zone with others. Themes could also easily include the suggestions you made below that helped you with your photography:



Of course just making them optional may be a whole lot easier!

I made this list not as themes for a competition but as a seperate teaching exercise for beginners to give them a structured approach to learning. This would allow a themeless competition to run alongside regular teaching exercises for beginners.