[ The Relationship between Clubs and Judges ]

These guidelines are intended to ensure that a judge feels welcome at your club and is made fully aware of what you require before judging commences.  It is the responsibility of your Competition Director and all club members to ensure that your guest feels wel

Clear Club Mission and Directives

It is advisable that all clubs have an online presence (a website or public social media page) where general club policies can be stated and studied by members and judges alike.
Your club should have a clearly stated mission and ethos and these should be displayed on your website.  For example, a nature photography club may wish to ensure that all images conform to specific definitions of nature photography, while others may be striving for photo-realism or photographic artistry.

Scoring System

Your Committee and your Competition Director must agree on the judging and scoring systems the club prefers to use.

Exhibition Scoring

It is strongly recommended that for exhibitions the “WAPJA Exhibition Scoring System” is adopted.  This is an absolute system that requires images to be matched to defined standards (levels).  The judge will make any number of gold, silver and bronze awards, or none, depending on the perceived levels of the images presented.  However, your club may choose to set gold, silver, bronze (and acceptance) awards at different levels than those recommended by WAPJA.  If you require your judge to use a modified award system, please make sure he/she fully understands these before judging commences.
The advantage of using the “WAPJA Exhibition Scoring System” is that gold, silver and bronze awards will bear some degree of comparison between judges and between competitions.

Competition Ranking

If your club wishes to hold a competition, where first, second, third and merits are awarded, then the scoring will be relative rather than absolute.  That is, the judge will rank the images in order of excellence rather than compare them to an absolute standard.  In this case your club should define the outcomes expected from your competitions (number of places, merits or highly commended, etc.) and advise the judge accordingly.

Increase Member Awareness on Judging

There are currently no defined minimum criteria for someone to call themselves a photographic judge.  Traditionally they have come from the ranks of experienced photographers, whether amateur or professional.
Photographic judges may have some or all of the following:

• Experience in photography, either as a professional or amateur
• Qualifications or experience in the field of photo imaging, art and design or related studies
• Good communication skills
• An understanding of visual communication and visual literacy
• A desire to help others.

A Judge has four main objectives when judging an exhibition or competition.  They are to:

• Evaluate the images
• Educate the image-makers
• Encourage those looking to refine their photographic skills
• Entertain the audience in the process.

Image evaluation

WAPJA judges will use the same principles of image appraisal when assessing images for competitions (which rank all images relative to each other to produce a first, second and third) and exhibitions (which rate images against absolute standards (see WAPJA Exhibition Scoring System) to determine any number of gold, silver or bronze awards).  These principles are explained in the "What The Judge Thinks"  page on this website.

The same principles will apply to panel judging, where the awarding of first/second/third or gold/silver/bronze is decided by three or more judges.  It is important that all judges are able to explain their choices to each other using the accepted language of criteria and elements.  Panel judging can be a rewarding experience if each judge is prepared to suspend personal biases and listen to opposing points of view.

General Information for Judges

All WAPJA judges will endeavour to:

• adopt a professional attitude with due courtesy toward the club and its members
• apply consistent and constructive criticism regardless of image quality
• identify the merits of an image to provide positive feedback to the photographer
• use the appropriate language of image critique
• recognise and suppress personal preferences and biases
• balance objectivity and subjectivity when appraising images
• accept any disagreement and be willing to discuss with the photographer out-of-session
• consider positive and negative feedback from clubs and organisations as a vehicle for continuous improvement
• develop and maintain a personal portfolio of images for viewing by clubs and organisations
• seek continuous improvement through feedback and by attendance at WAPJA seminars, workshops and judging exercises.

Specific Code of Conduct for WAPJA Judges

1. All judges should treat each camera club and its members as clients to whom a service is being provided.  This means that a judge should strive to achieve satisfaction on the part of the club and its members.  The same principle applies to judging for organisations holding competitions or exhibitions.  WAPJA judges are representing the Association both during and after judging, hence their behaviour should reflect the Association’s principles.
2. Judges must know and understand the WAPJA Judging Criteria and Elements, and ensure that the terms used in delivering a critique are consistent with them.  Be prepared to explain what these terms mean if asked.  Consistency in the language used by judges will, in time, improve the audience’s appreciation of the comments made.

3. A judge should never imply that the creator of an image they are judging, is subordinate or inferior to the judge.   Judges should never demean or ridicule an image or a photographer, whether during judging or after.  While humour is always welcome in judging, indeed it may be used to entertain, it should never be at the expense of the competitor or exhibitor.
4. Judges should give priority to being constructive in their judging.  Recognising and emphasising that what has been done well in an image is just as important as finding its faults.  Criticism should always be expressed in the context of how the image might be improved, and not in a way that would discourage the photographer.  Comments must have a positive, rather than a negative, tone.
5. Whether a judge likes or dislikes an image (or a particular photographic genre) is irrelevant to the judging process and the rank or score given.  A judge’s task is to identify what makes the image successful or unsuccessful, but statements indicating personal likes or dislikes should be avoided.  While personal biases are natural and unavoidable, these should be suppressed during the judging process.
6. It is not a weakness of an image if the judge would have made the image in a different, but equally valid, way.  If the reason a judge would have done something a different way is a matter of personal taste, then it should be expressed as “another way of doing this might have been…but your approach is equally valid”.
7. The judging of photographic images is both subjective and objective.  It is important that the judge acknowledge those images that are objectively well made.  For example, a judge who does not personally take , or like, images of a certain genre must be able to appreciate the qualities of a well-made image and recognise the objective merits of it.
8. When a judge awards the first, second and third places in a competition, it is inevitable that the judge’s subjective experiences and preferences will influence the result, particularly if the images would have scored equally in an exhibition.  This cannot be avoided.  However, the judge should explain that an entrant should feel successful if his or her entry is in the “winning circle” of images but was unplaced.
9. Judges should not fear disagreement with their views; they should see questions as an opportunity to explain their analysis in more detail and to discuss and educate.  A judge should not feel it is necessary to defend his or her view or become entrenched in it.  It is advisable to defer questions to the end of a judging session, so that your focus is not distracted.
10. Never reveal that you are angry with a comment or a question.  Professionalism requires that you demonstrate an attentive interest in the views expressed by members of your audience.  If you ever consider that some comments have gone beyond robust debate, you should report the behaviour to WAPJA through the Judges Feedback process.

What goes through a judge’s mind when critically assessing a photographic image?

A photographic judge will assess an image based on three essential criteria:

1. The message and meaning the image conveys,
2. the content of the image, and
3. how well the medium has been handled.

Message, content and medium are inter-related, broad descriptors that hide a lot of detail. 

Assessment of message measures the success the photographer has achieved in visual communication and is the most important part of a judge’s critique.  Message and meaning relates to the response evoked in the viewer.  It goes beyond the initial impact, or “WOW” factor, which may be merely graphical.  It may include the viewer’s emotional response (e.g. excitement, sadness, intrigue, perplexity, anger, happiness, wonder); how well the image transmits an idea or thought, makes a statement or tells a story.  Highly ranked images tend to be those that have used creativity and imagination to produce a strong message.

In the mind of the judge, message carries more weight than content and medium combined when analysing an image.

The judge’s ability to assess the message of an image is a function of his/her experience in art appreciation in general, art photography in particular and those world experiences that shape his/her tastes.  Most judges are seasoned
photographers with a special interest in the art and have studied countless photographs and photographers (both iconic and contemporary), are aware of the history of photography and have an appreciation of where photography sits in the broader world of visual art.  While a judge can identify the genre of an image, its aesthetic interpretation will depend largely on how well the image communicates the photographer’s intention.

Since each judge necessarily has a unique life experience, each may interpret the message of an image in a different way.
This may or may not be the message the photographer intended, but the judge has no way of knowing exactly what was in the mind of the photographer during the creation of the image. The judge will identify the message he/she receives from an image, but this can only be achieved from what is in the image itself.  Good images invariably convey a strong message.

Successful visual communication will strongly influence the score awarded to an image.

Content involves a host of factors including but not limited to the following elements: the choice and control of lighting; framing and composition (what is included and excluded in the frame and how the components relate to the centre of interest); background (the environment and its relationship to the subject); the choice of where to set the focus (global or selective focus, creative sharpening and depth of field); juxtaposition of tone and/or colour; the exploitation of perspective; the intimation of movement; critical timing (the “decisive moment”); time of day; size, shape, form and proportion; and the use of texture or pattern.  

Composition and the handling of light, in particular, can be critical to the success of any competition or exhibition image.

Mastery of medium concerns the skills and knowledge required for capture, post-processing and presentation of an image, whether it be for projection or for printing.  This aspect of judging looks at the exposure/density of output; choice of tonal range; avoidance of clipping, white balance, colour casts and unwanted evidence of post-production; and correct output sharpening.  It also evaluates the photographer’s choice of colour rendition (colour palette, monochrome, split tone and the effective use of saturation, clarity and vibrance) and paper, as well as the quality of printing, matting and mounting.  When these skills are mastered and flaws are eliminated, the other two criteria will be more effectively expressed.
The primary aim of mastering medium is to eliminate technical flaws that may otherwise compromise content and message.

The Language of Judging

In addition to these criteria, the judge may refer to a number of “elements” when explaining the assessment of an image.
These often include: colour, balance, contrast, composition, centre of interest, emphasis, framing and lighting.  Addressing these and other elements allows the judge to explain the perceived strengths or weaknesses in message, content and medium that contribute to the decision about where in the scale of excellence the image lies, using context-specific and exact words and phrases.  It is recommended that competitors and exhibitors become familiar with the language of these elements that are used by judges.

Judging is an holistic exercise

It is important to note that judges assess images holistically rather than by evaluation of message, content and medium as separate criteria.  The elements within the criteria are used as tools to help the judge explain the overall rating applied to an image.

Note that errors (flaws, distractions) in content and medium can significantly degrade the value of an image. Hence, even an image with an otherwise strong message will be downgraded by one or more levels if flaws are detected that impinge upon the successful communication of the message.

Evaluation of “set subject” in a photographic competition or exhibition

The WAPJA considers that for the purpose of evaluation by a judge, set subject must be considered in one of the following ways. 

Where the set subject defines a “Message”, it should be dealt with as the central criterion of the assessment process.  Hence, where the subject definition requires the work to evoke a feeling, emotion or mood; convey a statement or story; or transmit an idea or thought, it should be judged on how successfully it transmits that message.  Images that communicate a strong message closely related to the set subject would naturally score higher than those that don’t.  An image that does not succeed in addressing the subject definition should be judged accordingly and the judge would not normally need to verify its eligibility with the Competition Director. Hence, the “closeness” and strength of the relationship is a subjective judgement to be made by the judge, and will influence the score given. 

Where the set subject defines an element of either “Content” (e.g. “low light”) or “Medium” (e.g. “monochrome”), an image is eligible if it complies with the definition.  The judge should offer advice to the Competition Director when he or she considers it possible that an image does not meet the definition.  The Competition Director, preferably, should make the decision on whether the image is eligible or not.  However, that responsibility may be passed to the judge.  If a doubtful image is ultimately deemed eligible, it should be judged as if it has fully complied with the definition.  In essence, the “message” is “open” in such circumstances.

Clubs are strongly urged to define their set subjects as carefully and precisely as possible, to avoid the possibility of an image, or images, being rejected.  As well as an accurate description of what is required, it may be necessary in some circumstances to specify what will not be acceptable.

Evaluation of “set subject” in a photographic competition or exhibition

(Version 6, January 2017)

Note: the presence of flaws or distractions will devalue any image, even those with a strong message

WAPJA Judging Criteria and Elements

Message (Visual communication)

Evokes feelings, emotion, mood. Conveys a statement or story.
Transmits an idea or thought.

Content

Lighting, framing, composition, background, focus, juxtaposition of tone and/or colours.
Exploitation of perspective. Intimation of movement. Critical timing.
Time of day. Size, shape, form and proportion.
Use of texture or pattern.

Medium (technical skill or craft)

Appropriate exposure/density of output.
Contrast - tones - clipping? Colour cast? Image sharpness.
Evidence of retouching. Quality of post-production.
Appropriate choice of colour rendition (mono, split-tone, saturation, vibrance, chroma).
Presentation - choice of paper, matting, mounting.