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- Dave
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For the past year or so I've been a club Judge for the Yorkshire Photographic Union (YPU), and marking, as in awarding points, is the oddest part of it - here's why...
Many moons ago when I first joined a club that did competitions I was told that they used to mark from 0-10, but then decided that that range wasn't enough as often people wanted to mark such as 8.5, because an image was better than another 8 but not as good as a 9
So the range was extended from 0-20 - makes perfect sense yes?
But then, they added, people got upset if they scored less than a 10, so 10 was adopted as being... 'What a newbie could get with everything on auto'
Over the next few years giving a 10 became seen as an insult too, but a 20 was rarely given as 'No image can be perfect' !!!
Roll on to being a Judge now and needing to find out what each club wants of me, and I've already had this...
1 - one club uses the full 0-20 range
2 - another advises that its 0-20 but don't give below a 10
3 - another that its 0-20 but they consider 12 to be their bottom mark to avoid upset
4 - several want no marks other than placings of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and maybe a Highly Commended or Commended
5 - another is 0-20 but don't give below a 10, and the best image of the set gets a 20, even if I actually think the whole set hasn't got an image worthy of a 20 the best still gets one
6 - another has the best 5 images as 20, 19 ,18, 17, 16 and everything else can only score 15 or less, but not below 10. If there are 5 great images worthy of an 18 but no higher, then the best 18 becomes a 20 and the worst 18 a 16; any images worthy of a 16 or 17 can't be marked higher than a 15
Funny eh lol
Now this isn't a rant at all and I do encourage everyone to at least try a club at some point as I believe being a member does improve your photography, even if only by getting you out & about more to shoot on a theme
I do have a query though - and its this...
What marking system would YOU want if you were expecting a mark on your images ???
Would you like to just know you were 1st, 2nd, 3rd or didn't place at all? This seems least 'hurtful', but you have no idea from one comp to the next if you're getting better unless you are in that top 3
Or would you like a mark so over the months/years you can see your improvement?
Cheers
Dave
Many moons ago when I first joined a club that did competitions I was told that they used to mark from 0-10, but then decided that that range wasn't enough as often people wanted to mark such as 8.5, because an image was better than another 8 but not as good as a 9
So the range was extended from 0-20 - makes perfect sense yes?
But then, they added, people got upset if they scored less than a 10, so 10 was adopted as being... 'What a newbie could get with everything on auto'
Over the next few years giving a 10 became seen as an insult too, but a 20 was rarely given as 'No image can be perfect' !!!
Roll on to being a Judge now and needing to find out what each club wants of me, and I've already had this...
1 - one club uses the full 0-20 range
2 - another advises that its 0-20 but don't give below a 10
3 - another that its 0-20 but they consider 12 to be their bottom mark to avoid upset
4 - several want no marks other than placings of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and maybe a Highly Commended or Commended
5 - another is 0-20 but don't give below a 10, and the best image of the set gets a 20, even if I actually think the whole set hasn't got an image worthy of a 20 the best still gets one
6 - another has the best 5 images as 20, 19 ,18, 17, 16 and everything else can only score 15 or less, but not below 10. If there are 5 great images worthy of an 18 but no higher, then the best 18 becomes a 20 and the worst 18 a 16; any images worthy of a 16 or 17 can't be marked higher than a 15
Funny eh lol
Now this isn't a rant at all and I do encourage everyone to at least try a club at some point as I believe being a member does improve your photography, even if only by getting you out & about more to shoot on a theme
I do have a query though - and its this...
What marking system would YOU want if you were expecting a mark on your images ???
Would you like to just know you were 1st, 2nd, 3rd or didn't place at all? This seems least 'hurtful', but you have no idea from one comp to the next if you're getting better unless you are in that top 3
Or would you like a mark so over the months/years you can see your improvement?
Cheers
Dave