This thread actually started out as a site suggestion, because I felt that voting in Free Studies is like comparing apples to oranges. Assuming the entries represent everyone's best effort, how can you fairly compare a street scene to a landscape? A macro to an abstract? A glamor shot to photojournalism? I suggested rotating regular FS with "directed" FS (nature, indoors, macro, etc.), but GeneralE had a much more elegant suggestion; a thread to celebrate the daring, the different, the dissed. This is where great images with a smaller audience have a chance to be loved. Although similar to a Posthumous thread for regular challenges, this thread is for images that fall below the top quarter.
It is (unabashedly) self-serving, since that's where I usually place in free studies :-) Stay tuned until the end of September! Any artistically-inclined graphic wizard is invited to design an appropriate award gif.
From Free Study 2010-09, I really liked these images that ranked a LOT lower than I thought they deserved. These were ones I gave a score of 8, 9, or 10, but ranked under 50% (ordered lowest challenge rank first):
Assuming the entries represent everyone's best effort, how can you fairly compare a street scene to a landscape? A macro to an abstract? A glamor shot to photojournalism?
Actually, macros (at least mine) often are abstracts, and vice-versa ...
Another way to group your postings here, which I thought aligned well with the original concern, was to after-the-fact create "divisions" among the Free Study entries, so you might post the best landscape, the best abstract, etc., using whatever categories you like, or the best-by-category which finished below the 25th percentile.
It's one thing to pick the best from what's offered & something else to hold out for what knocks my socks off. One thing I do know is that it's difficult to knock my socks off with technical perfection alone. These photos from the lower 75% in the FS have a perfection of honesty, a simple direct honest expression (or impression). Each one, in its own way is technical perfection in that the technicals suit the photo perfectly rather than conforming to a standard of technical perfection. Sorry if I sound purple & clairvoyant. The best is difficult to talk about in a plain & straightforward way.
