When it comes to maintaining a photography business, the images that make you money are the ones that really matter. For the next episode of Critique the Community, we will be providing feedback to only images that have generated income for you.
Between now and August 22, 2019 at 11:45 PM EST, we will be accepting submissions that fit the following requirements. The image must have been published and must have generated some sort of income for you. It doesn't matter whether you only made a penny or thousands of dollars from the picture. It had to have been purchased and published by someone else for use on a billboard, ad campaign, magazine, company website, or some some other outlet available to be viewed by others.
When you submit your image, be sure to scroll through the rest of the submissions and provide your own honest feedback according to the Fstoppers rating scale below. Use your number and keypad to quickly rate each picture and leave comments on ones where you see an area that could use improvement.
Or you could try to be professional and choose better words instead of being brash and insulting. You know, try to be civil and use your adult vocabulary instead of acting like this is a playground and you are running around pulling the girls pigtails.
Thanks for the contest!
I submitted two photos but one of them isn't showing up :(
I tried this, but the site tells me I've already submitted the maximum of two
Wow, I think there are some really really good images in the submissions. Good job!
How do I remove a submission again? I entered the wrong one! Ugh.
Two, actually. But the site isn't letting me upload more than one...
I submitted two and when trying to submit the third one it said I had already submitted my limit.
Select "edit" on your entry, go to the three dots on upper right, hit delete.
I'm planning on selling prints of my work soon. I am considering to use Etsy, and would like to hear some advise.
I tried that. Didn't work.
Etsy was more of a side idea. My main work will be sold on my own website domain.
Well yeah you could do it but I just never saw any sales there.
I think what is interesting is that depending on the local market you are in images in general will be profitable due to peoples ties/need for the images. It would be great if part of the submission was a earnings range from the photo that could be revealed after the contest. As I imagine many that will be voted a Snap Shot or Needs Work will do surprisingly well monetarily but will not do well in voting.
Exactly. Mine has been licensed tons of times but people here don't like me.
Well that's your opinion and my clients think is way more important than some random person on this site.
Meh.
I am not saying it should reflect the voting but it would be just i interesting to compare earning vs ranking. As most artistic and photographically better images have I think a more limited market vs some other production work. Would be interesting to have the info during the final results video to compare the community rating to the earnings
does stock photography count ? i mean i made money and someone else used maybe on their website maybe somewhere else i dont know
I included one stock photo, but I also included the name of the publication. I didn't include stock photos for which I could not identify the publication. Also, it seemed imperative to include the name of the publication with each entry.
I know this contest is based around photos that made the photographer money [regardless of the amount of money] but, after scrolling through/rating all of the submissions I think it would have been worthwhile to specify if the submissions were intended to upload to stock photo catalogs or if the photographer had a client that was hired for the job.
Maybe just have one contest that focuses around photos taken for a client and another for photos that made money on a stock website.
Any thoughts?
Edit: I want to make it clear I mean no disrespect to any of the photographers and the photos they posted. All around great job to everyone. I just wonder if this contest would be better as two separate critiques.
I wish everyone would have told where their image was published. Not so much to verify it was published, but it would have been interesting to know. Maybe next time we run this theme, it should be a requirement.
I think it should have been a requirement to identify the publication. There were too many images which, based on comments, had not been published, or that we don't know about their publications. Unfortunately, there are numerous images that apparently have not been published with higher scores than some that have.
I definitely think there is a misunderstanding of “needs work”. Needs work to be in your portfolio or needs work to be a 4/5. I don’t want to be salty because I know there are some trolls, but for fricks sake. I’m seeing too many images that are really solid and would work really exceptionally well in any non NY or LA market with less than a 2.5 rating.
Exactly.
My favorite are the 1s when, regardless of whether you hate it or think is poorly done, it is literally impossible for the image to be a snap shot. But face it, every contest for as long as i can remember has had the same conversation in the thread. A better way to communicate your feelings would be to not enter. If people stopped participating, that would send the clearest message.
Honestly hoping my entry gets chosen for the video only so they can call out the community for being too harsh
Start uploading blocks of text that state that people just rate every image other than their own 1 star or use the rating system to troll people they dont like.
Clearly most people don't know what the contest was supposed to feature because the hosts didn't make it clear enough that you were supposed to post images that had been licensed for use commercially. At least, that was my takeaway. I posted two images that were licensed by other entities and they paid me for the use of the images. I've seen LOTS of posts that say they were sold as prints. While I guess you made money from that, I don't think that's what they had in mind. "Published" doesn't mean "your website."
How can I take my entry back ? Don’t wanna be a part of this sour grapes contest anymore.
In a fun, funny way
Select "edit" on your entry, go to the three dots on upper right, hit delete.
Wow, and they consider themselves pro’s. Pros at what ? Whining ?
I already manage a lot of the same at work. But hey, at least we get nice fancy photos to look at. Maybe not the ones I post but yeah. You get what I mean. I’ll just consider all this as the pre competition trash talk. Hehehehe
no one wants to buy my photos :-(
I would. :)
In this competition I have given 150 photographs three stars or more. The photographs that I do not consider to have reached a solid three star I have not voted for at all. I didn't wanted to reduce the average point of these images.
Those that I have not voted for have been clumsy made compositions, saturated Photoshop works or pics directly linked to act of violence. There were also some photographs that I would have given four stars, if these pictures had lacked a dominant watermark.
It would also have been nice to know through which channels you received money for posted photos. Not many photographers wanted to add that information. But overall, absolutely amazing pictures you show here! Good luck to all of you!
If a photo deserves 2 or 1 stars, it is OK to give it 2 or 1 star. Nothing wrong with saying something "needs work before going to the portfolio" or "is a snapshot"
There is so much dialog in every contests' thread about the voting. I have debated chiming in but lost that internal debate!
Here are a few thoughts:
1) The photography here is really great - all of it.
2) If you think the votes on your image are low, laugh it off. It isn't like the results of this contest mean anything. And, your own opinion of your work should be what makes you happy with it or not.
3) This is voluntary. Don't participate if it makes you unhappy.
4) Nothing is going to change. The creators of the contest don't care about the faulty rating system. This topic has been brought up MANY times in EVERY contest without a response or change.
They might not care because everyone keeps playing.
Here is another suggestion. In the next contest, don't enter but put in a comment that unless the scale changes, you won't be participating. Pose a new scale so people can vote on whether they like it or not. Not a philosophical suggestion - suggest a specific scale. If enough people do it, it might at least get a comment.
I'll be putting in this one:
No anonymous voting and use this scale:
1 = Photo you consider to be in the bottom third
2 = Photo you consider to be in the middle third
3 = Photo you consider to be in the top third
4 = Photo in your Top 10
5 = Photo you choose as the winner
This comment is so perfect. If you don't feel like your photos are getting the ratings you think they deserve and it makes you unhappy, then don't participate.
The rating system implemented here is great for the format of the Fstoppers videos that we all enjoy and want to be a part of, but I don't think a protest of this system is in order.
As you already said, everyone here takes fantastic photos - so why let these arbitrary ratings plant any more/less weight on one of your photos you obviously take a lot of pride in putting together?
If you already made up your mind and know your photo is great, then why do you need this community's pat on the back approval to confirm that? It's not like your client is anxiously waiting to see if the Fstoppers community thinks their purchase was well spent; they shouldn't be, at least.
Yeah, i'm shocked at how deficient the rating system is. It's easily game-able, inadequate in representing the image, and often confusing to the guest critiquer in the follow-up video! I disagreed politely with someone in the comments, (not about their work mind you, but about the rating system,) and they left one star reviews on my images out of spite. I'm sure someone will find some reason to hate this comment as well and once again leave me one star ratings to teach me a lesson, after which I will delete my profile and fade away. I thought this website was a place to gain constructive professional criticism. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was just as toxic as any other lame online community forum.