Are you the best judge....

[Eileen]

Thanks OB. You are right in that my standards are higher than 18 months ago. But I also think that some pictures you take carry a lot of emotional baggage - the circumstances surrounding the actual picture, the effort you put in and the feelings you have about it, either good or bad, just get in the way of seeing clearly. A quote I heard somewhere recently goes something like: "You judge yourself by your intentions, while others judge you by your actions."

Personally I think I sometimes undervalue 'easy' pictures that just worked first time and overvalue ones I really sweated over. And of course if I really like the subject then that makes a difference also.

The next (final!!) section of the course focusses on story telling and subject matter. One of the first exercises to get us thinking about this is to gather some examples of pictures where the subject is more important than how they look, and vice versa. I think Sue's examples a great illustration of this (I don't mean that your pictures don't look good - I think they're great - but just that most people looking for pictures of Norfolk Terriers wouldn't be happy if they got a stunning portrait of a German Shepherd). Aesthetics are not unimportant but are a secondary consideration.

One of the things that makes photography so interesting to me is that there's always something to think about and you never stop learning. My favourite picture is always the one I am going to take next. 

[greypoint]

Think it can be easy to become obsessed with getting the techincalities right and forget that having a subject that's interesting [to some people anyway!] is the main point really

[wendoureecat]

I think it depends on why you are taking a particular shot.......for yourself because you like it or to sell. With any art form an artist creates from the heart but art is a personal thing and what one person likes another doesnt. If I had to paint for a raffle I would paint something that the majority of people would like but for myself my style is quite different.

[irv_b]

To expand the point - if you put a photo in a competition and although the official judges didn't rate it but your fellow competitors voted it as the best what would your feelings be? ie whose view would carry the most weight?

[Bigbill]

Hewwo from Muggy Sheffy

I just assume everythings crap,,then i,m never surpised !
Seriously,i dont think it takes long to realise that other peoples comments dont really carry much weight either way,
its your own thoughts,or even better,those of non photographers that really count.

Shine On

[anglefire]

I wrote some crits on the competition that runs monthly on DPG one month, to have the photographer of one of the shots complain about what I wrote. Essentially saying how difficult the shot was to take etc etc. Unfortunately the resulting picture was not that good, but he couldn't accept it due the effort he had put in and his resulting emotional attachment.

Some of you may remember that I went on a DCM day out at Yarak in Devon to take some bird of prey shots - and the one thing that has stuck in my mind from the day, was some thing Ben Birchall said. Essentially, do a quick pass of your shots and get rid of the real crap, then perhaps process some you really like, then leave the rest for a week or two. That gives you enough time to remove some of the emotion from the shots.

Funnily enough Rachael Decruze was also there - she had not long started I think. She was nice actually.

[Oldboy]

Essentially, do a quick pass of your shots and get rid of the real crap, then perhaps process some you really like, then leave the rest for a week or two. That gives you enough time to remove some of the emotion from the shots.

That's what I do and always have.  The reverse is also true, that you take a series of shots, but on checking them you didn't get what you wanted, so you may be tempted to delete them, but leave them for a few weeks and you might see they are quite good.

[anglefire]

Thats true. Mind you, I autobackup to my external HD every day, so I have to make sure that I remove it from both places (Actually 3 cos my External HD backs itself up weekly to another HD!)

[Eileen]

I tend to delete the rubbish quickly and then wait for a bit. It does help.

To answer your question Irv: it would depend (on whether I respected the judges or the other members more). And of course I'd be happy anyway if at least one group liked it.

[spinner]

In answer to your original question Sue, I guess my answer would have to be no. My latest post to my gallery, you said was the best of my series for you. I put in as an after thought and was thinking It would either get ignored or criticized so you have proven I can't judge my own stuff.

[greypoint]

Others may disagree but I'd looked at them all and I liked the feel of that one best - not quite sure why

[Jonathan]

But I also think that some pictures you take carry a lot of emotional baggage

Spot on.

I remember years ago showing a pic to my wife that I was very very proud of.  It was some underwater junk.

"looks a bit soft" - yeah well there was a 12 foot surge - I was being rushed forward and back and shooting on slide film I only had chance to nail it
"and the colours are a bit off" yeah well I was using Kodak 100VS to up the shutter a bit - it was too dark for Velvia
"and you haven't framed it quite right" no but it was really cold - I was diving in a semi in 12 degrees so I was shivering a bit and my air was low so it was get that shot or leave it
"so why did you press the button.......?"

Which probably saved me a lot of embarrassment in the competition I was going to enter it for.

FWIW I almost never enter comps.  If I do I often do badly - I'm a better judge of what I like and (more recently) what will sell than what will look good to a judge.

[Hybridphotog]

Am I the best judge of my own shots? Nope.

The latest one I put on Flickr, the helter skelter photo, looked ok-ish, but I could see the problems it had. Not a perfect shot, imo.

There's been lots of comments about the shot, nearly all saying "Thanks for the memories rekindled".

[ABERS]

Golden rule as far as I'm concerned, never show, never enter for competition, never put up for judging and never offer up for exhibition any print or image that YOU are not satisfied with or completely sure about.

It's yours, you've visualised it, you've taken it, you've worked on it, but if you can't get the final result that you want, bin it. Don't offer it up with the hope that someone  may like it, that's a real cop out.
If judges or any viewers don't like it so what? If you go down the slippery slope of taking pictures that you think will please the judge, or anyone other than yourself, you are on the road to mediocrity.

[Colin]

Golden rule as far as I'm concerned, never show, never enter for competition, never put up for judging and never offer up for exhibition any print or image that YOU are not satisfied with or completely sure about.

It's yours, you've visualised it, you've taken it, you've worked on it, but if you can't get the final result that you want, bin it. Don't offer it up with the hope that someone  may like it, that's a real cop out.
If judges or any viewers don't like it so what? If you go down the slippery slope of taking pictures that you think will please the judge, or anyone other than yourself, you are on the road to mediocrity.

Abers that is great advice and I try to follow it but sometimes I ask SWMBO just in case I got it wrong