Assignment Discussion Thread

Hi all,

since we have reached the magical assignment number 50: Challenge Yourself I was thinking to myself how the assignments are working and how they could improve. I asked a few of the previous assignment winners for some feedback and I got some really good ideas. Thanks! The goal is to make the assignments more open and more interesting. And also I'd like to get people active instead of searching their library's.

One thing that really stood out in the reactions I got was the "lack of time". Normally I set 2 weeks for the entry-period which is too short for some of you. Therefor it's changed to an entire month. With the end of the month being the end of the entry-period. The voting will be happening in the first week of the next month.

A few other points are still open for debate such as:

• When does the next assignment start? Since I browse the forums categorically I only see one topic per category. If I'd start the next assignment the first day of the next month, the "current" assignment which is still in voting might not be noticed anymore. Another options is to announce the next assignment-idea as the voting starts. So you know what's going to be the assignment, but the actual assignment thread will not be there yet. That will give you a whole month of time. If I'd start the assigment after the voting is done, the actual time for the assignment will be one week less. That would be about 3 weeks normally.
• Following on announcing the next assignment idea is the idea to announce two assignments at the same time. One current assignment and one next assignment so basically at the start of an assignment you already know what the next assignment will be. Which gives you double time.
• At this point the winner of an assignment picks his/hers 3-5 favorites. With 3-5 favorites I'm able to add all of the favorites photos to the start-post. However in some cases there aren't as many players and some might be left out. With the current system I'm able to get up to 10 people in the poll. However I would not be adding each photo to the start post. What's your take on this?
• Do we still want an assignment with a final-poll? Are there alternatives?

Anyway these are a few things I can think off myself right now. I hope to get some more feedback and hopefully improve the assignments.

All feedback is welcome(even if you don't want me to host them anymore:rolleyes:)! If you like to send me an email of PM, that's fine as well.

The main goal of improvement on the assignments will be activity, fun and accessibility.

Thanks,
Jan

Just a quick thought from me Jan, you have obviously given this a lot of thought.
As well as an assignment thread you could start a "Photo" of the week thread that is a quick, high turn over thread and judged by someone each month, the winner from each week is then voted by Members to give us a photo of the month and then we could end up with a "photo" of the year. Other forums do things like this and you end up with a nice honour role of the best photos of the year and it is interesting because you could have a portrait beating a landscape for photo of the year.
I think this would increase the image content of the forum.

I miss the "What did you shoot from xxx to xxx" threads. They were replaced by the "post your best current picture" thread, but that thread doesn't seem to get the same traffic. A photo of the week thread may accomplish the same thing with the added friendly competition.....

Heck, Steve, why don't you just start that thread...I am in.....

As for the assignments, I really like giving a full month. I often wanted to shoot something original, but couldn't find the time in the two week window. I think we would have to wait until the last assignment has a winner before we can start the next assignment. So it may be 4 week submission period, 3-4 days selection of the finalists, 3-4 days of voting and 3-4 days to select the next assignment, so each assignment may take ~6 weeks. The other alternative would be to stagger the winners, but I prefer an assignment every ~6 weeks.

Other ideas, I'd allow more than one entry. I am sure it needs to be limited, but I think 2-3 entries may make it more interesting.

Overall, I really like the assignments and appreciate you coordinating them.

Brant

Oh you're sooo easy Brant... in a good way.
I don't mind starting something like this to get the ball rolling. It would take a few threads with one listing weekly and monthly winners and one where we enter weekly shots. That way if your shot misses the deadline of one week, it just can roll over to the next.
Get some more feedback first though....

I love Steve's idea for photo of the week month and year, I feel like that would gain a lot of interest quickly. Plus I like the faster pace of it better. I think longer time period for assignments is good, but if I get my shot in week one and the assignment takes 6 weeks, then its a long wait. I vote for Jan's idea to "announce two assignments at the same time. One current assignment and one next assignment.." That way you can have a while to work on each assignment yet there is still a relatively quick turnover of assignments.

Well if you want more assignments, its easy to just have a few open running at the same time. I find the topics way to broad so its easy to find something that will fit. I think there needs to be something harder like "Her Smile", "Frozen in Time", "The life of the Party", "Life & Death in a Macro World", "DOH" (Humour) & "A Cities Beat".

I would also like to see something of the different types of photography like: "April 24, 2013" where you are required to take a photo on that day (48hr posting window for the whole planet). These posts are to be unedited (yes I know its easy to cheat) small JPG straight from the camera. The judge is looking for the best shot, PP, colour and focus are all unimportant.

I don't like the idea of best shot of the week/month because we all know the usual suspects Joel/Bob/Denise/Mark/Sean etc. would win most of the time (and their egos are big enough as it is):D.

Great ideas for assignments Raid, but you may find the number of entries submitted will decrease if we narrow the topics too much. Your list is very creative and from a personal level, you've got me thinking a bout a few potential entries, but also a couple that I wouldn't bother with.

I think the photo of the week won't be "won" by a great bird shot or a well lit outdoor portrait each month, people aren't like that. I'm sure "they" will get a "win" but at the end of 12 months I don't think you would be looking at 6 GBH shots and 6 shots of Sean peaking out pensively from under a new hat. :)

Though I would expect some examples from our good photographers and they do deserve recognition. But I also understand your tongue in cheek reference to their huge egos. :)

It might be best to pick the best portrait and the best landscape/object shot each week from the entries. So two get put forward each week and then we have 8 to judge at the end of the month, from those the best 2 for each month and 24 at the end of the year.

And then a photo of the year.

The biggest Photography Forum site in Aus. is very into best picture awards and poor technical help (the pro's like to keep their edge). They give best picture awards in lots of categories every week, month and year. The problem is that everybody is into saying "great shot", trying to encourage people. What they should be saying is "good attempt but I think you are over exposed by a third of a stop and here's what to do....". What I like most about this Forum is that the Pro's are keen to help others and this makes this site and the Pro's who inhabit it exceptional.

You guys (and gals?) make for an intersting read. I spend most of my time on Flickr, then 500 px, then here in descending order. I gotta say, I agree with Raid that while praise is nice (and often deserved), I know that I learn from my mistakes, and trust me there are many. I think most of us who take photos know there is always room for improvement, so I am willing to be put on the chopping block for constructive critiques. Maybe we could make a GOOD COP: BAD COP category for our assignments. For each post, list one or two things you like about an image, then follow with a list of one or two things that to improve that photo.

I'll give it a go on a recent image I posted on Flickr:
[img0http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8...1176cfc9_b.jpg
Pots of Gold - - - La Jolla, California by ernogy, on Flickr[/img]

GOOD COP:
1. nice vertical landscape composition
2. unique foreground

BAD COP:
1. totally blew it by placing a graduated ND filter too low on the image, rendering the distant rocky shelf too dark
2. too much blue and lack of contrast in the sky

Great shot....you must have a really good camera:o

No seriously.....I follow a few other forums....some are the "great shot" type and others strive to give honest critique. The image of the week type thing is common and there are repeat winners who are definitely pro's. Some of these make their living traveling the world selling workshops. Very hard to "compete" with someone who is regularly visiting all the best photo locations on the planet! I think I could take similarly great images but I can't afford the the time and travel.

Since the playing field isn't level I am not a huge fan of the "contests" either but if it becomes part of this site I would continue to post and contribute here as I really like the community.

I have been thinking about developing a standardized scoring system for images. Maybe 5 or 6 parameters that could be given individual points on a scale of 1 to 5....adding up to a total score. Things like composition, creativity, level of uniqueness and maybe technical skills like exposure or sharpness or post processing. Such a system could used by any viewer to "score" an image and then a comment section would be attached so the viewer could give tips how to improve in future images.

I think many people do not feel qualified to critique photographs and we do not, generally, want to hurt anyone's feelings. The images we take, decide to keep and process for posting are important to each of us and it's easy to take criticism personally so a critique needs to be crafted the right way to help someone without hurt feelings. Likewise the poster of an image has to have "thick skin" and not get upset at the criticism. Finding that balance is tough sometimes and I thought a scoring system might help.

very funny Joel. Well of course I have a good camera, it's a Canon! happy shooting this weekend if you have the chance, Erno

I think it might not be such a good idea for 1 person to decide which photos are voted on. Every entry should be voted on by everyone and the poll should be loaded as a popup when users login so they have an immediate chance to see the entries and vote. It would be sort of nice if they could be put in a simple grid gallery as well. It's not that difficult.

I hope to get some time this week to catch up to this thread, before the next assignment starts. Anyway thanks to all who replied!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UmiKaibutsu

I think it might not be such a good idea for 1 person to decide which photos are voted on. Every entry should be voted on by everyone and the poll should be loaded as a popup when users login so they have an immediate chance to see the entries and vote. It would be sort of nice if they could be put in a simple grid gallery as well. It's not that difficult.

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Sorry mate, the poll only allows 10 people max and we had more entries than that. It would have been a lot easier for me. Also it's not 1 person picking a winner, it's one person picking his/her favorites. A Privilege you get when you win the previous assignment(something that is standard for years now). Normally I only host the assignments, this time I also had the honor to do the picking.
We tried to do the picking with a larger jury multiple times, however trough the international nature of this forum it was almost impossible to get a smooth running assignment schedule. Thanks for your input.

The next challenge should be a video clip. Shake things up a bit. "The Lord God Canon Almighty" gave us cameras with video capabilities for a reason.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UmiKaibutsu

The next challenge should be a video clip. Shake things up a bit. "The Lord God Canon Almighty" gave us cameras with video capabilities for a reason.

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Time lapse would be interesting. I've tried it a couple of times but haven't really loved anything yet.

So it's been a while seen I've been active here and things have changed quite a bit. To explain, me and my girlfriend have gotten our own place and it needs quite some work. Since I have a normal dayjob(as does my girlfriend) it all has to be done in the little sparetime that we have. Therefor I haven't gotten any time to take photos or even have time for watching TDP let alone doing a good job with hosting the assignment.

In the meantime I noticed Steve has started with the photo of the week-topics. Good job on that!
I haven't checked them out properly, but by looking at the statistics it begs the big question if the assignments are still interesting enough to continue next to the photo of the week-topics?

Anyway the biggest changes made to the current assignments are:

- Longer entry-period(1 month)
- Announcing the next assignment simultaneously so the entry-period basically doubles (perhaps 1 month is too long to double?)
- Multiple entries per person (no more restricted to 1 photo)

Let me know what you think about the big question and the changes. I try to respond as soon as I can, but I can't promise a 24/7 service at the moment:o Have fun!

Jan...now you've done it. House projects. Twice as expensive and 4x as long as you'd think. I've been sidelined a lot the past year working on my backyard. Ripped out a deck and added a patio, several walkways and a fire pit. It is "almost" done.

In short, I see the photo of the week and the assignments as two very different things. I hope both continue. Assignments should challenge us whereas the photo of the weeks is more to represent the best of what we are currently shooting.

I like the longer periods for the assignment.

+1 I like both. The weekly ones also fill the waiting time between the monthly assignments. I'm not saying that the latter should be shorter, it is actually good to have a month to shoot something new for the assignments.

Good to see you back Jan, and congrats on the place!

Hey Jan congrats to you and your girlfriend on the your recent developments at home.
Mate, what you have done with the Assignment thread over the years has been fantastic. Your commitment and dedication faultless. The small updates you have made to the rules are well thought out and a definite improvement. Thank you.
I think there is a space for both type of assignments. I like the set formula and agree with Brant that the challenge to meet a subject criteria and deadline is good for us.
Image of the week is just a fun thread that hopefully boosts traffic and participation on this site. Only two criteria, Landscape or Portrait. A place to exhibit old and new or even reprocessed and re-cropped. Just post and post and use that camera that you spent a lot of time researching and learning about on this site. And I think it will be very cool at the end of this year to have a Landscape and a Portrait "TDP Image of the Year".
But I do think we need both Assignment threads..... or even more, "user" based challenges...hmmmm :)

Thanks for the back-up guys. The assignments will stay;)

As for now we'll see how the 1 month entry-period and the next months assignment announcemount simultaneously will work out. Technically you'll get 2 months time for an assignment. It will restrict old photos to be used so for the assignment you'll need to get into action.

To get the schedule working for whole months, the new assignment(52) will have an entry-period for the remaining days of this month and the whole month of August. Assignment 53 will be chosen by the community via a poll and will be announced at the start of August.(But the entry-period will be September!)

For assignment 53 I need some ideas for assignments which will be put into a poll in this thread at the end of the month.

Thanks everyone!

PS: a house-project is definitely expensive and time-consuming. If I were to be smarter I would have bought new camera-gear for it:p Less stressful and much more fun:o