What do you think? I recently entered a free study for the first time, and the photo scored lower than I expected. BTW, this is not a Wwwaah post, I'm happy to accept the score I got. ;)
I'm just interested to hear if other people agree that Free Studies score lower, based on the tougher competition.
There was also the fact that there were over 600 entries - that certainly cut down the amount of feedback we all got!
The photo has to stand on its own more, so ... it doesn't have the challenge theme (which some hold highly) to lean on. However, they also don't count off for DNMC...
A photo that oozes DPC style will score higher in Free Study while those that don't tend to suffer more.
Since it is a month long challenge, with no specific subject matter, I think voters tend to expect higher quality photos. I tend to vote a lot higher as a whole for these challenges because there are usually a large number of high quality images. Of course, if an image has been rushed, or not well thought out, then it won't get a great score.
Everybody has already said it.
in free study there are a large number of photos and some of them are realy good. If you are competing against them , its likely that you will score low. For example some people only give 5-10 10s. So in a batch of 600 odd photos, if there are 50 very good photos, you might not get that 10s or 9s. (even if it is very good).
The best ones seem to score much higher than the average, as members always seem to save there best images for "Free Studies".
Also due to the higher numbers entered, I also think we see a lot more high closer scores, in "Free Studies" IMO.
I also believe many low scores are ofter lower, and often get hammered in "Free Studies" like mine is at the moment, as it is something I should never have entered in the first place.
We live and learn..... but it just take me a long long time.
It also has to do with the fact that im sure most people didnt vote on all 450 shots. The less votes each photo gets, the higher the impact of each vote.
