For this critique, we want to see your best "senior portrait," (high school senior, not senior citizen). In our latest competition (which will be released soon), both Pye and Patrick said my submission looked like a senior portrait, and they meant that as an insult. Show us what high-end senior portrait photography can be.
Each person is allowed up to 3 entries. The highest-rated image and one random image with both win a free tutorial from the Fstoppers Store.
Just submitted my photos and already all of them got -1- point as a snapshot. I believe that Fstoppers need to check these who rate too low in purpose and maybe ban them from voting.
I would rather just have the FStoppers staff be the judges.
Although the images in these critiques are always rated a little low, I have never seen a critique where the best images weren't the highest-rated within the group. Don't worry about your rating, worry about your rating vs the other images ratings. And currently, your images are some of the highest.
I'm thinking of a different way of showing rank as i saw in other sites and competitions. maybe it will look better for the rest of the legit users. just put the rank of the image in the entire competition. like top 1 , top 5 or 27/359 competitor's images etc. In that way the "scoring" won't matter. And maybe only the owner will see the scoring and also in your video you will tell the numbers for the chosen photos for the review.
Admins can see this but users can't because it would be too easy to sabotage the winning image.
Just change the verbage of the last star. Everyone would be happier if it was the star that said "needs work" vs snapshot. You know thats what is upsetting people. If you are admins and judges, then we should be leaving the snapshot shaming to you. Not make us do it.
I'd have to agree with Nir. If you, the admins, can see someone's voting history and it's all 1s, they should be barred from voting
I'm new to this community, but I like the hard critical judgement as long as it is consistent. Getting a 3 should require a little extra effort on the photographer's part. Earning a 4 should go to about the 20 percent top images and only 2-3 percent should ever reach the 5 level. As photographers we will not get better if we are not truly challenged.
Sometimes people give a 1 if they think it is off topic. Maybe they think the young lady in your picture is older? I think a slight issue is that without a signifier that shes her age (like the young soccer player submtion) people probably assume that you are trying to pass off a normal outdoor shoot. Thats going to be an issue in this category I believe. A good reason im not submitting.
Yep, the one star people hit mine immediately too. I like Lee Morris's comment, "Don't worry about your rating, worry about your rating vs the other images ratings". And I like Teresa's comment, "...change the verbage [sic] (verbiage) of the last star. Everyone would be happier if it was the star that said "needs work" vs snapshot."
There's already a "needs work" rating and that's 2 stars. Thing is, plenty of people seem to rate an image 1 star, despite there being clear effort, such as a long exposure, that warrants no less than 2 stars.
I know. What I'm saying is to re-word the 1 star category to "needs work" rather than the 2 star category and find a new description for the 2 star rating. I agree with you that sometimes it is obvious someone is making a concerted effort which is showing so they deserve 2 stars but it may need more work. Should the 1 star rating be changed to something other than "snapshot" instead? At least that would be a good start.
yeah, guess it's better to change the definition than to try to change the attitude
Yeah folks are brutal to mine as well. Ha
I think you've got some great images out of camera. But you destroy them in post, especially the skin. Dial back the filters and the retouching, learn some better processes and you'll be golden! Keep it up!
Contests on Fstoppers are the Lord of Flys! All pretense of being a supporting professional community evaporates into a quagmire of self-survival and cruel pettiness. Sociologists will be studying this website's community for years to come.
i believe that some people (These who aren't from USA) would misunderstand the meaning of the term "Senior" in this contest. as In United States education, a senior is a student in the fourth year of study (generally high school or college/university study). Although it also got the meaning of an old person in English.
Haha good point! I'll clarify
Which also makes the submissions rather... US only, which is a shame ;)
No, not really. A Senior in High School in the US is just the last grade level of secondary school before going to University. Or someone 16-19.
I know but in The Netherlands for example that's not a reason for a photo shoot ;)
You guys don't do graduation photos? In the US we tend to have Seniors do it at the start of the school year or even in their Junior year for their Senior yearbook. But also used for graduation purposes.
Nir,
Thank you very much for this, I had to delete my images and upload new ones, anyway they all have one star. LOL
I think you need to shoot this contest in the head and put it out of it's misery.
after Lee's clarification (tks Lee), I'm still a bit lost. Contest is now : "submit a pic of someone in the 16-19 y/o range" correct ?
Yes
The term "Senior" could also mean college student in his final year by definition. not just high school.
Is prom shoot ok?
What?! I actually thought Lee's shot was the one with smoke, and the cover pic is Patrick's :D
I agree, I would rather see no score at all.
I'm going for a perfect "snapshot" for this one...hahaha. I had nothing to contribute, so I contributed a different kind of senior portrait;). These last 2 contests, weddings and portraits are so boring to me personally......... Can't wait for the next contest where I can hopefully contribute something nice:)
Ditto!
I'm not sure if it's been done already but how about a CTC on set building, maybe focused on miniature sets like Felix Henandez type. It would be cool to get him as a guest judge.
Hello. Since the limit is 16-19 years old, how can I remove pictures from the contest? Thank you for your help.
Never mind I found it 😁
Sometimes I do these just to see how badly a great image gets scored by people..... great composition, lighting, and editing.....2 star. Needs work. Haha.
Tim Fuchs someone commented on my photo that the model is just not attractive enough. I guess I received a lower rating for that. Anyway I had to delete photo because she was a college senior.
Samantha, Please share your work. I would love to see it.
I get a kick out of entering a past Photo of the Day and watch it get a 1. ;P
I just enter these for fun. You can't take it personally. When I was new here I did and was soooo angry about the ratings. Now - I do it for fun. Just enjoy trying to meet the theme and seeing what others put in. Other than getting a tutorial, there is no serious outcome here.
I understand the frustration of the low rating and I, also, understand that not every photo I submit or capture will be good.
I just wish that people would actually critique with the rating. This way people can grow and learn to see what others see when looking at their own photos.
Could some skilled photographer comment on what work to do with my "happy girl" photo? It started off with 2,7 but now the one star ratings keeps coming in. There must surely be something I have overlooked. (The other I think is too soft)
Opinion- I think the images is good overall. Following would be my critique.
-Entire images foreground, subject, background is a little dark
-Shallow depth of field very effective in bringing attention to the subject
-expression (laughing) is not typical of a portrait (maybe reasons for the 1's)
-nothing to indicate this person is a graduating senior (maybe reasons for the 1's)
Thank`s a lot Reyes! This makes sense. It`s easier now to accept the one stars :) Maybe a out of topic button would be nice. I just loose my confidence as a photographer when pictures I actually like and have work a lot with get`s so many one star ratings. Thank you again!
I just gave you an actual critique on your submission.
Thank`s it means a lot these feedbacks. (I commented also on my submission)
How does "The highest-rated image" is chosen. For example what if someone post a day before the deadline and he got let's say 7 votes who were all 3 or 4's and got an average of 3 point something. But at the same time someone with 70 or 80 votes who was doing good at the beginning but the end average came down lower than the other one. Does the number of voters effect the decision of the highest rated image? Thank you
There are so many photos submitted so far that are off topic. Senior citizens instead of high school senior portrait. Pictures that wouldn't even be considered a senior portrait or a portrait at all, etc. However, a lot of these photos were pretty good, but being off topic it makes it hard to rate. I think the 1 star should be "off topic" instead of snap shot, or just have some sort of option to mark it off topic. Id say admins could filter out the off topic shots, but you guys have so much going on as it is with all the great videos and work you do it'd be a shame to take time away from that.
I've never seen so many that didn't fit the theme and one stars that did fit the theme... Idk maybe it feels like that because of the smaller number of substitutions at this point. To be fair there were quite a few shots that were absolutely awesome as well but just a bit surprised by seeing that many lackluster ones too.
There seems to be a lack of school vibe in 99% of the entries. If I was a parent and i'm not I would want the memory of my child in their last years of school to have something to do with school in it.
I was the head photographer at the biggest school photography company globally outside of the United States. The styles we were shooting had a different feel to the American school photography but there is a constant between all the images sold. Throughout the world including Europe, Dubai, Qatar, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea even Fiji all had some school theme throughout and it was the most important thing to the school in terms of hiring us because they use the images for advertising.
Im certain school photography is the worst job in photography followed closely by night club photography.
I agree there is no “school” in 99% of these entries so I’m pretty sure that the 99% of people whining about their 1 star rating, submitted a photo with zero relation to the contest genre.