How do you decide

which photo to vote for?

In order for me to vote for a photo it has to speak to me in some way...I have to feel something about or for the subject even if it is just that I find it interesting. The photo has to be well done as well which means it's in focus and the exposure is well done. If there are two photos equally well done and equally speak to me and one is color and one is black and white I will probably vote for the black and white just because I love B&W photos.

What about you? What makes you click on a vote for a photo?

The picture has to speak to me. There has to be a visceral response. I tend to vote for the color pictures since they are more life-like to me.

Good exposure and in focus (unless it's a macro) are a must.

:hi:

part that doesn't appeal as much to me. ;-)

I don't know I just find black and white photos speak to me more most of the time. Maybe because I spent so much time in the dark room developing and printing. Every time I watched a photo in the developer it felt like magic....I knew it was a chemical reaction but still, it was so magic to put a piece of photo paper in the developer and watch the print appear. I miss the smell of chemicals...LOL, or maybe I inhaled too many of those chemicals.

Good to see you! :toast:

I was always lousy in the darkroom, lol!

Although I did enjoy seeing the print appear...

Now it can be told: I would take my undeveloped film into a lab that did film processing and have them do it. They even told me the temperature and the chemicals used so I could report those as though I'd done the work myself...

I know, I know...bad bad Peggy!

:P

Hey, whatever works.

I fell in love the first time I was in the darkroom....with the darkroom. I spent two days and a total of 14 hours one time on one photo. LOL Dodge and burn, throw it out and try again. It was really ridiculous but I did win an award for the photo in the college art contest. I think it was more for the title of the photo than the photo though. :-)

back in the Dark Ages, but I can still remember exactly how those chemicals smelled. He did some really wonderful work back then (early '50s).

Some examples that I posted here a while back but before you joined our group, I think:

My brothers, circa 1948 or so... (This doesn't quite capture the ominous feel of the approaching storm which was in the original shot, but it was badly cracked and needed quite a bit of restoration.)


Little Blue_in_AK, probably around 1950


My brother Marvin


My brother Kenny

Thanks for sharing.

All of the local colleges require darkroom work in the photography classes unless they are strictly designated as digital photography classes.

If a photo calls me back to look a second time, that's usually the one. If it's a close call, as is the case in most of our contests, I use the following criteria.

1. Does it fit the contest parameters?
2. Quality – is it in focus? Is it carefully planned and framed or just a lucky snap (not that there is anything wrong with that – being in the right place at the right time is half the battle)?
3. Is it inventive?
4. Is it over or under processed? Sometimes a good shot could become a great shot with just a little more or less of this or that. By the same token, too much of this or that can destroy an otherwise good shot.
5. And in the end, it's just subjective – do I like the shot?

especially about the photos that call me back to see them again and again.

For me it is always the shot that speaks to my emotion first and my visual appreciation second.
When it's a neck snapping moment, then the vote is cast.

the processing. If a photo is over-saturated I won't vote for it. The photo shouldn't be so over or under processed that it doesn't look 'real'.

Alot goes into it, however composition is probably my greatest determining factor. There's nothing that bothers me more than an incorrectly cropped or framed image, especially when dealing with any type of symmetry in the subject...

Followed by the technical aspects, focus, exposure, etc.

I do not vote in the contests. I don't think it is right for anyone who is active in the photo group to vote in the contests.

If it is really a contest, it should be blind.

Get yer popcorn, and fire at will.

edited to add one thought and take out another

I'm too new here (2 1/2 years and have not learned much) to say you are wrong.

But I do not think the General Population of GD comes and checks whose photo is whose. The high count of clicks is us checking on how we're doing...
If we vote for our own photo, that's only one vote and does not a contest make.

Once I witnessed, and immediately called the person on it in that forum and in ours, that someone went to another forum, disclosed their photo and asked that favorite forum of theirs for votes. I kept an eye on it, it did not work out well for the person.

I have, a time or two, voted for the photo of a person I don't like so much, if I was "forced" because it was good.
I have never NOT voted for them because I don't like them so much.

I have though
new subject
thought at times how much fun it would be to have a contest just among us on some subject. One that is blind.
I guess a person would host it, the submissions would be emailed to the host, then the contest goes up and only the host knows.

The drawback to that is that I think I could tell who took the photo more than half the time.
I've been here long enough for that.

:rofl:

Now, WJMS, I guess this is the moment I ask you to go and vote for what YOU like best in each thread.
Other than that we could proceed to discuss your unhappiness with the system.

we have, I don't think there is anything we can do about it. And I don't mean to be a debbie downer to people who are enjoying it. by all means, go ahead, have fun

who entered what. I look at the submission thread but I never remember whose photo is whose. I just vote for the photo, not the person.

Miss Short Attention Span of 2011 here can't remember who took what by the time it gets to GD. Subject matter will sometimes give it away – Alaska = BlueinAK – but other than obvious things like that, I see the photo not the photographer.

It makes it easy to be impartial if I don't know who submitted the photo! I'm a bit oblivious to all that.

Sometimes I will look at the number of votes and vote for one that I like that I feel that is getting too few votes.

There is nothing wrong with voting for yourself, or even for your competition. It is just a fun contest, after all. I do try to refrain from commenting on other people's work until after the competition to limit my own self interest, however. Great submissions this time, btw. Some surprises in the voting.:)

And yeah, some of that is sour grapes. :P

and there have definitely been times when I was shocked at one photo or another getting a surprising attention or lack of it after we send them out to "them":
But as a general rule, after the three preliminaries are done, and the finals appear - they usually somehow ARE the creme de la creme of that go-around.

I marvel at times how "they" pick 'em so well.
And I think the answers lie hidden in the responses we ourselves gave to the OP.

(None of what I say extends to my own participation, because I can't be impartial to my own stuff, I was there when it happened and chose to submit it :rofl:)

and I think the more technical aspects of composition and exposure, etc., contribute to that. I notice with my own pictures that I can get a completely different attitude about a shot depending on how I crop it. It's ridiculous the amount of time I spend shaving a half inch off here or a 16th off there. Most people probably wouldn't even notice, but I'm kind of anal that way.

function in Photoshop so I can hit undo and then try something else until I'm finally happy.

I've only entered one photo in these contests that I knew wasn't a good photo...I entered it because it was a subject of a political nature (not that most people knew that.) Not many people have the experience of going down into an abandoned nuclear silo and it was a very memorable experience but it didn't make for good photos.

I vote every time I see you all's wonderful pictures.

I usually read the first bit of words until I see the subject/theme. Then, I go get a beer/coffee depending on time of day. Then, I just look.

Usually, there are 2-3 in each preliminary that absolutely make me look for a long while. Well, some just -slap- me and I can just see the scene. The latter isn't quite as common.

I look, look, and look then vote, kick and go to next set :D

I really just love looking. :D

:toast:

Oh by the way, it is funny you asked this very question. I'm no pro but I take some pics and am quite happy with some of 'em. I may be taking a picture of the oddest subject, but usually save to computer so I can see it big lol. Well, I was culling a folder from a few years ago with 7-8mb pics in it earlier today (lol, I learned a smaller setting since). I thought to myself as I was doing it.. -why do I like this one?-

Natch, I never really answered it, but I did notice that several of the "saves" followed the "rule of thirds" to some extent. I learned about that here in this very forum when asking how to -take- pictures better. Guess it works both ways ;)

But you do, by looking, appreciating and voting.

That was a thoughtful answer.

Especially in landscapes, I think the rule of thirds just plain works aesthetically.

from a professional photographer for taking better pictures that I've seen is 'get closer'.

was executed.

Fairly emotional response. Subjective.