Hello! Newbie on board- scoring and other things

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

03/13/2014 08:43:41 AM · #1

Good Morning!
I have been a lurker here for a few days now and I have learned a lesson how to enter contests and what not to do and what to do..
I am an amateur and I loveeee photography especially about nature, weather and wildlife is my areas.
I have been through a few challenges for voting and the pictures that I think are awesome hardly have no votes or their votes are very, very low which should not be. The pictures that have received high votes I really wonder why. It really does not seem fair.. I know I am not that great, but I am looking to improve my skills especially learning about my DLSR and its settings.. after 4 months of playing with my first DLSR I finally got out of auto mode and starting shooting in RAW and in manual mode.

Are votes consist of whom you know here kinda like a popularity contest kind of thing? Are their guidelines that you go by for voting/scoring? I tried to find something that would help me assist in the scoring, but I am the last person that needs to tell someone else on whether a photo is good or not because I have no idea what to even look for in other peoples pictures.

I will be a lurker for a few more, and I already have my second challenge for the trains and railroads already taken and I am in the processing of bringing it up for the upload.

I am concerned just a bit about the scoring kind of ways here.
There is a lot of talent here on this website and it just amazes me. I wish to be like some of you when I grow up to shoot photography like you..
I am self taught with no classes.. :-)
My pictures can be found in google plus 101254283767804839237

Have a wonderful day!!!

Message edited by author 2014-03-13 08:57:00.

Tiny

Apple iPad mini 4

03/13/2014 08:49:51 AM · #2

Hello and Welcome.
and have a wonderful day yourself.

Jules1x

Fujifilm X-T1

Fujifilm XF 23mm f/1.4 R

03/13/2014 11:20:08 AM · #3

Welcome. I hope you can have some fun while you're here.

Voting - as far as I know it's not a popularity content - all photos are anonymous and from what I have seen that appears to be the truth. If you look at scores from top photo to bottom, there is typically ~ 3 point spread. Sometimes the score difference between 20th photo and the 60th photo can be just half a point. (I'm a math person, and to me a 0.5 point difference is a bit meaningless when you consider the small number of voters. But it would feel great to be 20th, not so much the 60th.)

I notice that when voting I sometimes tend to score early photos easier, then later photos a bit harder when there are lot of photos I really like. Or sometimes I tire a bit when voting on large challenges and I probably don't give every photo equal consideration - I end up rushing a bit towards the end. (I do go back and review my scores and try to be happy with where everything sits, but if I'm honest, the line between my 5 and 6, or 6 and 7, sometimes isn't very clear.)

Another difference can be the number of voters. If there are a small number of voters, a few 10's can really make a difference.

Try not to get discouraged. I pretty much take photos to keep my learning and experimenting. Some day I'll capture a winner, and pretty much any photo that scores a 5 more higher I consider a success. (And I have one photo that scored below a 5 that I still truly love.) I tend to submit photos and forget. I don't go back and look where I stand all the time anymore.

Also - this is a wild and varied crowd - just because you think a photo is great doesn't mean others will think the same. You're not wrong and they're not wrong. Everyone has different tastes and votes in their own peculiar manner. If you take scores too personally you probably won't be happy here.

aliqui

Nikon D300s

03/13/2014 12:41:56 PM · #4

Like Jules said, voting is anonymous, and it's really not a popularity contest. You'll see a lot of repeat ribbon winners, and you might start recognizing a certain photographer's style, but it's highly discouraged to vote highly on a photo just because you happen to know and like that photographer. Blatant "friend voting" will get a user banned. There's also what is called a "vote scrubber" that goes in after the voting is done for each challenge and "scrubs" fishy business. There's always going to be some really awesome photos buried way down in the pile that seemed to have been overlooked. Something about them didn't speak to the masses, and that's totally okay.

In general, voting is really a matter of taste. I think most people 'round these parts would say, "Don't worry about final scores." What ultimately scores well is what has mass-appeal since the score is an average of all voters. That does not mean a photo is not fabulous to fans of that photographic genre. There's a Posthumous thread where people recognize some of those great shots that just didn't have mass appeal. There's also a new thread where people post their top picks that didn't make it into the top 20. Lucky for you, the subject matter you shoot (birds and nature) does pretty well here.

So, get that train submission in there. Aim for a ribbon, but don't let it get to you if your score isn't what you were hoping. There's much more to this site than ribbons and scores, though it does feel pretty good when you hit that sweet spot of appeal. Some of my lowest scores are on photos that someone marked as a "favorite." That feels pretty darn good too! Engage in the forums, ask questions, participate in side challenges (member run challenges in the forums), and comment a lot on other photos. It's okay to say what you don't like about a photo if you're honest and tactful. You'll hear it over and over that the more you comment, the more you learn about your own style.

tanguera

Nikon D750

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

03/13/2014 01:25:07 PM · #5

Welcome!!! And as much as scores are fun, try not to get obsessed with them. That being said, when you're score is doing well, you'll become obsessed with the "update" button :)

One of the great (and frustrating) things about this site is the wide range of photography styles - from blurry messes to NatGeo fare, and everything in between. The images that do well simply appeal to the broadest number of voters. It doesn't make them better of worse images. Personally, I think that most of the time it's a fine balancing act between originality and how well it fits the challenge. This is not a hard rule as there have been challenges where the winning image seems to have very little to do with the challenge!

Try not to stress about it, do it for the fun of it, for learning, for making some amazing friends. And if the main challenges are too stressful, there are lots of side challenges to shoot for.

03/13/2014 03:53:16 PM · #6

welcome!!

The great thing about this place is: it's not a popularity contest like the ones where you go get all your friends to vote for you. The people voting here are photographers. Having to vote on 20% of the entries helps so that people aren't getting friends and family to join and vote for them.

It is a popularity contest to a certain extent, in that the photo that gets the highest score wins.

But really, it comes down to this -- when you're voting, ignore your own score. Don't make the mistake of saying "mine's at 4.5, and it's better than the majority of the photos, so I'm going to give everything worse than mine a 4 or below..."

Your score is constantly changing, and where it is now may have absolutely nothing to do where it will end up.

Ignore your own score.

Simply look at the photos. Figure out what you like and don't like and vote fairly and accordingly.

That being said, some people vote anything ordinary a 3 and they have to move up from there. I vote anything that could have been taken by my Uncle George and his point and shoot a 5, figuring that's an average photo. So I have a voting average a bit above 6.

So pretend that you're a judge of an art show. Pretend that you don't have a horse in the race. And figure out what and how you want to score things.

It doesn't matter what you know and what you don't know. You know what you like -- what moves you -- what interests you. You're just as capable of voting as anyone on here. And the more you vote -- and especially the more you comment -- the more you learn.

Commenting is where you learn the most. As you're trying to tell the photographer what works and doesn't work for you; you actually learn what works and doesn't work, and many times why. It gets you to look a little deeper, longer, and more open-minded at things.

Enjoy! Don't let the scores get you down. Simply take them as a starting point and figure out how to grow from there. Growth doesn't always mean good scores. Bad scores don't always mean bad photos. Good scores don't always mean good photos. They simply mean, that's how the masses see that particular photo vs another photo, taking the challenge into account. It's a very useful stat, but not all encompassing by any means.

03/13/2014 06:18:19 PM · #7

Thank you all for the very warm welcome!! You all have put my mind at ease for the voting and have given me such great insight on things, I so appreciate your time and explaining things to me in that way! You all rock!

For the commenting part of things, what exactly do you look for on your pictures.. I never had to join a sight where we actually "judge and vote" for others. I just learn by lighting and composition and this something totally new to me..
What comments are the best on things.. I feel very vague if I would tell a picture.. I really like it...
Do you mention colors, lighting, composition? Do people really give more detailed critiques?
I have a huge thirst to learn off from others as well.

I am very happy to know its not a popularity contest that makes my day! Thank you for that!

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

03/13/2014 07:03:50 PM · #8

Regarding comments:

You'll see threads complaining when people comment on this or that. Some don't like it when you make suggestions, because they did things for a purpose. Some absolutely LOVE it when people make suggestions, because they like seeing things through someone else's eyes. Some people think "I like it!" is useless. Some absolutely love getting those comments.

For the most part -- the vast majority of people love getting ANY comment! Whether it's positive, negative, useful, not useful, happy, not happy, etc.

When I comment, for the most part I comment for myself. I like to look at a photo and figure out and comment on what I like and what I don't like or perhaps what I would have done differently or would have liked to have seen instead, because it's easier to critique someone else's photo than to critique my own. Then I learn from the process. :)

I certainly leave "ooooh!! I like this!" comments. Because when something hits me that much, I like to let the photographer know that I appreciate it. Even if it's just "oh cool!"

:)

tanguera

Nikon D750

03/13/2014 07:37:20 PM · #9

What Wendy said. I think it's best to be honest, point out what you like about the image, and maybe something you don't. There are no rules about what makes a good comment. As you learn to "see", you'll be able to leave more complex observations. "Great light", "love the expression", "what a great idea", etc. are perfectly acceptable.

David Ey

Nikon D80

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

03/13/2014 08:07:35 PM · #10

Well that about sums it up. We will look for your entries and comments. Newbies are required to comment on every entry.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/13/2014 08:25:13 PM · #11

Oh! Thanks david, I forgot about that.

And they're requires to have a voting average of 7.2 or higher for the first 6 mos... :)

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

03/13/2014 08:36:41 PM · #12

Originally posted by vawendy:

Oh! Thanks david, I forgot about that.

And they're requires to have a voting average of 7.2 or higher for the first 6 mos... :)

And the average newbie does not recognise sarcasm in the forums for 3.78 days ... ;-)

cowboy221977

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

03/13/2014 08:45:36 PM · #13

The rules I go by (my personal rules) for voting.....If I know who took a sshot (from a get together or asked my opinion on a shot) That pic is out of play and I dont vote. I also give a comment on any pic that I vote 4 or less

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

03/13/2014 08:54:13 PM · #14

Originally posted by jgirl57:

For the commenting part of things, what exactly do you look for on your pictures.. I never had to join a sight where we actually "judge and vote" for others. I just learn by lighting and composition and this something totally new to me..
What comments are the best on things.. I feel very vague if I would tell a picture.. I really like it...
Do you mention colors, lighting, composition? Do people really give more detailed critiques?
I have a huge thirst to learn off from others as well.

The hardest images to comment on are the ones you think are "just ok". Not bad photos at all, but they don't really grab you either. These are the ones that tend to get a lot of the 5's in your voting. It is easy to come up with something to say about the ones you love, or explain why another one may is awful in your opinion. By making yourself think about why you don't like the mid range ones better, you will be learning things that will help to improve your own photography.

My favorite comments are the ones that tell me my photo made a connection by bringing back a memory or stirring up some old feelings.

One of my all time favorite comments received was on a photo I entered of a television in a trash can that scored near the bottom of the challenge. The comment was "This photo kind of angers me, but i love how it was taken. The reflection in the screen is awesome. Great job."
Though others commented that they didn't see how it suited the topic, I knew my message was clearly conveyed to this person. Even though he didn't like my message, he appreciated my conveyance of it.

Message edited by author 2014-03-13 20:56:23.

03/13/2014 10:14:59 PM · #15

hahahah The humor is great here thanks Dave and Wendy LOLOL
, I have found my self lurking on other forum posts and I find myself just cracking up!

I have finished editing my photos, but not yet uploaded it.. I will be on the trains one for sure! Hopefully to have the time to upload it tomorrow if I don't get distracted by eagles LOL.

So from what I am getting from everyone, is just KISS IT! Keep it simple! I can do that!! LOLOL

Message edited by author 2014-03-13 22:15:33.

03/14/2014 11:43:37 AM · #16

:)

Actually, the biggest thing to take out of it is: sit back and enjoy!

03/14/2014 11:47:29 AM · #17

You might find the beginning of this thread helpful, even if it is a little out of date:

Unauthorized! Guide to DPC

Message edited by author 2014-03-14 11:47:56.

03/14/2014 12:52:15 PM · #18

That is the worst things about forums LOL

Usually the information us noobies need the most are always buried somewhere else :-)

Thank you for resurrecting the dead thread for me! :-)

I have resurrected it and bumped it!!! It is phenomenal and I think I will be a lurker still and learning just a bit more just by that thread! Thank you Wendy!

Message edited by author 2014-03-14 12:57:07.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

03/16/2014 06:10:51 PM · #19

How is everyone's weekend been?

I have just uploaded my second entry and hopefully it will not be disqualified yet again! LOLOL

I had made sure the size was ok and there was no watermarks I read the other rules but wasn't sure of what they meant, so I am "hoping" my photo will be within limits LOL

I am ready to learn and excited to be a part of this again..

I look forward to the other submissions as well..

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

03/16/2014 06:18:03 PM · #20

Originally posted by jgirl57:

I had made sure the size was ok and there was no watermarks I read the other rules but wasn't sure of what they meant, so I am "hoping" my photo will be within limits LOL

If you need clarification on a rule, or desire to get feedback on an entry from another member, that is permissible do do via the private messaging feature. Most of us will not vote on something we have knowledge of beforehand or have given feedback on.