Critique the Community

Submit Your Best Interpretation of "Wet" Images

Critique the Community: Wet
  • Submission Deadline: Wed, 23 Oct 19 15:00:00 +0000

    This contest has ended.

  • Voting is closed.

  • Congratulations to the winners!

    View Results

What do you think of when you hear the word "wet?" Maybe it's a rain storm. Perhaps it's a seascape. Others might be reminded of a rainy wedding you had to shoot.  In the next Critique the Community, we are asking you to submit your most powerful images that represent the word "wet."

Submit up to two of your best photographs that capture the essence of the word wet for a chance to win a free tutorial from the Fstoppers Store. We hope to have a special guest in our next episode and with a theme this abstract, it's sure to be an interesting critique.

The deadline to submit your images is October 23th by noon eastern time. Good luck and we hope to see some amazing image of these rather ambiguous theme.

  • Submission Deadline: Wed, 23 Oct 19 15:00:00 +0000

    This contest has ended.

  • Voting is closed.

  • 432 people have cast a total of 27,147 votes on 530 submissions from 344 contestants.
  • Congratulations to the winners!

    View Results

59 Comments

why are so many of these good photos rated so low?

Good question. I think a lot of people vote really low so their photo will rank higher.

That is not cool.

Is it possible to see who rated and how many stars he/she gave for a particular photo?

i give honest and high rate but i dont think my photo is so special but i would like see it in video ^_^

Which is insane, given others will rank your photo lower so it never will! Rank as you see it and it'll be the same spread, but reflective. Ugh - Internet!

Never ben one for complaining about the ratings but if true, it's interesting that initial votes after an image is first submitted are usually high with a subsequent decrease, almost as if the honest ones occur early cuz it may not matter, while later voters can see how many votes have been cast so if they dole out a lower rating it "won't hurt"

Cheryl, it is not a new issue here. This shot for instance is done very well and gets bare 2.41 after 50 votes? come on, now.
https://fstoppers.com/entry/418210

yeah, that's actually really sad that community is not "filtered".

I referenced this one by Avram Silberztein because that shot is very hard to get, get in focus, lighting is fine and was in the "decisive moment" yet, gets a 2.41?

I think I rated that one a 4. At the very least it’s a 3 star image. Can’t see why anyone would rate it any less. Maybe it might not fit the theme perfectly?

I don't think the person (or persons) who are doing this even care. I see others that fit the theme who also have very low, strangely low, rating.

It fits the theme, too.

for me, this is a great capture, but to make it a 3 for me i need a few things.
more detail and crispness, i understand these are tricky to capture, but they are too blurry, also this image doesn't display water to me, so therefore i vote with the contest genre in mind. Great shot, but its the genuine reason i gave it a 2 over some that are easy 3's.
this is a tough audience, and technically correct images by solid high value equipment and photographers just seem to STAND OUT more

Mark, at least you're doing the one thing I'd like to see more of, explaining what you're seeing. That's why the "needs work" should come with, "I'd bump up the exposure in the lower right, take down the highlights and desaturate the orange to balance this shot out'.
That said, I still see "1" applied to shots that aren't snapshots and that is pathetic on the part of the one casting that vote.

I really appreciate that you elaborate on why you rate it a '2', more people should do that !

Not so sharp, speed not accurate, lot of noise, maybe a big crop, it would explain the lake of definition. I think we've all seen better birds picture.
But i agree about the global low rating

Don't let the ratings here get you down! I once entered a former Photo of the Day in a contest and it got a 2.4. It's just for fun. If you are new here, join some of the groups. "Minimalism, Abstract, Experimental" is a great free for all group where everyone is welcome.

Fstoppers is full of sabotage ratings. It is indeed a community of frustrated Gearheads who think they are Gods gift to Photography.
They self promote be downgrading others.
They also downrate your portfolio and blast your comments. This place has Pop Photo mentality.

People have to realise that with all 'ART' they are subjective to personal opinion, thats what makes this medium so exciting. and difficult to stand out in.

I love these competitions that make me try and gather why a shot was taken and then personally critique it from my eye and the genre set out. No one is ever doing a bad job, because if you love what you do then you are a winner regardless of the numerical rating made by others with difference of what makes it great or not so, for them

that's what my latest blog post is about...remember why you're doing this

While I totally agree with you Mark - 100% - the reason people are frustrated is that, if you read the criteria for each rating level, it is more specific. I think that an alternative to changing the scale (which I would definitely do) would be to require people to click a check box that they read the rating criteria prior to voting. I personally believe that a big source of angst here is that voters have not read the criteria. Otherwise, it would be unlikely that there would be so many 1s or even 2s. It is simply impossible that most entries here are snap shots (1) or poorly thought out/created (2).

It comes down to the rating system itself, 3 is a solid image that could go in a portfolio. So the image needs to portfolio quality for qualify for 3 of the 5 rating scores. If an image is good, but isn't portfolio quality it has to be scored a 2 or 1 which is irksome for a lot of submitters.

As others have mentioned, I too think it is due to the way the rating system is made. In other circumstances and on other pages my ratings would also be 1-2 grades higher than the ratings I give here. Simply because the requirements to rate high are quite specific. So even the most beautiful photos would get a lower rating if the picture isn't tack sharp or if the exposure is off or things like that. Being an amateur myself, I just use it to rethink my pictures - Even without any comments. My submissions in this challenge are getting around 2.2-2.4 ratings. And comparing to the best submissions I have seen in this contest alone, I can see there is plenty of room for improvement for the next contest - So I'm looking forward to my first 3.5-star average rating.

people are salty.

Didn't expect to rating of 1.37 after 41 votes... and 1.68 on the second. Hope these who rate that way are gods in photography with 5 stars photos of their own. But i don't think they are.

First: You should not take this personally. Do it for fun.
Second: I find your two examples beautiful, but as far as I am concerned, they do not fit the theme. It's not "water", it's "wet". Maybe that's why you don't get top ratings.
Btw.: My images don't get top ratings, too. But there are so many great images in this contest, that I am not surprised, not to be on top level. And - funny enough - the picture I find better (an almost abstract BnW) is rated lower. :-)

Thanks Sven.I believe most of the voters never
bother to read the competition explanation .in the second sentence was wrote about what could fit "...Perhaps it's a seascape". but most of fstoppers readers just read the title and see the featured image and that's it.

Guys,

Art is highly relative and subjective. The perception of quality hugely depends on what you've experienced. From a quantitative standpoint we can measure sharpness, exposure, etc., but not art. Many of the pictures are technically solid, but for eg. the composition isn't and vice versa. Some of the pictures took lots of effort, maybe hours/days/weeks to capture, but that doesn't mean they are solid. It only means it was hard to capture.

Points (stars) without commentary mean a bit less, people can dislike your picture because of any absurd cause. Just like kids not eating some food, because it is slightly yellower than used to be. And we make fun of kids for this...

At the end of the day, you should look at your photograph and feel happy you took it. Remember, most of us don't do it for a living, so there is no pressure from anyone. You should only compete with yourself, be better than you were yesterday. Looking back in 1-2-3 years time you'll cringe rewatching your pictures and that is good. It means progress.

.

I have an image of mine that went viral and was featured by Canon USA themselves rated way lower than expected in this contest but to each their own. I realize fstoppers is not my target audience and that my images do a lot better rating wise in 500px as the image I submitted has a 99 pulse on 500px and got over 100k likes when canon shared it on instagram. I guess what I am trying to say is know your audience. I know that nothing I post to fstoppers will ever be considered excellent here and it's okay because I now know to expect those ratings from this community but I know they are not the real metrics of how well my images will do in the real world outside of this community.

Didn't your image get top rated in the last contest?...

Is it possible to see who rated and how many stars he/she gave for a particular photo?

I don't think it is possible, but just think about it, how toxic it would be...
Vendetta downrating of fellow photographers just because he or she gave someone a lower rating, than the creator thought would be correct.
It is already tough for people, who take this rating system seriously :)

I'm sure there are people who downrate to try and help their own images, however anything that is artistic is very subjective, I imagine I'm not the only person who looks at an image and rates it, say a 2, only to find it's current rating is say 3.6, yet on others you'll rate it a 3 or a 4 and it'll be rating around 2.2 or such. I guess we have different things that push our buttons (no pun intended!) What is an interesting artistic take to some is a shody failure to others and visaversa.

This is a pretty amazing batch of entries this time! WOW! Cheers all round!

I'm not sure I agree George - the description does specifically call out a seascape and a rain storm, both of which would be landscapes. I think that a landscape with water might be appropriate. But I get your point, I entered in a photo of water because water is wet and I thought it counted. It might be on the fringe though! :)

I don't understand something: I have submitted 2 photos, with about 75 votes between them and both a rating of about 2 - I am totally ok with that - but I don't have a single comment on any of them ...

Hey guys, I would really like to know what I can improve !

Fstoppers site has some real nasty people who knock your photos comments and contest entries.
This is common with Fstoppers contests.
There are some who will consistently mark you down based on your name and personal attacks.
The 5 scale rating is the real problem. But it would be good if you could block those who consistently attack you.
With so much sabotage .. almost no way to get valued input at this site and they just hit and run with no comments.

Reason I’m not following Fstoppers cuz their followers are awful people lmao
U guys are toxic for real get a life
If everyone is a photographer can’t be that hard or most of them doing it wrong so which one

So, I'm a little confused on all the negative comments. This is my first time rating photos and submitting one of my own. Based on what I've seen so far, it seems that a rating of 3+ is a REALLY stellar image. The curve would seem to be weighted more heavily toward 2-3. A 5 is almost unattainable, so if you are getting at least a few 4's or 5's and the majority at 3, you are doing REALLY well! A rating of 2-3 seems to be a good capture, but could use some work. Maybe a few things fixed and it's portfolio ready. Would you consider a 2-3 one of your best shots ever? Maybe, but probably not. Seems to me that people are being fair with their ratings. I'm sure there are some people out there sabotaging others, but it doesn't seem to be a consistent practice as a lot of you are suggesting.

Hi i am pretty new to this community and its my first contest here. It would be awesome if u check my two entrys. Your critics are welcome. I wish u a awesome day.

I can only see the ratings on my submissions. What am I not doing correctly?

Kenneth, for whatever reason, the site is loading really slow, at least for me. Once you are able to vote on a particular image, post voting, you will then see what the average rating is for the photo.

Slow for me as well

I believe that the last slowness is caused by third party cdn severs. saw that multiple sites had some problem at the same time.

Don't we need to vote the picture first to see their ratings.

Perhaps they should award a prize for the lowest score! That way those rating all the images low to try and bolster their chances of winning will have a chance :) Having scorers visible would also be nice, there are some amazing images in this contest, at least 4's or better that haven't been rated so.

More comments

Contest Submissions

Click on the thumbnails below to comment and vote on each image.

Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.