We want to see your best images of plants or flowers for our next Critique the Community.
Between now and December 4th, we invite you to submit up to two of your best images of foliage. We will be selecting a total of 20 images to give feedback to and two entrants will win a free Fstoppers original tutorial. The first winner will be decided by the highest average community rated image and the second will be chosen at random. Please note that we want to see high quality pictures and will probably overlook anything that looks like a snapshot.
Once you've uploaded your submissions, we encourage you to scroll through everyone else's and give them ratings and comments of your own. Please keep feedback encouraging and helpful.
Are mushrooms plants for the purpose of this submission? In biological classification, they're not plants.
I don't have a problem with them, they don't seem out of place among the submissions to me.
What about trees? Is a forest scape foliage? It obviously will have foliage in it.
Does it have to be outside or can a styled shot with foliage/flowers or what not be counted?
this is going to be a tough one lol another rough crowd
Seems most of the submissions are flowers not foliage. Even the title image of the contest is misleading - it's a flower, the title says plants and the description says foliage. Funny. I think after that anything that actually grows is fair game!
in the rules, it states "We want to see your best images of plants or flowers for our next Critique the Community." so I think that's why people are sharing flowers.
I think they incorrectly used "foliage" as interchangeable with "plants"
It doesn’t help that in the last video Lee sort of brushes over the topic with uncertainty of what to include. He even says “vegetables” at one point.
My image is at like a 1.92, possibly because people don’t understand that they included flowers. On top of that, pictures of flowers/plants doesn’t mean “only flowers/plants without any complimenting elements”. Lee even said “make it interesting”. They clearly don’t want just pictures of flowers, but making it interesting has gotten mine sniped.
Hi Jordan, are you looking for for feedback? I find some people are here and some are not.
I'm more interested in feedback or the opinions of the guys in the video than the tutorial, that's for sure. If anyone here adds feedback, comments or opinions, that's always welcome, too.
After Lee and Patrick mentioned the status of critique in this segment I decided to submit one of my photos and yeah, the ratings are.. :) Hope people looking for honest opinions/ratings don't take this part of the community too seriously, as it's just toxic :)
I've always taken the rating system of the contests with a grain of salt, since it's the competitors voting against their competition. That being said, people rating my flower image, a focus stacked image composited together from 5 images, as a one star image without justification is a new low for CTC. I try not to get too up in arms about things around here, as I have a lot of respect for the Fstoppers guys and contributors, but I'll say it, this is downright shameful, and Fstoppers should be embarrassed for letting the "contests" get this bad. At this point, Reddit a more legitimate place to get critiques than CTC... was that too dramatic?
Should I throw a "for shame" in here or is that too much... ah, why not go all in. For shame... \(o_o)/
Yeah it's nonsense, I think most of the bad ratings are people who saw "foliage" and rated flowers as out of context... From my point of view, it's some of the best shots I've seen in an fstoppers contest, there's a lot of great images, and very few snapshots. Yet the ratings are pathetic...
Maybe just for fun there shoud be a special critique the community episode, where Lee and Patrick go and review portfolios of people, who only give 1 star reviews ;)
Agree. The rating reflect some angry people. If you have a model with a flower in her hair I get the low rating but most people seem to have gotten the idea.
Why does a model with flowers in her hair warrants a low rating. It says photos of flowers, plants and foliage it didn't say where those flowers needed to be in a vase, in the ground or in someone' hair as long as the flowers are a main focus to the shot. So if you are rating low because you think the photo shouldn't have a person in it I think that is dick move.
Because the subject was clearly the model. It's called missing the point of the assignment.
I'm new here but a long time YouTube fan, so I've seen the CTC rating issues plenty and Lee and Patrick are obviously well aware of them. I do think there's a simple solution though and I hope they're both seeing this comment. 1 star ratings should bring up a forced 100 character minimum comment in order to confirm the 1 star review. If people had to justify their random 1 stars, they'd leave a lot fewer of them. And if people want to leave unjustified 1 stars badly enough to comment 100 A's or something, then Patrick knows who to consider booting from the community.
Hey Jordan, I'm curious how you would rate your image?
That’s a bit of a tough question as it’s hard for me to give an unbiased rating because I know the process required to take this particular image. I know how much time it took to get the images required for the composite, how long it took to composite the focus stack, how uncommon these conditions are in June in Tokyo (rainy season), and how unique this composition is because I’ve seen dozens of shots from this general location but never with this composition (everyone shoots it from the other side of the river). All of this means I have a personal attachment to this particular image which can’t really be quantified with a number - I would have added these details in the description, but let’s be honest, it wouldn’t have helped.
Let’s just say I wouldn’t upload anything here that I would personally vote less than a 3 [meaning there’s nothing that jumps out at me as “this needs fixing” - if something did jump out, I’d fix it before uploading]. I feel 1 or 2 can be a little more objective, however, any rating higher than 3 gets into personal opinion as what someone considers “excellent” or “world class” relies on one’s subjective opinion. I’m personally pretty liberal with my 4s and 5s on Fstoppers, even if the image isn’t flawless. This is to say that one can still provide a critique of an image, while understanding it’s not a 1 or 2.
Sorry if that wasn’t the answer you were looking for, but it’s not quite as simple as assigning a number. People are welcome to rate it what they want, but some sort of justification is appreciated. As I said before, comments, feedback, and opinions are always welcome, even if I disagree with them. “Art” is meant to spark discussion or debate.
Foliage? In december?
Dead foliage is interesting too 😉
Lee and Patrick should do a test where people who submit are then only allowed to vote for a few (up to 3) other photos - that way, it turns it into you can vote for your favourite photos, instead of everyone just 1-starring the rest of the submissions because they can.
I'm not 1-starring anyone who do not deserve it.
Neither am I, but such a test would put and end at least to the speculation of whether people do or not
Isn't it fun to have your photos rated as "Need Work"?
Rated by who? The voters didn't even explain me how to improve my work. Is it because they are not Photoshoped? They don't look Instagram enough? LOL
I now remember why I deleted all the professional motorsports photos I posted 1 or 2 years ago.
Mine was POTD and is rated pretty low on here. Some people down vote on these CTC contests thinking it will make theirs higher in the pool. It's just something you've got to accept and not let it bother you. These contests aren't that serious.
You're right, but I'm afraid that this issue is difficult to subvert. It's almost expected.
I think the problem is with the rating system is that it doesn't lend itself to explanation in the contest space. I give photos that just don't link a 1 star, but anything as per the definition where the photographer has paid attention to lighting etc but is a fairly boring picture IMO gets 2 stars. And so on🤷♀️
I'm replying to my own message.
I like a photo I vote 5 stars, I don't like one, I don't vote.
I posted a photo https://fstoppers.com/entry/433201 on which I used a wide aperture to make the pistils float and give the image a surreal look.
From the point of view of a macro photographer who shoots at f/22+ or stacks shots to have everything in focus, it's obviously a mistake and needs improvement!
I like it! I would have filled in the gaps but it's not a 2.3 like it's being rated right now.
Thank you Crystal!
I should have watermarked the photo with "It's not focused everywhere on purpose"
I remember shooting this flower with more focus thus details, it was less interesting.
sebastien, did you have the caption originally ? because unless they are obviously snapshots, i read them to understand thought and perspective before giving less than a 3. people who dont put explanations dont get the benefit of the doubt from—i change my rating in your image after reading the caption just now-but i honestly dont remember that caption 😳😳 so sorry! i remember the image, but yes, i did think it was a novice mistake when I initially rated it my sincerest apologies!!
I added the extra caption after I realized what could confuse raters.
As a professional photographer I thought it was obvious I wouldn't post a blury image, but I was wrong.
well im a newbie to this forum and it seems there are a lot of snap shots and out of focus shots — since i don’t know anyone’s work yet it is difficult for me to tell who is who yet 😳😳apologies
it's easy, look for composition and lighting LOL
which is why im sure i thought it might be artistic choice but when i saw no comment in the caption for an explanation and when i saw none, assumed it was novice error. but i keep getting 2 s on my entry, and id love to hear what is so horrible about my shot that its not portfolio worthy lol-ot was licensed at great expense for a 9x8 wall print at a tech business and is one of my best selling rpints so im not worried about it’s quality—but id also love insight as to why people have given it 2 s and 1s when i discuss the planning, lighting and step ladder it took to make the shot happen :)
If it makes you feel better, mine is a composite of 5 images to ensure it's sharp from front to back, and to ensure both the bright sky and dark foreground are perfectly exposed, and it’s at a 1.96, last I checked.
Regardless of the image submitted, ratings between a 2-2.6 are par for the course in the competitions.
Jordan, I keep seeing you complaining about your 1.9 rating and repeating that is a 5 images composition ecc.. Sorry man but you should be more self critical and think that your image even if it took hours and a lot of experience to be made is just not that interesting. ;-)
You've missed the point of my argument. A photo stacked image, by definition of the rating system, cannot be a 1. I'm simply pointing out that a number of ratings here are disingenuous and are not to be taken as gospel.
I have understand what you mean, but if the perception is a "snapshot" that is what it get. I give it a 2. In the other hands I love the colors and composition of your second one and give it a 4. Maybe is less "technical" than your 1st image but is more pleasing.
This is why I think it's important for Lee and Patrick to change the system so that any "needs work" level rating is forced to input a comment before the rating will stick.
I have a question about the voting, if I participate at the start of the contest and imagine that out of the 50 votes that my photo had I got a total score of 2.90, and there is another participant who participates at the end of the contest and has 1 vote of four stars, will this other participant with only one vote stand in front of me because in the end it totaled a score of 4.00?
Theoretically, yes. But I never saw that happen.
I thought that too. With 50- 2 star votes, I'll never get out of that hole.
I think the 1 star rating people are at it again, unfortunately. My image was rated a lot lower than I would have guessed and I've noticed other great images with low ratings too. I am willing to accept an honest rating, but I keep seeing evidence that some people are maliciously lowering ratings.
Here's a suggestion. Make an effort to leave specific comments on images which deserve an honest compliment. I tend to trust comments more than ratings because the ones who would deliberately undermine a photo rarely have the energy to type something at all.
Here's another idea. The Fstoppers team could select eligible voters on this site through a verification process. Only the verified voters would be allowed to submit ratings.
If anyone has similar thoughts, I would love to hear it.
I think that would be a good idea.. but it would be hard to verify voters.. maybe if they should make it so that if someone votes 1-2 stars they have to leave a comment otherwise it dosent count
When will the segment be aired on YouTube?