It's time for another Critique the Community and this time I'm asking you to push the envelope a little bit. For this critique, I'm asking you to post your most controversial, unsettling, or "uncomfortable" photos.
As always, we are going to leave the theme pretty open ended. If your interpretation of uncomfortable means a strange crop, something sitting precariously high, a fearful perspective, or a dangerous activity, upload your photo and see how others view your work.
All entries need to be made by August 18 at 11:15pm Eastern time. Hopefully we will have at least 10 images to pick for the live show and two entries will win a free tutorial from the Fstoppers Store.
Good luck and let's see what you think is uncomfortable to look at.
Update: No grotesque nudity, pornography, gore, or otherwise massively offense submissions will be considered. Feel free to push the limits but we may remove anything that is inappropriate.
Photo by Yours Truly: Patrick Hall
I see the mass down-voters are already out in force. 😆
The fact you are making a comment about it means they got what they wanted.
3
Is there photo size restrictions? Something I should know for my first entry?
No size restrictions that I know of. You can post a total of 3 photos. You can always delete a photo and send in another one. The deleted entry won't count towards your 3 photos.
Hi guys any idea how to see how you ranked?
If you mean in terms of compared to the other submissions, you can't, at least there isn't a function on the website to do so. If you want to know, you'd have to manually compare your photos' ratings to everyone else's.
Thank you Andrew but this way is stressful. I’ll be happy with the votes though
After the contest is over and they've done a video on it, they'll add the tab, "Highest Rated" below.
Yes I saw the last live show but they reviewed only the first ten photos. I want to know in total. But the tab is coming so I’m ok with it
Ah, I see. I stand corrected.
Looking through all the images, there are a ton that have 'nothing' to do with the theme! How do you cote on that?
I kinda agree. This is my first contest and maybe my last, not because my scores are not high more so a few things that I have noticed and struggle with.
1. The meaning behind the star sating is pretty odd- Are people rating the quality of the photo based on the descriptions of the star ratings or downvoting simply because they feel it does not fit the theme contest?
2. Photographers interning in old photos. IMO the photos should be shot within the limit of time to keep things fresh and keeps things a bit more even.
3. It states no nudity, yet the majority of higher ranked photos are half naked women. It’s sort of a blurry line
Just my 2cents
1. Yes. If it's out of theme, it'll most likely get voted 1 star.
3. It says "No 'grotesque' nudity."
not sure i agree the images being shot recently...as i have work that is waiting for the right topic...that being said, i have entered before and learned to take it with a grain of salt if not chosen. The contest has a sketchy voting system for sure. Down voting should not be permitted...just have people vote once on their favorites is a much more honest system.
I agree with the take it with a grain of salt. I wonder if the voting system should be altered a bit. Maybe things have changed since the fist contest. I think they should add a flag or something that can be ticked if our peers think it doesn't fit the challenge topic and after a few it gets removed. IDK or voting should be held at the end of the time frame and you can only vote your top 3 picks and this is after the judges / Fstoppers employees review and remove any they don't seem to fit the subject.
Agreed, but I mostly blame that on the subject of the contest. "Uncomfortable" apparently can mean a lot of different things to different people, and there seem to be tones of snapshots of vague things that make people uncomfortable. How do you compare a street photo of a creeper to a studio shot of teeth with food stuck in them? Or a horror movie setup? It's all just vague and chaotic. I'm guessing that the guys are running out of ideas for the contest subjects though.
But do various depictions of uncomfortable really need to be compared? I like that the theme is open ended because people respond quite a number of ways to stimuli. One person might be creeped out by by the creeper in the steam while the next guy might actually enjoy it because it speaks to his voyeuristic tendencies.
I think in the end what this contest is asking for is images that may spark some level of discomfort for the viewer, not why the photographer was uncomfortable shooting it - unless that was captured in the shot as well.