Purpose

The primary purpose of the competition, besides competing for ribbons is the educational benefit of the critique. We ask that your comments be centered on what is good about the image, be both constructive and instructive on how to improve the image and above all respectful.

Remember many of those entering the competition do so for the first time, are insecure about their photographic skills and extremely anxious about having their image discussed in public.

While the scores and titles are be announced for all images, only those images that receive a score of 80 or above, thus a ribbon, will have the photographer’s name announced.

It is a given that each of you bring with you your personal bias on what constitutes a quality image. We respect that and ask that you apply commonly held photographic standards to the images you are about to judge. You will be judging images in three categories – Slides, Color Prints , and Monochrome Prints.

Criteria:
At a minimum please apply the following criteria to each image and then add your own criteria as you see fit.

Theme: 
The themes for each competition will either be Open (any subject, any time period) or a specified Subject i.e. doors, vintage autos, scenic, etc. (these images must have been taken within the past 24 months and represent the topic). If an image does not relate to the topic it should not be judged. The photographer will be asked to withdraw the image and enter it in a more appropriate competition, perhaps, an Open. Otherwise, rate the image on how well it meets the theme.

Composition:
 While there are many facets to composition please consider some of the following:

Rule of Thirds (power points)
Exposure
Color and Tones
Foreground and Background
Focus - Is the subject clearly identified or lost in the image?
Perspective

Impact:
Is the image a record shot? Or, does it knock you off your feet? Is it technically great? Does it get away with breaking the rules? Is there some aspect if the image that stands out/gets your attention?

Technique:
Consider the following:
Was the subject exposed properly?
Was it a difficult image to get?
Was the lighting appropriate?

Scoring:
You are asked to rate each image on a scale of 70 to 100 on the dry erase board. The rating scale below is available on the dry erase board as a guide. Your composite score will be averaged with the other judge’s score. If there is a 10 point difference between your scores, we will ask you both to rescore the image.

Rating scale:
70-79 is an image acceptable for competition but needs considerable improvement - No Ribbon
80- 84 is a good image that needs some improvement – White Ribbon
85-94 is an excellent image that has little room for improvement – Red Ribbon
95-100 is a superior image that needs no improvement – Blue Ribbon

Best of Category
This is the image with the highest score in the respective category – Purple Ribbon.  If there is a tie score, the judges must select the better image and increase the winning image average score by one point.                                                                                            

Thank You for giving your valuable time and expertise to one of the single most important educational activities at the Orlando Camera Club!

KB - August 2, 2006