Just what are the instructions to judges, anyway?

In case you were wondering, here are the instructions given to judges to aid them in judging RA Photo Club competitions.

Scores should follow these guidelines

1, 2 and 3 should be rarely used. When assigning a score to an image, remember that one of the objectives of competition is to encourage the members who are competing and not to discourage their efforts. The score of an average image should be 6 or 7 out of 10.

There must be no discussion or comments made until all three judges have entered their scores.

During the scoring, judges will be informed immediately when there is a difference of 4, or more, points in any score. The Competitions Committee Chair will interrupt the scoring and ask the three judges to discuss the image among themselves, and to re-score the image. Scoring of the other images will then resume.

Advice to Judges

Respect for Photographers
If comments are to be made as part of the evaluation, those should be kept to a minimum, but in all cases these must be constructive. Many of you have had the experience of having your images criticized in a clumsy or insensitive manner. How did that make you feel? Whether the photograph is a less than excellent image by a very experienced photographer, or an attempt by a beginner, respect their efforts and try to understand and appreciate what they are trying to say.

Bias avoidance
Your personal feelings should not be part of your point scoring nor comments. It is not helpful to the photographer that you like the colour blue, hate spiders, don’t see the point of abstracts or are offended by nudes.

Do not be too rigorous in applying the “rules.” No ultimate authority dictated that moving objects must always have room in front of them in the frame, noses must never break the cheek line, eyes must always have a catch light and the horizon must never, never be dead centre. Use them as guidelines; remember, where would creativity be if everyone stayed within restrictive boundaries?

Educate
Call upon your experience and pass it on. Suggest a polarizer (or not), a tripod, fill flash, a reflector, colour correcting filter, cropping and so on where it might help the photographer produce a better image next time.

Encourage
Your enthusiasm and encouragement mean a lot. Spread it around. You don’t have to praise to heaven for every image you see; but they all have some strengths or good points, and commenting on them will encourage the photographer and keep the session positive.

As competitors in photo contests, we generally feel one of two ways about judges – depending on how our entries do in competition.

To be fair, judging is a tough job, one that requires a significant commitment of time and energy. So, thanks to the judges whose contributions allow us to hold monthly competitions.

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