Role of the Judge
I’m aware that for many people competition is about winning. For me competition is about education. It’s possible to be too close to an image emotionally, you may know it’s good, and be so taken with the experience you had getting it that you don’t see any weaknesses. Competition should be seen as a mini-review where one learns how do be a better photographer by seeing their work, as well as that of others, analyzed by a hopefully unbiased third party. The judge needs to know what is expected of them by an individual club and adjust accordingly, and they need to be cognizant of the ability level of the individuals being critiqued. Novice photographers especially need to be encouraged and trained in the art of composition and ‘seeing’ in general. With experienced photographers fine-tuning, honing their craft is more the goal. For instance, with a novice I might point out dust spots and tell them how to handle the issue and keep the image in if it is good overall; however, with an advanced photographer dust spots would be grounds for elimination.
Criteria for Judging
As with most, I am concerned with Creativity, Composition and Craftsmanship. However, which of these is most important depends on the level of experience of the photographer whose work I am viewing. For beginning photographers, I want to see how well they put together a scene and how imaginative they are. So, for them it is Composition and Creativity that are key, while Craftsmanship is part of the teaching aspect of the review. For an experienced photographer I expect them to know how to compose a scene, so I want to see how creative they are and how well they present the technical aspects, tonal range, accuracy of colors, exposure, etc. as well as presentation: printing and matting.
I have an art background, and one of the things I have learned is that there are rules of composition that everyone should learn as they develop their abilities. The rules are the basic ABC’s, it’s what you do beyond the basics that makes the difference between a true artist and someone who merely takes pictures. Developing as an artist is not linear, and is a life-time quest. Everyone who strives to excel in an artistic environment needs to put their work out there for criticism/judging in order to advance and it is up to the judge to honor their efforts by making the most thoughtful assessment possible.
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