I wanted to make the point that DPC standards are extremely high, and a score in the fives is actually a very good image. We have some exceptional talent here, and a middle scoring shot on DPC is the kind of thing that will have your friends and family wowing over what a great photographer you are.
I am about average here on DPC, but I have people in a group on Flickr telling me how talented I am.(But one of the things that has improved my photography to that point is getting beat up here at DPC) It's very much a relative thing.
Here are some of my shots that have only done mediocre here on DPC, but have been well received on Flickr, all of these making into "Explore".
DPC score: 5.07, Flickr: 27 faves, 24 comments, voted best Macro in the Canon S5 group.
This last one was not a DPC entry, but was in Explore in under 24 hours after posting. I am sure it would do only so-so on DPC. It was handheld, at the long reach of my zoom, with haze in the way, so it lacks sharpness, and I personally thought it was just ok. Others obviously liked it a lot, however.
Flickr: 28 faves, 27 comments
I would love to see some other mediocre DPC entries that were highly praised elsewhere. Post 'em, I know you've got 'em!
Thanks for posting this yospiff. While I don't have images elsewhere, it's heartening to know that being a 5 here, doesn't mean you take photos that aren't well received elsewhere. Thanks for the encouragement!
The shot with the shutters is one of my favorites. When I saw it in one of the latest challenges I rated it a 9. I don't agree with it being relegated to the 5 range. Actually I like many of these photos you have posted.
I do feel this site provides us a means to improve. However, I have not visited the site for 3 years because it appeared to me that there were cliques formed and that I would remain in 5's. Coming back now, I am still in the 5's, but I am seeing different names appear in the top of the challenges. It is great to see people like motek get a ribbon for the first time. I believe I may have a chance to improve in the scoring as my images improve.
5.88
Finished 6th in photoworkshop's annual adobe contest that year (which meant real prizes), and has 32 faves here...
taught me early on to just keep shooting what I like, and not to care about scores...
(not to suggest people who do well aren't shooting what they like)
Scores don't define quality.
i am very much the beginner compared to the talent on here... but love learning all the time.. the picture above is my highest scoring and in the 5's yet came runner up in a photography competition elsewhere on the net... hope you like..
I'll second the high standards...Yet I ask myself on the last Pet Portrait III challenge how a bunch of stuffed animals with a little dog stuffed in the background even yeilds the score that it did. Nothing against the person who entered it but just as an example it does not seem to me to be a portrait picture (Kudos to the score you got). So the standards are high, I'll agree to that but I don't fully understanding the voting that goes on either. My two cents....
Pet Portrait III
5.13
Of the very few challenges entered this is my highest score.
It must not have met the portrait standards and I don't think folks understood I wanted this sorta look, it appealed to me but then again not the majority.
I also learned from comments that I failed to make sure the file size is correct, so that was a good thing to learn.
I definitely agree that there are a LOT of shots here that don't get the credit that they deserve. There is so much AMAZING talent on this website. I'm constantly in awe of the things that people come up with. The great thing about this site for me though is that it set the bar so high. I started coming here when I was fairly new to photography, so trying to compete with the big guys here has definitely made me try a lot harder and I think my photography has improved greatly because of it. I'm doing things that I never would have thought to even try if it hadn't been for DPC.
However, it always does suck when I take a shot that I'm REALLY proud of and everyone outside of DPC tells me how wonderful it is and then I enter it here and it sinks like a stone, lol. It's always a bummer to be reminded that you're not as talented as you think you are! ;P
I can't even get views on flickr, so I'm going to wager that my 5's here are pretty much 5's everywhere! :-)
Me either. My most viewed photo on Flickr is a quick shot of my tonsils when I was sick. I've heard it looks like a vagina at a thumbnail quick glance. That's probably why. Even still, that photo only has 75 views. Most of my shots have 0.
However, it always does suck when I take a shot that I'm REALLY proud of and everyone outside of DPC tells me how wonderful it is and then I enter it here and it sinks like a stone, lol. It's always a bummer to be reminded that you're not as talented as you think you are! ;P
LOL! Unless you're talking about something you have in a challenge at the moment, I don't see anything on your profile page that qualifies as a sinker! Sorry, but you are pretty talented.
Comparing to flickr or any other online community for that matter is not the same as comparing to the 'real' world. All websites have a certain community who like/dislike certain things. On a whole, the results will be different since the audience is different.
so far, i've only joined three challenges (i got DQ'ed in the first one for failing to submit the original [i should check my mail much more frequently now. hehe.])
one of the other challenges is currently being voted on (patterns) and the other one just finished (fences)
This is what i submitted for Fences II and it got a 5.2143, which I more or less agree on. I wasn't really satisfied with the photo as well.
But seeing the photos posted here and their corresponding scores... wow... the standards are indeed high. I like most of the photos posted here so far and would imagine that they would have been in the 6+ range.
I'm probably just lucky to get that 5.2 with what I thought was a mediocre photo by my standards.
Actually, even my photo being voted on right now is also in the 5.2 range and I also think that's just a staisfactory submission.
It's interesting to see what I'll get for a photo that I'm actually happy with.
