Assignment Discussion Thread

[Joel Eade]

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.

[erno james]

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

[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.

[Sheiky]

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!

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.

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.

[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.

[Kayaker72]

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.

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

[Sheiky]

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 Have fun!

[Kayaker72]

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.

[ahab1372]

+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!

[Steve U]

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