Most interesting posts lately regarding scoring. Made me think of my own practices.
Most people like their own photographs - that seems to be a fairly safe gold standard - and most people probably use their own photographs - or their vision for their photographs - as the standard by which they judge. I see many photographs that I think are better than mine and mark them accordingly - but all photographs pass through my own personal and subjective taste filter. Some people like abstract and some people like traditional subjects - I happen to prefer the abstract to the concrete and the metaphoric to the literal - but that's me.
I see that my own average vote is 5.18 - while my average recieved is 5.48.
But what does that say?
That I _am_ better than the average bear or that I only think I am?
That I am more strict and harsh in voting than the average bear?
For the record, in the challenges I have entered my placement has never jarred me - in fact, most times I can understand it logically. Once or twice I thought "Cripes, my picture was better than that one!" but I put it down to mean spiritedness and moved along. I can never seem to take very good photographs for challenges - I am not very good at delineated creativity - mine is more the spontaneous kind - like "THERE'S a picture!"
But let's face it - judging artwork is wholly subjective. Even down to whether something meets the challenge. I did a spinning Christmas ornament in the motion challenge that few people knew was spinning and I was marked and commented accordingly. The NG was a good example where whether a photo met the title was so wide and varied amongst voters that the scoring was probably skewed accordingly. For instance, I did a still life on AIDS in Africa but possibly more people would have thought it "NG" had I gone down to the AIDS clinic and taken some photos of the people within.
Anyway - how are people stacking up - votes out versus votes in.
I've never given a 10 out in all my votes cast, and only a few 9s. On the other end, I've never given a 1, and only a few 2s.
A 10 to me should be something that blows me away. Something that would be talked about by the world if they could see it. Something like the green-eyed Afghan girl on the cover of National Geographic.
As for my own entries, I'da given my top 3 photos, as voted by my peers, each a 7 or 8 at the most.
Dont put too much thought into your scores to determine if your pics are good or not. The scores reflect how the public receives your photos under the challenge topic and of course how well they are done.
For instance, you could take an out of this world landscape photo that would make Ansel jealous. Post it in a portrait challenge, and there goes your average. ;)
The average vote received also covers 46 challenges, of which the majority of them were from a time when I didnt have a clue about photography. The average vote cast covers a lot of challenges where I went from being easily impressed to noticing more technical problems and appreciating different types of photography.
In a typical challenge of 200 submissions I will likely place my submission in the top 50%. I do not vote on images compared to my own personal feelings of whether that image is better or worse than mine. I also do not vote images based on what I have seen from other photographers outside of DPC or even compared to the other images in the same challenge.
I rarely look at images and think mine are better than those except maybe when the results of a challenge comes out and I wonder what makes that image more popular or better received than my own. I do regularly think other images are better than mine as I have quite a significant self-confidence problem with my own abilities.
I guess I just entered to many shots just for the fun of it. But I also many times don't understand how some of my photo's scored relatively to my other entries in previous and later challenges.
Most of the stuff I enter is indeed average. I think I have nicer work outside the challenges. The time limit for the challenges is indeed limiting.
I guess I'm an easier voter. Most people rate at least a 5, and go up from there. Very few get 4's or lower from me.
I don't feel that I measure pictures against my own, but I have found myself comparing like subjects within a challenge... I know, I know, taboo! I also use to nit pick about over sharpening and other PS errors, but now I look at an image as an image. The PS technical will come, but if you've blown the shot within the camera, then I will mark accordingly.
i give better than I receive, I feel the primary reason for this is, that I am still new to phorography, and this website. Things still aww me, and capture my eye, that it probally might not for people who have seen that type of photograph before. When it comes to my votes received, once again, I'm still new. So my pictures might not be as eyecatching as most others on the site.
- but all photographs pass through my own personal and subjective taste filter.
I don' think I could have said that better myself. Subjectivity is everything. If I can't relate in some way to what I see, or if the subject choice doesn't intrigue me in some way, I could care less about the technical aspects of the photograph.
As far as being better than average, I am only better than the average vote that I cast. To someone who prefers abstract and metaphorical views of things, my challenge entries leave me wanting. When I shoot for a challenge, I shoot with the intention of appealing to the masses. The masses don't seem to prefer abstract and metaphors in this forum. I do some abstract and metaphorical stuff, but it's for my own personal use rather than competition.
When looking at these statistics, you have to find some way to filter in the 'forum' in which you are presenting your work. The 'challenge' creates a new set of rules for evaluating the images. You could have a beautiful photo that is appealing in all aspects, but if it doesn't meet the challenge in the viewer's eyes, it's not going to get a rating that properly reflects the image as an 'individual' image. Another factor that comes into play is that your image will be scored as to how it stacks up against other images in the challenge.
To get a 'real' feeling for whether your work is above/below average, it would possibly require a voting scale that had no 'challenge' tied to it and a way to keep your photo from being associated with other images.
I agree with John. Just because a photo receives lower scores in particular challenge doesn't neccessarily means it is a bad photo. The score is tied to the challenge theme a lot, but on its own, it might be viewed and rated differently.
In my Avg figures I can see that I pretty much get what I give out :-)
