I'm entering a youth photography competition at the New York State Fair this year and I'm not sure which two pictures to enter. It's my 3rd year doing it, last year I was an honorable mention and had my picture on display in the art building. I picked my favorite pictures from this year, so would you help me narrow it down to 2?
Here's a link to where you can see them..
www.photobucket.com/nyfair11
@savenrg Nick,
You show that you are thinking by having a variety of subjets/approaches. I have had many pictures judged over many years andI will pass on what I heard one judge say: If I see a photograph that is something that I haven't thought of (subject, method, genre, composition etc.) it catches my interest." You (obviously) need to make your photographs stand out and can do that by taking a subject and looking at it from a different perspective. For this reason my choices are:
#4. Despite the fact that this isa popular subject this "drop" is different than #3 (which is very "typical"). The composition is very good, giving both the splash and its reflection.
#10 I like this because it is B&W. I might crop it differently.
I liked #8 except for the following: The left glove almost too close to the edge of the frame and can give the impression that the composition was accidental rather than planned. I find the black shadow to the left is too dark and as a result it makes the left glove look too abstract and difficult to identify what it is. despite the fact that we know that the right glove is a boxing glove and can then assume the left is one also. Does that make sense? I would try a little fill light to seperate the glove from the background. You could also change the frame to portrait instead of landscape, follow the rule of thirds (which you have used in some of your other photos. These are all things that I would consider if I were taking the photoghraph. I always shoot a subject with different formats, composition etc. I realize that you may have done this so please ignore my remarks with regard to that.
I like #12. I would shoot it with a greater depth of field to try and get the entire length in focus. Again, you may have done that too.
I hope something I have said has been useful. I mention these things in case you haven't thought of them and they are not an assumption of your lack of skills. I feel it is better to have someone tell me something I already know than to remain silent, it could be dangerous. "That car ahead of you is stopping!!!" (Usually screamed when you are 4' from it.)
@jtokay Thanks for your explanation. We can all learn something here :-)
I believe it was just the abstraction level in #8 which made it stand out a little for me. I'm not a judge thou!
@mastermek Good eye. I can see what you were thinking of and you are right. One thing about someone judging your pho tographs is that we all can see something different and all opinions are valid but may be contrary to what we intended people to see. A lot of my photos were judged by newspaper photographers. One of them looked at the photos with an eye as to how they would look on the front page. A colleague of his also judged some of my photographs and was able to look at them with an eye toward the artistic end of the spectrum. I have worked with the former on a number of occasions and he was pleased to see that I had learned a lot from him that I used in my photography as well as in judging. I find that someone's opion is just their opinion although often it is based in mores or customs and therefore have value that can be gleaned from them. I appreciated your reply. Responses like that keep me honest.
@jtokay Thank you for taking the time to write that! It helped a lot. I've always wondered what exactly they look for when picking the pictures to put on display.
And thank you to everyone else! I'm going to figure out what one everyone (on here and other sites) liked most and I'll go from there. Thanks again for the help!
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You show that you are thinking by having a variety of subjets/approaches. I have had many pictures judged over many years andI will pass on what I heard one judge say: If I see a photograph that is something that I haven't thought of (subject, method, genre, composition etc.) it catches my interest." You (obviously) need to make your photographs stand out and can do that by taking a subject and looking at it from a different perspective. For this reason my choices are:
#4. Despite the fact that this isa popular subject this "drop" is different than #3 (which is very "typical"). The composition is very good, giving both the splash and its reflection.
#10 I like this because it is B&W. I might crop it differently.
I liked #8 except for the following: The left glove almost too close to the edge of the frame and can give the impression that the composition was accidental rather than planned. I find the black shadow to the left is too dark and as a result it makes the left glove look too abstract and difficult to identify what it is. despite the fact that we know that the right glove is a boxing glove and can then assume the left is one also. Does that make sense? I would try a little fill light to seperate the glove from the background. You could also change the frame to portrait instead of landscape, follow the rule of thirds (which you have used in some of your other photos. These are all things that I would consider if I were taking the photoghraph. I always shoot a subject with different formats, composition etc. I realize that you may have done this so please ignore my remarks with regard to that.
I like #12. I would shoot it with a greater depth of field to try and get the entire length in focus. Again, you may have done that too.
I hope something I have said has been useful. I mention these things in case you haven't thought of them and they are not an assumption of your lack of skills. I feel it is better to have someone tell me something I already know than to remain silent, it could be dangerous. "That car ahead of you is stopping!!!" (Usually screamed when you are 4' from it.)
I believe it was just the abstraction level in #8 which made it stand out a little for me. I'm not a judge thou!
And thank you to everyone else! I'm going to figure out what one everyone (on here and other sites) liked most and I'll go from there. Thanks again for the help!