There was a good turn out for our meeting on a cold November night. Julia Cleaver and Kathy Chantler, both judges themselves, hosted a very interesting and thought provoking evening and gave us an educational and practical taster on “ How to think like a Judge”.
To get us started, Kathy recapped on her earlier presentation and thought provoking questions helped us all think about why we enter photos in competitions and what we expect from the judge plus the ability to hear balanced feedback/critique, learn from this feedback and improve the quality of our images.
The qualities of a judge were outlined. Some of these are a wide understanding of different genres; understanding the basics; being able to talk fluently for up to two hours and the ability to give fair, kind, thoughtful, and balanced feedback to all images.
We discussed what makes an image stand out and why it might gain high marks. These included – assessing impact, strong composition, holding interest, evoking feelings, having a clear subject, attention to detail, demonstrating sound technical skills in using the camera and the evidence of artistry. It was pointed out that the title of an image needs to be relevant.
During the second half of the evening, Julia recapped via a powerpoint presentation. She emphasised that the focus of the presentation was on enabling club members to think about how they plan and shoot images for camera club competitions.
What a good image needs are related specifically to P.O.O.T.A.
This stands for :
P = Powerful Composition
O = Originality
O = Overall impact
T = Techical Expertise
A = Artistic Merit
We then worked in small discussion groups. We were shown a set of 10 images for 3 seconds each to simulate the experience of the judge. We were asked to quickly score these out of 20 marks. During the break our scores were collated and top three marks and commendations awarded.
During a thought provoking discussion and in reaction to further images we considered; the use of strong colours, emotional reactions, perfect lighting, backgrounds, creativity, the photographer’s input and using post production tools to enhance images.
The evening was an excellent educational opportunity to learn tips from our ‘in house judges’ to help us improve our competition photo entries. Kathy and Julia had clearly put a lot of effort into these two sessions and the members were given time to discuss issues especially around post production and objectivity vs subjectivity in assessing images. Further sessions along these lines could be added to the club workshop programme to explore the issues raised.
Blog post written by Chris D’Netto
Next week
Software Training – 28th November 2023
Don’t forget that entries close on Sunday 26th November for your entries to the second round of the season-long Club Challenge, with Vintage theme and the open section.
Excellent in depth blog of an interesting evening. Thank you Chris.
A really well written blog,interesting descriptive,and thought provoking for someone who was unable to attend.