Bill Conway

Role of the Judge

Educate and promote photography through constructive criticism. Be able to communicate my reasons for choosing where the photos ranked in relation to the other photos in the competition and not by judgments made against outside influences, for example “I’ve seen better sunsets”. To offer suggestions on the photos I didn’t choose so that the photographer might improve and to help those in the audience who are not participating it the competition. Keep up with the technology so that I can make informed critiques and be open-minded as to changes in the technology and how it affects photography. Do it all within the structure of the rules, and within the time constraints that have been set up by the camera club.

Criteria for Judging

That’s a tough question since the so called rules are there to be broken.

I believe that photography is an art form as well as a recording medium.

So to me Communication would be the first criteria, how the photograph affects me and how I would think it would affect others and what is the photographer trying to say.

Creativity would be next on my list, was there a new and creative way used to produce the photograph. This creativity not only includes different ways to view the subject but presentation and printing techniques. The use of color or contrasts in B&W would also be included here.

Composition would be next and would include placement of objects within the frame of the picture, and use of the space, color and contrasts.

Finally Craftsmanship this is the easiest and the hardest point to judge a photograph on. You could take the hard line and say that focus has to be correct, the eyes must have catch lights, rule of thirds must be complied with an all of the rest of the craftsmanship criteria need to be complied with, but does that make it a photograph that rises to the top, in some instances yes and in some instances no.

Each photograph has to be judged against its self and the other photographs in the competition, and there has to be a balance of all the above criteria. In some instances the weight given to each criterion would change depending on the subject matter but I think that Communication is the most important criteria because photography is Visual Communication.

So in conclusion my criteria would be;

1. Communication
2. Creativity
3. Composition
4. Craftsmanship.

I hope that this gives you some insight into how I would judge a camera club competition.

Contact Bill

Email: bill_conway09 AT comcast DOT net