Judging for Competitions

A Message from Dick Hunt
Competition Chair Emeritus

On the matter of judging…

1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this discussion is to provide potential judges with guidance and suggestions on how to become effective PFLI competition judges. If an image could be measured with a ruler, then every image would receive the same score regardless of who was the judge. That is impossible. The only thing judges can agree on is if the image is out of focus or overexposed. Subject Matter, Composition, and Lighting can be subjective and influenced to a certain extent by a judges’ built-in biases and personal preferences. The challenge to being an effective judge is to eliminate those biases and personal preferences and to be as consistent and objective as possible.

2. WHY DO WE HAVE JUDGING IN THE FIRST PLACE?

First to provide meaningful feedback for improvement. To simply announce a score without any comment on why you selected that score would be useless. Secondly to reward outstanding work with a numerical score.

3. SCORING

The recommended scoring at the club level is from 6 to 9 in 1/2 points. In other words, that would be something like this...

6.0 ........poor

6.5 ........fair

7.0 ........below average

7.5 ........average

8.0 ........above average

8.5 ........very good

9.0 ........excellent

Over the past three years, covering 8,000+ images, the average score at PFLI has been 22.3, in effect a 7.5. It should also be mentioned that over those 8,000+ images, only 53 have scored a perfect 27. That is 2/3 of 1% of all the images in competition.

Which brings me to a true story. Several years ago, I was at my usual job of shuffling prints in and out of the print box. I always look at the club scores, and one slate of 5 BW “B” prints stood out. At the club level, they scored 8, 9, 9, 9, 9 (print of the month). At the PFLI, they scored 20, 20, 20, 20, 21.

That judge did these makers no favors by awarding what clearly were fictitious scores at the club competition. Worse yet, the makers now probably hated the PFLI. He may have been looking to get invited back again. There was a club that once kept a list of the number of 9’s each judge awarded as to who THEY would invite back. But if everyone gets a 9, then, in fact, no one got a 9, and no one was learning anything.

Personally, my criteria for awarding a 9 is I believe the image has a chance, not a guarantee, but a chance, for a 25, 26 or 27 at PFLI.

4. SCORING METHODS

There are basically two scoring methods: the technical approach and the holistic approach.

A. The technical approach.

Every image is assumed an average score to start. The judge then looks at the Focus and Exposure, Subject Matter, Composition, and Lighting and decides if points should be added or subtracted for each item. If there is nothing compellingly good or bad, then the image remains average. It is systematic and consistent, and recommended for most images.

B. The holistic approach.

The image is evaluated on its overall impact. It is particularly useful with images that have a strong emotional appeal, as in photojournalism or action. Images where the power of the story more than overrides any minor technical faults.

5. DO’s and DON’TS WHEN EVALUATING AN IMAGE

A. DO NOT add extraneous comments such as “I am not a lover of cats (or whatever.)” If you announce you don’t like cats and then give a cat a 7, the maker will assume that were it not for your comment; the image would have received a 9.

B. DO NOT say, “Oh, another Blue Jay”. A judge must avoid the impression that you have seen this subject a hundred times before and therefore are not interested in seeing it again. In fact, there will rarely, if ever, be a subject that you have not seen a hundred times before. Make-believe it is the first time and evaluate it accordingly. Remember, for a B worker; it may well BE the first time he or she shot that subject.

C. DO NOT say, “that sky was obviously Photoshopped”. First of all, it does not matter provided it was legally done. Second, you may be wrong. The image may have been the result of 2 hours’ worth of waiting, and you will lose all credibility.

D. DO NOT say “not bad for a “B” worker.” A judge should disparage B workers when critiquing their work but not to the extent of awarding points they do not deserve. Awarding high scores solely because the worker is a “B” is a sure way to make sure the worker stays a “B.”

E. DO NOT automatically deduct if a maker broke a composition “rule.” The question you must first ask is, “does the broken rule hurt or help the image?” and then score accordingly.

F. ABOVE ALL stay consistent. Make sure images of equal value receive equal scores. In addition, be aware that you may subconsciously be influenced by the sequence of images in a competition. After a series of poor images one after another, a judge may tend to elevate a simply good image higher than it deserves. Conversely, after awarding 3 or 4 high scores in a row, a judge may overly penalize an image for a minor technical flaw. The stack is random. The next image has nothing to do with the previous one.

6. SPECIAL SITUATIONS

These competitions are a special case. I have seen judges torture themselves trying to rationalize an image that clearly does not meet the theme. If it does not, it should simply be disqualified. To do otherwise would be unfair to all the makers that did.

Another special category is Abstracts and Creatives. Some are carefully planned, and some are a simple click of the Twirl command in Photoshop. There are no technical criteria on which to measure them. As a judge, you usually either love them or hate them or do not care. You must score them according to your own taste, recognizing that the scores from other judges may be wildly different. The makers must recognize this fact as well.

7. FINAL TIP

I try to connect images during a competition. If I comment that the lighting on a particular flower is harsh because it is in bright sunlight and later on come across a perfectly lit flower because the maker used a shade, I will say, “remember that flower a few minutes ago...this is what I was talking about”.

It can be very effective.

Dick Hunt 9/1/2021