SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Exactly why I joined a club and started entering the monthly competition. I wanted real critical review rather than the accolades I get from family and friends. I want to learn to make my photographs better.
With my local club there's no "winning" shot. Everything is given a point value between 2 and 9 and and we accumulate points over the year with a hope of being named "Photographer of the Year". All shots that get a 7 or above are eligible to win "Photo of the Year". Each month there's a different guest photographer as a judge and some are better than others. And even with the best judges you quickly learn that it's very subjective and not to take it personally. I had a judge sing accolades about a shot of a Little Blue Heron I entered as a digital image, then he pixel peeped about 4 inches from the projected image and said "It's grainy, I'll give it a 6", (and it was not at all grainy). The judging is all done blind and nobody except the judge speaks during the judging so there's no undue influence. Like I said, it's subjective but I get value out of the critiques, even when I don't agree with them, (I've twice had judges say they would crop something differently only to have several people approach me afterwards to tell me not to crop it like they said). It seems like a lot of the critiques I get are about removing things in PP, which is all pretty new to me. I'm looking forward to my clubs Lightroom sessions the second week of January.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

That is just good common sense and self preservation.

Dennis

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

👍

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

A class and exam, in order to judge “art”? 🙄

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Most photographers let their cameras do their talking. If you feel you need to express yourself verbally maybe the Law is a career for you. Or politics.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

When did CACCA start doing this? I never heard of this criteria at CACCA and if this is new I know several members from our club that would like to get certified.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I avoid any competition that is judged subjectively. Look at the history of Olympic judging.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I would like to know what are some of the questions on the "judges test".

ICN3S Loc: Cave Junction, OR

Absolutely!👍

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Not in a competition. In our photography club that would make for a very long night. Often times we will have 70 projected images and 30 prints in our competition night. We start at 7 PM and if we allowed each photographer to talk about their submissions we would be there until midnight, and most of our members start falling asleep around 9:00 to 9:30 PM.

What we have found very helpful in our club is to hold a “Show and Tell” night once a month. Those interested bring 5 to 7 of their images on a thumb drive and have an opportunity to talk about each one of their images and to get feedback from the group. We have found that an excellent way to learn which in turn helps us Compete.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

I no longer enter any images into local group competitions, nor for that matter attend the meetings. I find the judge's comments trite and meaningless with the same "rules" stated over and over. They "want" to see only tried and true images. Nothing different ever scores anything. One judge accidentally let her feelings be know with "I really don't like Black and White" on one occasion.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Any competition involving art is useless. Now, if the competition involved all participants at a start line, a defined subject some distance from the said start line, and a stopwatch to determine the first one back with a finished and framed print that would be a competition. Otherwise, generally, the snapshot of the cute puppy will win.

I'd prefer a master class wherein the work is critiqued by some known proficient photographer.

If the photographer has to explain what they were trying to do, the photograph failed.
--Bob

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

If we didn't judge art we wouldn't have Academy Awards, Olympic Ice Dancing, Miss America, Wildlife Photo of the Year, juried art shows, American Idol, other talent shows, etc., etc.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Judging is a can of worms. Your club can use the same judges every time and then people see what they like and don't like and cater to them. The other choice is keep changing judges and get some erratic calls.
It's a damed if you do and damed if you don't.
PS Great judging shots are not ofter great sales shots. And visa verse

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Of course an educated judge is better but I've found that most people know what they like and it's usually not too far off from the common consensus. The problem often is they just lack an understanding of how to convey their opinions or rank their scores.

Scoring involves mental toughness and objectivity which too many people lack, sorry.