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Photo Contest How do photo contests work?/ Photo of the month = POM?)

dirk

DPRF-Founder
Administrator
This is just an example how we could describe a challenge/photo contest. This is how it works on another big site (adapted for our needs) successfully for years.
Shall we call it challenge or photo contest or photo of the month?

How does it work?

  1. From the 10th to the 15th of the current month you'll be able to submit the best photo you have
  2. Starting on the 16th of this month photo submissions will no longer be accepted.
  3. Voting will be done in the form of "reactions" or "likes". Click the "like" button in the lower right of each image to cast your vote. You can vote for as many photos as you'd like, and you can also change your votes as well). Voting will be hidden until the contest is over.
  4. Voting will end on the very last day of the month at 12 AM midnight (UST+1). Any votes that come in after 12 AM (UST+1) will not be counted.

Submission Rules
  1. Only one photo submission per member.
  2. If you win the DPRF photo contest you are not eligible to enter the next 2 challenges.
  3. In order to compete in this contest you must have made at least 20 meaningful postings in the forum
  4. Do not submit photos taken with your phone using portrait mode (up and down).
  5. Photo editing is only allowed when it's done to clean up or enhance the photo.
  6. Forum staff may not enter this contest.


Why can't I submit a picture to the contest?
In order to participate in this contest you either need at least 20 forum posts or you need to be a supporting member. I've done this as a means of offering users one more reason to upgrade (and thus support the forum).


Why can't I vote?
In order to vote you either need at least 20 forum posts or you need to be a supporting member. This is done to cut down on forum users who might attempt to create dummy accounts just to vote for their own photo.


What do I get if I win?
The winner will receive the following:

  • (maybe in the future we will have prices)

If I win, then what happens?
I will reach out to you via a PM and send you all details

Disclaimer
I reserve the right to remove any photo submission as I see fit. Also, this is my contest run using partially my money. Please keep that in mind before airing your grievances publicly.
 
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I looked at the test contest tread. I think the authors names should not be displayed.
Yes, I would also like to hide them. Same for the names who gave a like to a photo. But unfortunately this is not possible with that plugin.
 
So this might not work. Might create some unnecessary animosity between participants and voters.

I know, that is a risk. This is why I looked for examples sites and this seems to work on big forums nevertheless. Maybe the fact that after you won once, you are excluded the next time helps to reduce this risk too. On the other forum, you are not allowed to particpate in a challenge for the next 12 months, if you won.
 
Yes, I would also like to hide them. Same for the names who gave a like to a photo. But unfortunately this is not possible with that plugin.
This is not a critical point. Especially when you consider that all the participants of the challenge are in this forum.
 
Rule 5
Hi Dirk,
When I read your posting announcing this feature I thought Rule 5 was a bit tricky.
For a start no two photographers are going to agree what is justifyable photo editing.
But I found my thoughts repeatedly drifting back to this topic (I know - "get a life!") to the point where I wanted to give people my finest thoughts - even if they don't want them.
1. Photography is, to my mind, a game of two halves - separated by the shutter firing. In the first half the photographer is selecting the scene, the lighting, the composition etc along with the technicalities e.g. shutter speed, aperture, ISO, various options from the menus to get as close as they can to what they want to achieve. The second half is the post-processing in which the photographer is working to make the image as close as possible to their original intention. And I would suggest that the more time and care they take before firing the shutter, the more time and effort they take afterwards. And vica versa. Using makeup to hide the pimple on a model's nose before taking the shot or cloning it out afterwards - no difference.
2. Post-processing has always been an essential part of photography. In the past it was dodging & burning, paper charcteristics, developer characteristics and so on. Today it's "photoshopping". Darkroom/Lightroom - both the same. Some of the great photographers' photos would have looked positively pedestrian "straight out of camera". Ansel Adams clearly worked tremendously hard setting up his shots but a lot of the magic in his prints derives from his mastery in the darkroom.
3. Today's cameras also contain loads of ways of "cheating" before the event to get that special result. In the good old days when an action photo that captured the perfect moment was down to the skill of the photographer not the 20fps high speed shutter burst and all but bottomless buffer depth. And no one is going tell you that the brilliant photo capturing that magic moment they sent you is one of dozens and dozens that didn't.
4. On the whole, no amount of photoshopping will turn a mediocre photo into a competition-winning one. Your mangy moggie on a mat isn't going to be transformed by a beautiful sunset pasted in.
I could go on but probably shouldn't.
My basic point is that creating any photo (especially one offered for public viewing and criticism) should represent the photographer's best efforts before and after firing the shutter to achieve what they want the image to say. And I would hope that, in a forum like this, members won't want to submit images that basically are photoshopfiddles (new word?).
The line between pre- and post- image manipulation has always been blurred and it can only get worse with photo AI etc. Like painting and other art, photos should be judged by the end result and not the process.
Just saying.
 
When I read your posting announcing this feature I thought Rule 5 was a bit tricky.

Please bear in mind, that my text above with the rules was copied from another site. I posted it here, so we can discus it. It does not mean that we have to take the exact same rules.

It is easier to start with a proposal and then adapt to our needs than to start at zero.

I would like to have only a few rules. If there are too many, nobody wants to participate. The same if the rules are too complicated.

In my view, we can delete the #5 completely (photo editing), if the majority agrees to that.

Nothing is set in stone. I am sure, after we made some chellenges, we get a better feeling for what is needed and will adapt even more.

I will search also for the dpreview rules. I do not know them at all.
 
On DP Review host sets the rules like start and end date for submission, start and end date for the voting, processing rules, subject of the challenge capture dates, maximum entries. And of course images are subject to the general rules of the site.
 
On DP Review host sets the rules like start and end date for submission, start and end date for the voting, processing rules, subject of the challenge capture dates, maximum entries. And of course images are subject to the general rules of the site.

So every challenge has different rules?
 
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