Welcome to another Critique the Community contest! Each month, Fstoppers is challenging our community to submit their best photographs for our Critique the Community show, and three lucky winners will win a variety of photography related prizes.
For the month of April, we want to see your best Portrait photographs. Since this is a fairly broad category, feel free to submit any photograph that showcases a person in some interesting way. Each image featured in the critique will be picked based on creativity, lighting, subject matter, overall production, final edit, and overall "wow" factor. The community rating does play a small part in our selection but it's not as big as you might think so don't get too wrapped up in what others have to say about your image.
Deadline
This month we are allowing up to 4 photos to be submitted. All images must be posted to this page no later than April 29th, at 8:00pm Eastern time.
As always, every eligible entry must have at least 3 sentences explaining how the photo was taken, any valuable technical information including lighting, camera gear, lens choice, etc, and any background story that might help our viewers understand why your image is so interesting.
The Prizes
Each month we are giving away a variety of different photography related prizes. Below are the specific prizes for the month of April.
First Place - One grand prize winner will receive a free wireless 2-Light Portable Flash kit by Westcott. Included in this kit is a JR400 400 Ws strobe, a second JR200 200 Ws strobe, a wireless FJ-x3 trigger, and a variety of accessories such as Gel set, Magnetic Grid and 55 degree Reflector. This battery operated kit is great for on-location portraits as well as shooting in the studio and can be synced up to nearly any camera with the universal FJ-x3 wireless flash trigger. Valued at $1199.90
Second Place - Our second place winner will receive a suite of post production software from DxO. Included in this software bundle are copies of PhotoLab 7, FilmPack 7, and ViewPoint 4. With PhotoLab 7, you can edit and color grade all your raw files quickly, easily, and professionally. Once you edit your raw files, you can then use FilmPack 7 to give your photos a classic film look based on your favorite color or black and white film stock. Finally, you can fix all sorts of lens and perspective distortion in ViewPoint 4 to make your photos look as perfect as possible. Valued at $467
Third Place - One third place winner will receive a free tutorial from the Fstoppers Store. We have full length tutorials on a wide range of genres such as architectural photography, headshots, landscapes, product photography, and of course portrait photography. Valued at $299
Added Bonus!
And finally, to help celebrate the month of April and get everyone excited about portrait photography, Fstoppers has made a massive sale on our portrait tutorial with Clay Cook. It's normally priced at $300 but for the entire month you can get it for just $49.
Clay Cook is an incredible editorial and advertising photographer based out of Louisville, Kentucky. His tutorial on portraiture is incredibly thorough and covers everything from wardrobe styling to simple set building to both simple and advanced lighting setups. So regardless if you are an outdoor natural light shooter, or you want to step up your studio productions, Clay's tutorial is going to have something for you.
Good luck to everyone entering and we look forward to critiquing your best images in the "portrait" genre!
Featured Image by Devon Krige
well stated.
Think of Storytelling, Technique, Lighting, Center of interest, Impact, Color Balance, Composition, Creativity, and Subject matter
Is it strong in all these categories?
"But fear not, this is the real thing where you get the real harsh and honest feedback that you actually really need in order to grow as a photographer, and based on that, hone your skills up to the next level for the next contest."
Actually, no, there is no constructive feedback in terms of a written critique. All we have for feedback is a number, and therein lies the problem. For the majority of images that score a two which "need work," the photographer has no idea what could be done to improve the picture. Without specific suggestions, nobody learns anything.
Does wedding portrait pic count in this contest.
Since this is a fairly broad category, feel free to submit any photograph that showcases a person in some interesting way.
The majority of photos I gave 5 stars to were rated lower than 2.5 & were labeled "needs work". That's wild.
people being petty i believe ...cause i had the same surprise
The scores don't represent anything IMO. Having people rate competitors images makes zero sense. I feel only the judges should score images and would be as unbiased as possible.
I think the curators or those who scored images here doent get how it will be scored properly coz i see a lot of images deserves a 4 star some a 3 star but it ended up on 2 or 3 which it deserves more. I always think how they put effort for the production, the lighting, the composition amd execustion and on how they look for subect that dits to the character. But on their profiles they are rated more than 4 stars. This is so funny here.
I think part of the problem is there were some good images that simply didn't fit the point of the competition. In other words, they really weren't portraits as much as they were things like fashion, photojournalism, or lifestyle. I think someone even posted a photo of a roof.
Maybe they need to expand the criteria for the star ratings and also broaden the rating numbers to 10. For example, 1 star should also mean the photo doesn't fit the contest theme, regardless of how well it was shot.
Just my $0.02.
+1 for a 10 rating system.
I noticed some people made fake profiles to highly rate and comment on their own photos. I noticed all the profiles that commented on this person's submitted photos were made brand new with no content and no profile photo. All these person's submitted photos had very high ratings in comparison with all the rest of the photos in the contest for the quality of their photos in comparison with the rest of the contest seemed sus and when you see the comments they are all new empty profiles. I am glad that the judges do not pick based on votes because that is pretty much contest rigging by making fake profiles to vote for your own work.
You folks are going to go crazy if you keep it up with these conspiracy theories. SMH
Even if what say is true, unless they create dozens upon dozens of fake accounts, it will not matter. Most of the images have over 40 votes. So, let's say an image has 40 votes at avg 2.5 stars. If one were to create a fake account and rate 5 stars, their avg is a whopping 2.56. If they create another one and do the same thing, their avg is now a humongous 2.62. Then 2.67, 2.73, 2.78, etc. After 5 fake 5's, it barely moved the needle.
As you can plainly see, it will take some doing to "rig" the contests. Unless someone is psycho or has no life, no one is going to create dozens upon dozens of fake accounts. There only about 17 entries that have an avg 3.0+. So, it's safe to say I think most folks are normal. Maybe with just bruised egos.
I should also point out there are 247 contestants and 258 people have voted. That's almost 1-to-1 ratio. If people are creating fake accounts to vote for their image to a point where it actually mattered, it would well out ratio the number of contestants.
I noticed the same thing. A specific person had comments from the same new account and abnormally high ratings. In this case the photos were admitted late, and only about 25 votes. Unfortunately it's technically possible to create infinite accounts here, since you can create infinite emails. Since the rewards are high, it's enough for some people to go take the time to "cheat". Fortunately the user votes are not final.
My suggestion is that an account should have at least a few images on their profile, and perhaps some time between creating an account and being able to vote.
--- "A specific person had comments from the same new account and abnormally high ratings."
No, you are seeing things. If you are 100% sure of what you say, tell us which image. If anything, my guess is you think your image is stronger and you can't stand that you are the same rating level.
Of the 17 rated 3.0+, only a handful had comments. Of those commenters, they were from established members.
--- "Unfortunately it's technically possible to create infinite accounts here"
It's possible to do that literally everywhere.
--- "Fortunately the user votes are not final."
Then, why continue to cry about it?
--- "My suggestion is that an account should have at least a few images on their profile"
What good is that? If the supposed cheaters are going through the trouble of creating fake emails, then, creating fake accounts, and then confirming those email, uploading fake photos ain't a stretch. Right?
--- "and perhaps some time between creating an account and being able to vote."
How dumb is that? That would burden and disenfranchise legitimate folks that just want to come in vote. And, at the end of it, it won't stop the supposed "rigged" voting.
The only real solution, which have been proposed several times through the years, is to hide the avg rating until the voting is closed. Out of sight, out of mind.
I've noticed that every single of your comments is just you being an asshole. So good luck with that.
No, I'm just being a realist, not a coddler and an enabler. I mean, look at you. I lay down an argument and you return with a tantrum and resort to name calling.
You are talking about user Argie Yanez.
Yes, you figured it out without me even saying their name. All the profiles that commented only follow him and have absolutely no content.
Indeed.
Do you know what day we will get the youtube video ?