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Challenges are a joke

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EquusStorm

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I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
 
EquusStorm said:
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
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I thought precisely that when I entered one (and only one) of these so-called challenges.

I got the feeling that it was just a clique, to which I wasn't invited and that the "winner," if you can call him/her that, would be selected by the number of cronies he/she sucked up to.

The quality, or to be more accurate, the lack of it, of the images was secondary and of no great consequence.


"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"
 
First off, i have seen many fantastic shots posted here as winners of challenges. So whenever I see anybody bashing on any of the photos posted here on Dpreview, I always have to take a look at that persons work. Sometimes I'm really impressed... While other times I'm thinking, wait, what ? And they were talking garbage ? 😃 lol

I haven't seen your work yet, but now I certainly want too...

Now, from a more personal perspective, I have never been able to follow a crowd, and try to do what they are all doing. If the challenge is on moving water, I'm liable to create the best forest and trees shot one has ever seen ! Then, next week, when the challenge is for rock formations, I'm liable to take the best ever waterfall of all time 😃

True story, as a child, the teachers would tell my parents, Christopher is very bright child.... If only we could get him to pay attention to whatever the rest of the class is supposed to be doing 😃 ......that was more than 40 years ago of course, before the term ADHD had even been coined 😃 lol
EquusStorm said:
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
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It stands to reason that people would vote for friends and good acquaintances here on the Forum sooner than they would strangers....

But I reiterate, I have actually seen many very nice winners of challenges here on dpreview.....
Jestertheclown said:
EquusStorm said:
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
Click to expand...
I thought precisely that when I entered one (and only one) of these so-called challenges.

I got the feeling that it was just a clique, to which I wasn't invited and that the "winner," if you can call him/her that, would be selected by the number of cronies he/she sucked up to.

The quality, or to be more accurate, the lack of it, of the images was secondary and of no great consequence.

"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"
Click to expand...
 
Fishchris said:
It stands to reason that people would vote for friends and good acquaintances here on the Forum sooner than they would strangers....
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Hardly qualifies as a challenge then, does it?

Sucking up to your sycophantic mates doesn't qualify anyone to consider themselves to have won anything, other than an ego-boosting contest.

But I reiterate said:
Chris Wolfgram said:
EquusStorm, post: 57504330, member: 1594180"]
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
Click to expand...
I thought precisely that when I entered one (and only one) of these so-called challenges.

I got the feeling that it was just a clique, to which I wasn't invited and that the "winner," if you can call him/her that, would be selected by the number of cronies he/she sucked up to.

The quality, or to be more accurate, the lack of it, of the images was secondary and of no great consequence.

"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"
Click to expand...
 
Jestertheclown said:
Fishchris said:
It stands to reason that people would vote for friends and good acquaintances Heres on the Forum sooner than they would strangers....
Click to expand...
Hardly qualifies as a challenge then, does it?

Sucking up to your sycophantic mates doesn't qualify anyone to consider themselves to have won anything, other than an ego-boosting contest
Click to expand...
Point taken. I suppose the only way to make it completely fair, would be to appoint a panel of judges with little to no bias..... Buy I'm not sure how that would accommodations ?
Jestertheclown said:
But I reiterate said:
Jestertheclown said:
EquusStorm, post: 57504384, member: 1082224"]
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
Click to expand...
I thought precisely that when I entered one (and only one) of these so-called challenges.

I got the feeling that it was just a clique, to which I wasn't invited and that the "winner," if you can call him/her that, would be selected by the number of cronies he/she sucked up to.

The quality, or to be more accurate, the lack of it, of the images was secondary and of no great consequence.

"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Fishchris said:
Jestertheclown said:
Fishchris said:
It stands to reason that people would vote for friends and good acquaintances Heres on the Forum sooner than they would strangers....
Click to expand...
Hardly qualifies as a challenge then, does it?

Sucking up to your sycophantic mates doesn't qualify anyone to consider themselves to have won anything, other than an ego-boosting contest
Click to expand...
Point taken. I suppose the only way to make it completely fair, would be to appoint a panel of judges with little to no bias..... Buy I'm not sure how that would accommodations ?
Click to expand...
There is no way to make it fair.

Every site that offers its users the option to select winners, post votes or likes, or in some way fawn over other people's work is and always will be, blighted by people who simply abuse the system; generating artificial praise where none, or very little is warranted.

Usually with a view to having that same artificial praise heaped upon their own worthless offerings.

Some, even most, people's desire to boost their flagging egos will always outstrip their ability to offer, or receive, genuine, worthwhile critique.
Chris Wolfgram said:
Chris Wolfgram said:
But I reiterate said:
Chris Wolfgram said:
EquusStorm, post: 57504436, member: 1594180"]
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
Click to expand...
I thought precisely that when I entered one (and only one) of these so-called challenges.

I got the feeling that it was just a clique, to which I wasn't invited and that the "winner," if you can call him/her that, would be selected by the number of cronies he/she sucked up to.

The quality, or to be more accurate, the lack of it, of the images was secondary and of no great consequence.

"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
EquusStorm said:
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
Click to expand...
Agreed,

My one and only entry was to a challenge "Pet Photo" or maybe "Pet Portrait". I entered a cute pic of my daughter's poodle. The winner was a shot of a lion in a zoo!



27th out 29 as I recall.

Probably not a winner but closer than a lion in zoo shot with 400mm lens.

--
Bert
 

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When I first joined this site I entered a few challenges. I eventually concluded they weren't worth the effort. Challenges could be a learning tool to improve one's photography. But there's no constructive feedback, or for that matter, no significant feedback of any kind.

I scored in the top ten in one challenge. It was titled "My Worst Photo Ever".
 
Jestertheclown said:
Fishchris said:
It stands to reason that people would vote for friends and good acquaintances here on the Forum sooner than they would strangers....
Click to expand...
Hardly qualifies as a challenge then, does it?

Sucking up to your sycophantic mates doesn't qualify anyone to consider themselves to have won anything, other than an ego-boosting contest.
Jestertheclown said:
..
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Click to expand...
Challenge entries are anonymous, and soliciting votes is against the rules. However, some entrants cheat by either getting family members (etc) to vote to them, or simply having multiple DPR accounts. These entries are identifiable by a few very high scores with the other scores having a much lower average.
 
Thing is, it takes an eye to compose, and if you can't see it in others, maybe you can't see it in yours?

So, would like to post a link to a photo that you think doesn't deserve to win? And where your entry was clearly better? I thought not. Cause I'm gonna tell you, I thought the winner of this contest was way better than yours.

Loading…

www.dpreview.com

I think the winners are pretty amazing, kudos to them all. When I get beaten, it's always been because the other guy is better. Congratulations to them, we have some amazing photographers.
 
Sometimes there's cheats, sometimes they're rigged, and sometimes good photos win.
 
Martin.au said:
Sometimes there's cheats, sometimes they're rigged, and sometimes good photos win.
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I think that almost all the ways in which the contest could be rigged would be cheating ... There is quite a lot of cheating goes on, which is a shame for honest entrants.

Over a period of a year I entered about 40 challenges. I won once and mostly came in in the top half of the entries. I learnt that my photos weren't as good as I thought they were. I also learnt quite a bit about 'seeing' a photo (what was good, what not so), especially from voting in the challenges. And I developed my own taste in being able to make a comparison between my photo and the ones that had done better and asking whether I would have liked to have taken the better photo rather than my own.

The only thing about the winning entries that I don't particularly like is that they sometimes emphasize immediate attention grabbing over lasting effect (I hate the word 'pop'). But that is partly just me, and in the nature of such an internet contest. (Oh, and I don't like the cheating either.)
 
Many challenges are won by deserving entries. However, many challenges are suspect.

I've seen one where there were only 12 entries. One guy submitted two entries and won a first place for a trivial pic. Shrug!

What I look for is the discerning eye. An educated understanding of the media. A superior sense of aesthetics and technical mastery. Wow! Originality would be good too!
 
I have seen some really outstanding winners. On the other hand, I have seen some very ordinary winners.
 
Hen3ry said:
I have seen some really outstanding winners. On the other hand, I have seen some very ordinary winners.

--
Geoffrey Heard
Down and out in Rabaul in the South Pacific
http://rabaulpng.com/we-are-all-traveling-throug/i-waited-51-years-for-tavur.html
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Agree with Hen3ry. Those which appear 'rigged' are rather obvious as lack the overall quality on all levels. Good photos stand out. The question is what those not worth the winning title have actually achieved? There is no prize as such, one cannot really put them in the portfolio... challenges are good for people wanting to get better, to push themselves into doing things and not falling into laziness of becoming the keyboard warriors.
 
EquusStorm said:
I have concluded that the photo challenges on here are a joke. Some hint that they're rigged or that people cheat . . . one thing for sure, people are not voting with an eye to photographic skill, lighting, composition. As I look through many challenges and see what "wins" I am truly baffled. There seems to be no objectivity. Poorly framed snapshots get high votes . . . I thought the point was to learn how to take better photos. Those who cheat have ruined it for everybody.
Click to expand...
Almost as bad as people that come to DPR to comment once in 4 months just to ***** and moan I guess. Good community spirit that one. You would think there might be some positives they could make in 4 months in the forums or at least add a little.

Danny.

--
Birds, macro, motor sports.... http://www.birdsinaction.com
Flickr albums ..... https://www.flickr.com/photos/124733969@N06/sets/
The need for speed ..... https://www.flickr.com/photos/130646821@N03/
 
Last edited:
tko said:
Thing is, it takes an eye to compose, and if you can't see it in others, maybe you can't see it in yours?

So, would like to post a link to a photo that you think doesn't deserve to win? And where your entry was clearly better? I thought not. Cause I'm gonna tell you, I thought the winner of this contest was way better than yours.

http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Challenge.aspx?ID=9911&View=Results&Rows=4

I think the winners are pretty amazing, kudos to them all. When I get beaten, it's always been because the other guy is better. Congratulations to them, we have some amazing photographers.
Click to expand...
 
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