This complaint brings up an important issue to be considered. Any competition or any individual judge can not address the
requirements of all photographers that care to enter competitions or all specializations in photography or any art. All judges can not be expected to be, in this case, a wildlife expert or a zoologist. A judge may critique an image strictly on his or her concepts of composition or any other criteria. In this particular case, obviously, the judge did not understand the natural habitat of the animal in the image, nor the configuration of the cat's tail as it would appear in nature. Certain images have documentary or scientific information or value that should not be altered for artistic purposes. A truly great image MAY have both artistic and documentary attributes.

In a perfect situation, specialized competitions, in this case, wildlife photography, would have a judge or judging panel that is expert or at the very least, familiar with the category. In a camera club with a relatively small membership, this kind of specialization may be unlikely and entrants need to factor theses limitation into their results and not become overly disgruntled.

Some folks on this forum tend to deriede professional competitions as being "cookie-cutter" or too conservative or having a sameness in scoring images. Some professional associations that are comprised of traditional portrait, wedding, and commercial photographers will have standards and judges that reflect the standards, norms, and tradition of these industries. This is not to say that creative, unique or "out of the box" or fine art images will not receive due recognition but this is a possibility.

My feeling on the subject of competitions is simple. They can be meaningful, educational and beneficial if they are taken with the right attitude. They are no place for sore losers, egotistical winners or folks who only accept positive reviews all the time. You have to take the criticisms from whom the come and evaluate them accordingly and sensibly. This business of having to have a "thick skin" is ridiculous- an open mind with common sense is a much better pre-requisite. If, however, "you can't take a punch, don't enter the ring" because if you become devastated, discouraged, angry or combative from any negative review, competitions are not a healthy activity for you. Yes, there will be unfair, uneducated and downright stupid judgments from time to time but in the long run, there will be fairer, reasonable and constructive reviews most of the time.

I am certainly NOT the foremost authority or expert on competitions. I do, however, have a long experience with them as a contestant and judge. In 1958, as an after-school part-time "slave" in a photo studio- janitor and passport-photo expert, and darkroom assistant, I learned my trade through critiques from the boss and all the senior photographers. They insisted that I shoot and enter my prints into pro competitions and attended as many open judgings as I could. I learned to take my knocks and accolades early in life. As a kid, it was fun and games but it retrospect, it was one hell of a learning experience.

Some 62 years later, I still have many critics. I still enter the occasional competition, but that's the tip of the iceberg. Among my OTHER critics are all the clients, art directors, editors, my lovely wife, my kids and grandkids, my in-laws- and it seems the janitor in the building where I have my studio has a keen eye for composition (really- no kidding) and if only our cat could speak! And... if only the criticisms would be confined to my photography. As Rodney Dangerfield used to say, "I get no respect"...well sometimes!

I have never entered a camera club competition but I have been called upon to judge several of them. I do have quite a bit of experience as a competitor and judge in professional print competitions. So...I hope I can help you out here.

I am not one for accolades and trophies, although they look nice on the showroom wall at my studio- good PR. My main motivation to enter these contests was to get the critiques from good, knowledgeable, informative and fair judges- many well-know masters in their specialties. Theses competition served me well in their educational value.

In professional competition, judges go through a training process and learn the basic criteria in analyzing, assessing, scoring, and adjudicating on the entries. Of, course their own experience, tastes, methodologies, and philosophies are in the mix but there needs to be, at least, basic underlying structure and language to communicate their opinions by which the entrants can benefit. Just saying that they like or dislike an image is grossly insufficient for educational purposes. In an OPEN JUDGING, where the contestants and others can observe the judging everyone present can learn why the image is successful or not and if there are issues that can be remedied or corrected, that information is extremely valuable. Obviously, the spectators can not argue, comment or solicit explanation from the judges- now and then there is a round of applause or the odd "boo", but that is discouraged!

Oftentimes there is a pane of 4 or more judges and a chairperson. As you mention the can be differenced of opinion within a panel but usually, there is a consensus. If thereis a vast difference in scoring a challenge is called the lowest scoring judge has to justify his or her assessment and the other has to give their positive input. Sometimes thereis a compromise or raise in the score and sometimes the low score prevails. The final score is an average of all the scores. Observing these challenges is also extremely educational.

Nothing is perfect and sometimes, rarely, there is an unfair judge or someone who is prejudicial to his own style and can not be objective. A fair judge will recuse him or herself if the submission is beyond their understanding of the style, milieu or specialized category.

Some of the major aspects that are in the criteria are technical basics such as exposure, range, basic print quality, lighting (as in-studio or setup lighting or use of natural or existing light, unity or purposeful disunity of lighting, color usage, and harmony, composition, key and mood, uniqueness and originality, subject treatment, and finished presentation and physical craftsmanship- things like mounting, surface treatment, cleanliness and lack of mars or defects. Then thereis viewer impact, storytelling qualities, and of course, a major issue, does the visual attention go to the main subject or the motif of the image. So...beig a good judge is an art and a science and being a good communicator. Hopefully, above all, knowing what you are talking about!

Being a good competitor is also an art and a science. After a while, you will develop certain instincts as to who knows what they are looking at and talking about- you'll be able to separate the bull-shooters form the pros! So...you won't become upset what someone feeds you unjustified negative criticism. When the criticism is negative but constructive and thereis logic in the critique, there is no reason to become upset and also remember that even the words of a grandmaster are not carved in stone. If there a consensus among judges in a panel, I usually assume the assessment is accurate. I usually advise disgruntled, aggravated, frustrated and disappointed competitors to simply take the critique under advisement, consider it a lesson, go home and try out the advice and "ill bet you will do better next time.

ALSO IMPORTANT: Never accept or tolerate an overly-harsh or mean-spirited critique. If you hear any "judge" say "garbage, scrap, junk, etc", about anybody's work, pick up your prints a go home. As a print judge, I have seen some pretty rough stuff but I have to consider that somebody made that, took the time to submit it, and deserves good information as to how to improve. If the still get "mad" at me, I can't help that but, at least I know I was fair and attempted to be constructive. Consider also that a judge who gives "attaboy and attagirl" critiques to everyone, just to make them feel good is actually doing a disservice to the contestants.

My advice, if you lie to engage in competitions, fine the useful and educations, DON"T give up the ship and continue. I hope the professionals that are called in to judge do not have inflated egos and talk down or look down at amateurs, hobbyists and enthusiasts. In my experience at camera clubs, I have found some fine talent and sadly, have encountered some of that aforementioned rough-stuff form supposed pros.

Problem is, competitions can be very educational, but they aren't direct mentoring! I realize that it can be frustrating when you can't find out exactly why and how somebody assessed your work. Now and again one of my amateurs, friends will drop int my shop and ask me why I scored some of their work the way I did and the do tell me what they tried to do or express. If thereis a professional in your area that is willing to do that or who offers classes, those are the best mentoring opportunities. Always ask someone who's work you respect.

I hope this helps! Good luck and Happy New Year.

I have belonged to a camera club for the past 12 years. I always enter images on our competition
meeting. Judges constantly contradict themselves. I am so fed up with their interpretation of what a photo should be that I will no longer enter my images in competition. Have any others had or has the same complaint?

I think the judges or so called professionals should let the photographer have a minute to explain what they were trying to do with their photo. I realize that photography is subjective.