Have you photographed a crazy event, portrait, or composite that utilizes an extreme weather event? If so, we want to see your best "stormy" images.
Each photographer is allowed to submit up to three images. We will be choosing our favorite images for the critique and giving away two tutorials from the Fstoppers Store to the images that we loved the most. For this critique, the highest-rated image will not win a free tutorial so there is no point in trying to down-vote your competition.
Make sure you add details about the concept, and how you photographed your submissions in the description box. Images without a description will be disqualified.
This is becoming such a toxic contest, have now deleted my entries after receiving numerous 1 stars. Not saying they are the best but clearly not taken on my phone with no thought. It's just a fun light hearted contest..
I noticed there were a lot of fantastic photos that were down voted to ones :( Makes me sad people have to be petty (and I'm not talking about my own, just so people don't think I'm whining about the voting on mine.).
I don’t know what you posted but people will often vote one star if they feel the photo doesn’t fit the contest theme
True! And, while there are many striking images here, there are few stormy ones. For me, a 'stormy' image would have energy, either in action or emotion. The presence of a cloud is not stormy. Fog, distant cloud banks, beautiful sunsets, ducks, people admiring the view - all no. So i think that, while some of these are really nicely done and would get high marks in a different challenge, the large number of off-topics is bringing down the scores.
I'm sure this will cause angry responses but ... even the banner image, which is so oddly composited (?), has little energy as it is so fake looking. Sorry! Just my opinion.
This is the first contest I've entered here, and I only did so because I had a very old picture that fitted the theme. I agree that many of the submissions seem to not to meet the brief, but I just skip past those - I wouldn't want to down-vote them because they might nonetheless be great images.
With regard to the voting system as I understand it, maybe the official guide to the star ratings should be revised - what photographic club reserves top marks for "World Class"? I'd suggest it should be renamed as "Outstanding". And, in my view, one star should be "Could Be Better" because even "Needs Work" implies more editing rather than better shooting. And two stars would be more encouraging if renamed "Not Bad".
Finally, I've read in these comments that voting is anonymous. Why? Sure, I don't think we should be privy to this, but the Fstoppers team should be, so that they can weed out malicious manipulators.
I'll probably enter again in the future, but I'm not sure I would if it really mattered to me. To have an image I like being judged as needing work could be very disheartening.
Not sure if you've watched many of the critiques, but "needs work" is short for "needs work before it hits your portfolio," and that may involve reshooting it. They've definitely rated photos a 2 and noted that a client would be happy to receive that image from a professional, just that the pro shouldn't use that image in a small sample to get themselves hired. And yeah, that does unfortunately create a scenario where most images should fall into a 2 star category.
But, people frequently suggest changes to the rating system, and I personally don't think it's happening any time soon.
Hi. How do you delete them? Thanks in advance
Open your entry, selet the comment icon on the bottom right. In the window that opens, select the three dots in the upper right corner and a delete option will come available.
I guess the strategy here is to downvote everyone else in order to get your images to the top rated of the contest...
They did recently change the rules a bit to address this. The highest rated image no longer gets a free tutorial, instead that goes either to a random winner or to an editor's choice. That said, I don't know if the people who hand out 1 stars like candy know or care.
I did the same, I think there's a toxic part in this community that unfortunately sets the tone, so I'm out as well.
I am not entering into this contest, but voted on all the image so far. There are a good deal of decent images, but the one thing I see over and over is images that are taken from what seems to be the standard eye level. There are a few exceptional images here and they all explore different perspectives on the landscape. Whether low or aerial, odd angles and the like, it all adds to much depth to the shots.
That being said. The system of voting in these contests has been broken for a very long time now. All votes should REQUIRE a comment or critique in order to register. It is far too easy to do what is being done now, down-vote everyone else but yourself to make your image get a higher rank. It's ridiculous and should be fixed.
How many images have you voted 1 or 2 so far?
I've voted many 2 star, but no one star. Slowly making my way through commenting.
So, in other words, 6 days ago, you voted on all the images but literally left no comments. What happened to your statement "All votes should REQUIRE a comment or critique in order to register"?
Man, you're nuts if you are just now backtracking and leaving comments on ALL the images. You have less than 60 comments for this contest and there are 238 as of this post. Submissions are open for another 4 days.
No sane and reasonable person is going do to what you're doing. But, hey, if that's what makes your world go round, then, more power to you.
Relax, relax. Sheesh. Don't get your whitey-tighties in a bunch. I was merely calling out your bullshit and hypocrisy. That was all.
Cheers.
I did the same. I do not have any stormy weather photos, but I like seeing what people submit to this critiques. Voted all on topic. Whenever I feel photo does not meet the subject I just skip it.
I agree. If you feel a photo is a 1 or 2, must provide a critique then. Much more helpful to the photographer and holds people accountable for their votes
This critique is flooded with many striking images.
As I have always said, if you want honest scoring, stop the anonymity in voting....
It's the same problem as always. An over edit is supposed to be an automatic 2 star, even when it might make the image worse. A portfolio 3 star image is a tough mark to hit for anyone and 4-5 star are very rare. So you are left with 90% of the images being 2 star and not all 2 star photos are created equal so bad edits get 1 star even when they obviously aren't snap shots.
3 star is a hard target to hit so don't feel bad about being in the 2 star range and some photos just aren't going to please everyone.
Anonymous voting sucks
Come on guys, don't be like that, just the fact that we can participate in a free contest and they offer two completely free tutorials, it is already worth it , why so much disagreement, participate, enjoy and learn anything from it
But why do you care so much about voting, they choose the images and the winners, the photos can have 6 stars and they just don't choose it because they just don't like it, while there may be images with a low vote and be one of the choices to participate in the contest
The issue is because most people want an honest opinion of their work, and the constant down-voting of images with no input as to why the image isn't up to par doesn't do that. Requiring a comment along with the vote is the only way to change that.
They only choose one winner, the voting chooses the other. This is an ongoing issue that has been around since the beginning, but has gotten very bad the last year or so.
I am happy to have somewhere to put my photos, and I have come to accept that real critiques of my images won't happen here. So I am used to getting 2 stars on my stuff in contests now. Annoying, but n o real big deal for me personally.
Photographers are the worst.