Technique Tuesday: Print Competition; The Winners Please, Re-Broadcast, and More!

Good Morning Everybody,

I’ve got one heck of a post for you today and it’s jammed packed with some great images!.  Fasten your seat belts – HERE WE GO…

Last Thursday we conducted our first amazingly successful PhotoPro Network HOT SHOTS FALL 2011 Image Competition and review.

We had a much larger turnout than expected all at the last minute, of course. So lots of folks were able to submit images before we could close off the registration.  I think that’s a good thing though.  The viewing audience got a chance to see a much larger body of work judged and evaluated.

Print Competition The Rest Of The Story

First of all, my sincere THANKS to the more than 10 volunteers who put in collectively over 50 hours of their time to pull off the technically complex and most exciting image competition ever!

We had people monitoring the event in Florida, Kentucky, and Cabo, Mexico.  There were also a total of 10 devices - 4 computers for viewing, judging, and monitoring, 3 iPods for scoring, and  3 iPads for monitoring remotely – all were used to pull off the most technically complex print competition ever and to make it the  success it was.

We had 45 photographers enter from 22 states around the country with one entry from Canada which made our competition an international event!  Here are the top 10 images in order submitted for the event.  Enjoy!

Here are a few of the comments from our “LIVE” studio audience:

“Its was great. I started competing this year and it was so much fun…"  John V.

“I am learning SOOOO much.  Thank you!”  Cindy S.

“I enjoyed the presentations and the judges comments on the images.  Thanks for all the hard work for this wonderful learning opportunity.”  Chuck C.

“This is great!  I think I'm going to look into the master photographer classes on PPA.” Mary D.

“This is the first time I've experienced anything like this. GOOD to hear/learn what the judges look for.” John D.

“…Thank you…  Seeing the images and listening to the judges comments was invaluable and educational.” Jammie . G

“Judy and I really enjoyed the Webinar. We learned a great deal from reviewing the photos and then hearing the experts comments. We appreciated your hard work in support of photographers all over the globe.”  Judy and Chuck H.

A Test Drive For A Bigger Event

This was the “test drive” for the much larger event scheduled for next year’s PhotoPro Expo 2012 Print Competition [link] with $5,000 in prizes and awards!

We have several viewers tuned in via our live webcast watching the entire competition “LIVE” as it happened.  I was moderating the event and answering as many of the submitted questions as fast as I could.

What Makes A Great Image?

The Professional Photographers Of America have been conducting Print Competitions for many years. Judges go through rigorous training to learn how to distinguish a great image from one that is close to great.  I was a print judge for many years and it is an exciting and extremely educational experience.

The judges are looking for 12 main aspects of an image and basing their score on that criteria.  The Twelve elements listed below are in accordance to their importance:

Impact, Technical excellence, Creativity, Style, Composition, Presentation, Color Balance, Center of Interest, Lighting, Subject Matter, Technique, and Story Telling.

You can read the long version right here.  It goes into much great depth about each aspect of what the judges are looking for.

And The Winners Are…

We selected three winners from last Thursday’s competition. They are listed as follows:

Highest Collective Score for 6 Images: This award is the most difficult of all the awards a maker can receive.  It demands extremely high quality and consistency across all 6 of the makers entries. Our winner this year is Jessica Edwards with a scoring total of 483, nearly an 81 average for all 6 of her images entered! Congrats! Jessica!

Here are Jessica’s six fabulous entries:

“Lipstick And Leather” scoring 83

“Modern Day Goldie Locks” scoring 82.

“Dance Of The Black Widow” scoring 79.

“Gridiron Great” scoring 80.

“Heartbreaker” scoring 79

 

“Changes are Coming” scoring 80.

Jessica’s Prize: OnOne Software’s new Perfect Photo Suite 6.0 which has been receiving “RAVE” reviews everywhere.

Highest Overall Print Score: Electric Arch

This award is always a crowd favorite. It goes to the maker of the image with the overall highest scoring image of the competition. Our winner for this competition goes to Eric Shalita for his image “Electric Arch” which scored a phenomenal 88 from the judges.  This was also the judges favorite image too.

Eric’s Prize: NIK Software’s new and highly acclaimed Color EFEX 4.0

Best In Category:

These are the top scoring images in each of the six categories.  Each winner will receive a copy of my 2011 Success Collection.

Highest Scoring Artistic (Photoshop,etc.) Image: “Electric Arch”. Please see above.  It was also the top scoring image in the competition.

Highest Scoring Landscape Image:

”Docked” by Jill Davidson scoring 85.

Highest Scoring Portrait Image:

“Old Boys Club” by Jonathon Burton, scoring 84

Highest Scoring Wedding Image:

“Rooftop Romance” by Rosemary Cundiff-Brown scoring 83

Highest Scoring Sports Image:

“Riding The Wave” by Peter Tucker scoring 82.

Highest Scoring Wildlife Image:

“Water Drops On Wings” by Amber Pulse scoring 81.

Congratulations to all our winners.  Hope to see you at PhotoPro Expo 2012. We’re giving away $5,000 in prizes and awards next February!

Now For The Re-Broadcast Of The PhotoPro Network Image Competition and Review

Hit the PLAY button below and enjoy the images and judges comments one more time! Enjoy everybody!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ve been at the computer too long these last two days with these lengthy posts.  We’re hitting the sunshine early.  I’ll plan to see you sometime tomorrow for another great post from the sunny shores of Mexico.

See ya’ then, David