Thoughts on a new challenge/game thread

lkbart

I have a rough suggestion for a new challenge/game, to provide experience in constructively critiquing photos. In order to post a photo, you must critique the last photo. To make it easier to critique, have a form to copy, something like:

Exposure/Lighting:
Focus/POV:
Composition:
Overall Impression:

So to post a photo, you would have to post a comment of 3+ words on the previous photo in at least 3 of the categories - so it would have to be more specific than "great shot". The categories could be split up or others added. And since the point of this challenge is to give us experience in making pleasant and constructive critiques, other requirements or suggestions may be needed (or links to how to critique articles).

You could let the person critiquing & adding their photo provide a theme for the next photo, so the next person would post a photo matching the theme, in addition to their critique of the previous photo. Or maybe just have them add a title or description of their photo, that would be easier.

Something that would need to be worked out would be when two people post at the same time, so one photo gets two critiques & two people add photos - not sure how that should be handled, as things could get crazy!

Thoughts?

kdotaylor

This is a wonderful idea, Lillian!
I really like your idea of having to provide critique. Critiquing photos really makes you stop and examine what makes a photograph "good", both technically and visually. There have been many photos in the galleries, both really great and really not good, but without comments people aren't learning anything.

DonRicklin

lkbart wrote: »

Something that would need to be worked out would be when two people post at the same time, so one photo gets two critiques & two people add photos - not sure how that should be handled, as things could get crazy!

Thoughts?

Great idea, but one way to hold down the double posts is to insist on Live, in the forum posts (hard to control, I know), not email posts that can be out of sync.

If one is ON the forum (and I do this for the alphabet challenge) you refresh the thread view first, then post, if its clear!

Don

lkbart

Thanks Kate - I agree, it's like it makes you really think about the photo & explore it instead of just looking at it.

Don - I didn't realize you could email posts. There was at least one time in the Alphabet game where 3 of us posted within a minute!

So we should maybe just use the first critique posted. And maybe the procedure should be to post a critique by itself right after the photo. Then the poster of the first critique could go ahead and post their photo to be critiqued. That should eliminate multiple photos, since it's obvious who the first poster is. And if a photo gets more than one critique, that's just a bonus for that photo.

Any other suggestions or comments? Like maybe a name, or something to call it?!

JAG

Actually, we are still hammering out details of a challenge that will indeed involve critiques. It's almost ready, but I will not be posting it till after my vacation, so most likely see it at the end of November. You have some interesting input to be considered.

slpollett

I kind of like the idea of critiquing other photos a requirement of entering your own photo in a challenge. I will admit that I am not very good at expressing why I like or dislike a certain image--heck, I'm not very good at expressing opinions on anything for that matter. It's a lot easier to say why I might like an image, but extremely difficult for me to say why I don't like one.

One of the reasons I quit playing in the challenges is because I rarely got feedback of any kind, good or bad. I figured it must have been because people disliked my pictures and were just trying to be polite and not say it, but it's hard to improve when you don't know what people don't like about the composition or what might be wrong technically. That said, even when I didn't submit images, I ALWAYS read the feedback on other images whether I liked them or not. I wanted to know why people liked certain ones and what suggestions were made to others.

Interested to see what lies ahead....

Sherry P.

grandmaR

Would these or should these be new photos? Because I've got an extensive archive of photos, but it isn't really going to help me to know what I should have done 50 years ago to make the photo better. (Altough if there were suggestions for editing, I guess those would be appropriate) If there were good suggestions, would there be a place to try it again?

I have a similar problem to what Sherry describes. I know why I don't like something, but I don't know how to say it, or else it is something that is contrary to the current norm. I do not, for instance, like black and white photos that are digital. It was OK to shoot in black and white when there was black and white film, but I think most photos that are de-colorized are possibly either hiding something that would show up in color or are excessively arty. (And I don't really care for most photos that are done as art.)

lkbart

JAG wrote: »

Actually, we are still hammering out details of a challenge that will indeed involve critiques. It's almost ready, but I will not be posting it till after my vacation, so most likely see it at the end of November. You have some interesting input to be considered.

Looking forward to this!! Enjoy your vacation Joyce!


I'm thinking it's best for now to wait on the new challenge coming, & am glad if some of the comments here help you mods work out some details of the new challenge.

JAG

There will be a link to a thread on how to critique properly. It will get easier as you practice doing it and yes, they will have to be fresh photos shot for the challenge. Ok, so that is a taste of what is to come, but there is so much more and it will be fun and engaging!

tinamarie52

it might be useful if the OP who is looking for feedback and critique could be required to critique their own image before the others chirp in. Sometimes I don't know why one of my images isn't up to snuff until I have to say it out loud, so to speak.

If the person who is asking for feedback could verbalize what they think they did right and what they need help with, it might add to the learning experience.

Chris