It would be interesting to read other photographers' views on this topic -- hope to generate debate. I was thinking about photo competitions recently, based on some I've witnessed at a number of clubs I've been considering joining. In each case, a visiting judge passed his judgement on the submitted slides and/or prints. What are the criteria that the judges use to select the winners? Is it all technical or aesthetic? And can one person manage to judge prints that range from colour to b&w to PhotoShopped, from landscape to portrait to still life, without prejudice (I'm not suggesting that there is anything remotely like fixing the competition)?

I assume that competitions are limited to a single judge in order to keep expenses down.

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Rob, thanks for your reply.

90 prints. Phew! If the judge took two minutes per print, the evening must've lasted at lest three hours -- just to go through them once.

Hi Peter - I used to be a "B Panel" judge in the East Anglian Federation of the PAGB (judges there are graded A-most experienced to C-newly qualified). Judging photographic images will always have a subjective element, but most judges base their assessment on generally accepted "rules" e.g. good technical quality when it is needed, well composed and balanced, instant impact, creative if that is the intention etc.

I can see all the arguments for and against judges very well. Some criticisms are very valid. For instance, if a judge has little knowledge of Natural History and cannot tell a woodpecker from a wallflower, it is quite understandable that the photographer will get annoyed when the judge says, “birds are all the same to me, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”. The same applies though when a judge openly admits to hating “table-top”. This is extremely demoralising for the photographer who has spent all day, setting up a complicated arrangement on his dining room table. I am sure there are those who will say that tabletop needs more skill, because you have to set up everything yourself, whereas the wildlife photographer just snaps what is there. There are always different ways of looking at everything.

There are two main reasons why a judge is needed for competitions:

1. To fill in the silence, while the rest of us are having a good look at each print/slide. This could involve him telling us his life story, or perhaps a bag full of jokes, or more commonly to comment on the prints. This last option has a few advantages over the others: The comments should be a fair indication of how the judge will eventually dish out the places, so this may help us to understand why he has given a print with a leaning building, first place. There is also a possibility that some people in the audience might learn something.
2. To award places. This is the most important job for the judge, as he/she will be the only truly unbiased person in the room.

What we must realise though is, like the rest of us, the judge is only human. He will occasionally say the wrong thing, either unintentionally, or out of ignorance. Camera Club judges are not professionals, although admittedly, most will have decades of photographic experience. He will also have his own likes and dislikes in photography, just like the rest of us. The trick here is not to let anyone know what these are, but it’s not easy. There are also going to be times when the photograph in front of you is absolutely ghastly. Yes, you are there to offer advice, particularly to beginners, on how you believe the picture could have been improved, but you also need to find some good points to compliment the author. In some photographs, that is not easy at all!

It has been said to me that there must be common ground, or common values that all judges must agree on, but this is a simplification of reality. Yes, most pictorial photographs look better composed if the focal point is near a third and groups are of odd numbers and there is a strong lead-in from the bottom left. But there are many judges who look for something different in their photography, something new. Not necessarily cutting-edge, but something that tells the judge that the photographer has not followed the flock and has attempted to find something personal and creative. Not all judges think like that. Some are straight-down-the-line traditional. But whatever personal views the judge has are valid for the competition he is judging. It cannot work any other way. For big competitions, there may be a panel of judges, whose marks will even out their personal likes and dislikes, but what camera club can afford to invite a panel for each competition?!

Cheers,
Brian Ross

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