Update as of January 2023:
The below post was written in November of 2022. There have been some modifications since.
Updated forms have been created to send to judges prior to their allocated month. These list out all the information about TPS, what we require from a judge and information about the set subject, our grading system etc.
Our new sliding scale scoring matrix can be found here (click the image to make it full screen):
Hi All,
Let’s talk about judging for a moment.
We have had a number of external judge perform a remote judging for the Toowoomba Photographic Society. Afterwards a large percentage of our members have left feeling discouraged, beat down, and several have expressed “what’s the point anymore” comments to myself and other members. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been an isolated occurrence.
Is this the type of judging that should be occurring at Club Level?
Well – according to the PSQ Judges Manual the answer is a resounding NO. On Page 3 we read (excerpt from page) – You can read the full manual here:
https://www.psq.org.au/uploads/9/2/9/2/92924276/2020-11-26_psq_judges_manual.pdf
As skills improve, some people then want to test their skills against other photographers. It can be within the club, or at state, national and international competitions.
*Note from TPS Pres: The above line clearly states the progression of photographic life cycle, with club being the starting point, and international the current top level.
It is important for judges to understand the purpose of monthly competitions and how their decisions and comments influence club members.
*Note from TPS Pres: The above line clearly explains to judges that they must be aware of who they are judging for and why.
Above all, we encourage our judges to be respectful and considerate of our members when critiquing images for our clubs. Our objective is to enthuse and inspire our photographers to improve their skills and inspire them to produce better images.
*Note from TPS Pres: This final line says it all really. We want judges to help us grow, enthuse and inspire our members. Not beat them down.
So, what are we doing about it?
- Your committee is working on new documentation to send to judges outlining who Toowoomba Photographic Society members are, how our grading and scoring system works and our preferences with judging. This form is a work in progress, however this is what it looks like as of Oct 2022. https://toowoomba.myphotoclub.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/2022/10/Information-for-Judges-TPS.pdf
- The committee will be more involved with judging each month. I have found that it is easy as a judge to lose connection with the club, getting tunnel vision and losing track of what we are judging for.
I also want to avoid what has happened to myself where I was engaged to judge for a club 18 months before the comp date, and then not hearing anything from the club until 3 weeks before the judging was due, then finding out that the judging was different to the initial engagement. - Change of the words “Set Subject Definitions” to “Set Subject Guidelines”. Why? Far too many times I have seen a photographically excellent image be marked down because the judge felt it “didn’t quite fit the definition”.
- Changing of set subject guidelines to be more “open” and less definitive (with the exception of those set by the interclub committee). The intention is to open the set subject section up to push the boundaries of photographic art.
- Provide feedback on judges performance to the judge and judges executive committee of the PSQ.
- Align our scoring matrix descriptions with that of the PSQ Judges Manual (with some minor modifications). Note: We are NOT changing the scores, or award names. (The updated description is in the document above).
- Engage the PSQ Committee and Judges Executive and implore that they consider enforcing / implementing standards of scoring and grading across all PSQ clubs and judges.
As it stands, judges are going from club to club and often have to learn a new scoring and grading system for each club.
How can we get consistency of judging when the scoring and grading system of each club isn’t? - Engage the PSQ Committee and Judges executive to develop a “minimum standard” of judging technical requirements, EG: Judging must be performed on calibrated screens and must be calibrated regularly.
- Provide feedback, feature requests to the MyPhotoClub Website owner Colin Woods to streamline the judging process via MPC.
- In 2023 – we aim to stand up the “non graded” section of Toowoomba Photographic Society. This will be aimed at members who want to grow photographically, but not be bound by competition.
- In 2023 – review of our meeting nights and either downscaling, or re-purposing nights such as “micro-skills & skills nights”
- For 2023 – we will try our best to match judges to the set subjects.
What aren’t we doing?
This topic can get heated very quickly, we do not want to appear to be the problem child of the PSQ, so as such:
- We are not lynch mobbing judges – it is a MASSIVE undertaking to do a clubs judging. Unless you have judged for a club yourself it is very easy to be critical of the work performed here. As a judge you can easily spend half an hour per image to review it, score it and provide comments. Some images take less time, some take more. Multiply this by 100 images per club and you soon get an idea on how much of a task this is.
- Giving Up.
I appreciate and welcome the feedback we receive from members on both the committee’s performance and that of judging nights. If you have any feedback or thoughts on the contents of this message please feel free to provide feedback via one of the methods below.
Members can submit feedback via email to committee@tpsi.org.au or via our feedback form on the website.
https://tpsi.org.au/feedback/
Please ensure your feedback is professional, accurate and without prejudice.
I thank everyone for your patience over this matter.
Regards,
Travis Lord TPS President
