The question is how do you judge an underwater photograph. I am talking about when one only has a low resolution web image to go by such as the weekly photo contest here on wetpixel.
I will describe my procedure here for the wetpixel contests. I would be interested in yours.
A. My first step is to go through the many entries and eliminate every one that is not a contender. In a contest of 50 or more entries I try to get down to 7-9 finalists. I do this even if I think the winner is obvious. If an entry does not fit the weekly criteria I discard it no matter how good it is.
B. I evaluate my finalists according to a 1-10 scale in 4 distinct categories which I weight equally. They are:
1. Art-I try to imagine how pleasing a shot would look greatly expanded, framed and hung on the wall. In this phase I don't try to guess if the entry could be expanded, only how it would look artistically if it was expanded. I do this because some of my shots that have great detail and are wonderful on the screen simply don't make it on the wall in 11-15.
2.Difficulty/rarity-I would like to ask "Did you find this yourself?" but obviously I can't so I just heve to go on how difficult it is to get this picture. For example, a jawfish with eggs is rarer than a jawfish without eggs and a jawfish with eggs is much more difficult to approach and photograph than a jawfish without eggs. Or, a scorpion fish with his mouth open is rarer and more difficult that a scorpion fish without his mouth open. I tend to give more weight to catching a fast moving fish in a pleasing, action pose than I do to a flamingo tongue or nudibranch. If it is a wide angle or reef scene I emphasize the difficulty of the subject. A posed diver rates less than a shark.
3.Photography-I look closely at the focus point, color balance, sharpness to determine how technically advanced the shot is. I find this hard with a low res shot but I try anyhow.
4. Style/Position-I look at the fish's pose and tend to prefer poses that convey action or say something over a simple fish ID shot. I also look at how the background works with the subject. In a wide angle I particulary try to evaluate what the shot is saying.
C. When I get all done I add up the scores. Then, however, I make my decision based on what I feel, not necessarly the raw score. The evaluation process is just to focus my thoughts, not the final decision maker.
Regards,
Tom
