It hurts me more than it hurts you

Judging of photos is known to be subjective and we are quite often reminded of this fact when the judging topic is discussed. Remembering this is however a tall order to ask of any author with high expectations of a photo that he entered into a competition.

This month I was privileged to be on the other side of the fence. Yes, it is a privilege for me to be able to judge and comment on so many different entries where each author expects nothing less than Gold or better. I like the comment Evelyn made in a recent judging presentation: “…to judge as if you are friend of the author”. It remains a challenging task to judge with a huge responsibility and a lot of pressure.

 

It Hurts

This is what reminded me of the well-known phrase: “It hurts me more than it hurts you.” I must admit that I never believed it while I was on the receiving end. A judge's intention is not make authors feel discouraged or hard done by through the judging process.  When this is the result you did not judge his photo as a friend.

There are a number of factors that could lead to this despondent feeling. Some could definitely be improved upon by the judges and we must always work on that aspect of judging. Other contributing factors are created by a lack of understanding of the judging mechanism and its limitations or challenges as we say in South Africa.

 

Judging errors

Mistakes by the judges are possibly the most irritating aspect that is a major contributing factor to frustration of the authors. In reviewing the recent panel of photos where I assisted in the judging, I can see that we did make mistakes in the heat of the moment. We incorrectly disqualified some photos, but we have also accepted photos which should have been disqualified. These errors were mainly caused by technical information which is not available to the judge at the time of judging.

 

Putting it all together

A too high standard of judging is next on the agenda (or Facebook) after a difficult judging night. Not all authors are aware of the time and effort that the committee put into this aspect to try and avoid exactly this from happening. Alternative systems are investigated, the sliding scale is discussed to death, judges are briefed, statistics are kept, judges are blacklisted and so it goes on. This is all done to try and get the perfect system while we are using judges that will express their personal preferences. The history over the last 6 competitions showed we have statistically more problems with low standards than with high standards. In three out of the last six competitions we awarded Gold and COM to more than 70% of the entries. This does not demotivate authors and is therefore not so strongly debated or discussed, but is also a problem and makes me slightly uneasy when I get a COM award on such a night.

 

The target

What is the actual standard that we aim at? I think we all agree that we do not realistically expect all photos to be judged Gold or better. The rough guide line is that a Silver award means the photo is on the expected standard. Gold and COM awards are reserved for photos above standard. It is to be expected that there will be a distribution of photos that are judged to be above average on any given competition night. I do not think we should set a limit on awards. I am sure that most authors do not want a situation where photos will be awarded Gold by default. If we can only somehow manage to give a photo the award it deserves.

 

Finally: High Definition

We have changed over to HD format with a new projector and the picture is absolutely magic compared to the previous format. Unfortunately this magic projector now shows any error in the photo or post processing very clearly, for all to see. Working in the correct colour space is now more important than before. Attention to post processing detail will have to be improved on if we do not want to be disappointed with the presentation. There is a learning curve with this new technology for all involved. The projector was calibrated three times before the event to ensure we get the best possible result and this must be maintained to ensure the quality is the best that we can possibly achieve.

We will most likely keep on talking about the standard and criteria applied in judging and that is an integral part of our hobby. My wish is that we can avoid leaving authors despondent, through continues efforts to improve the judging for all and to make it as fair as is practically achievable.

 

For the record

Let me conclude by stating that I have never entered a photo in a competition, expecting to get anything less than Gold. Unfortunately I had a number of bad judges over the years and my below-Gold count keeps on increasing steadily. I am therefore making my contribution to keeping the stats down.

A personal opinion by: Bernard Richard.
X – Judge