During July I received an email from the SWPP which reminded me that I hadn’t submitted any work into their Monthly Competition for over 6 months. The following day I spent the morning sorting through some recent work to find some images that I felt were particularly individual and which may be awarded a score.
The last time I submitted an image was last year. The scoring system then was
- no-score
- Bronze (acceptable professional image)
- Silver (above standard image)
- Gold (of the highest standard and published in the Professional Imagemaker)
However, the SWPP has now changed their scoring system as it became clear that it was fairly easy to gain a Bronze which was undermining the ability to become an Award Winning Photographer. If you have followed my work you will know that we have previously won a Gold and a Silver (we have discounted our Bronze awards) but now the goal posts have changed. The new scoring system is now:
- Not Awarded (fall below the standard to be given an award)
- Highly Commended (Above standard, potential of being reclassified as Gold)
- Gold (of the highest standard and published in the Professional Imagemaker)
So how would some of my work fair with the new scoring system, I submitted four images for judging and waited nervously for the results to be announced at the end of the month. I am delighted to report that we gained Two Highly Commended, with the other two failing to reach the standard. Here are the four images (I have included the 2 which didn’t win awards so that you can gauge the standard required) and their stories.
Image 1 Score - Not Awarded
This is an image from a family shoot in our studio. Booked as a birthday treat we took the typical group poses, high-key and low-key, finishing with some individual shots. This one stood out to me as being interesting. I love images that make you look twice, or study the photo. This gentleman’s face is full of character which has been enhanced by using one hard light source to give contrast across the face and bring out all of the details (smooth beauty skin just wouldn’t do for this shot). The pose was very simply, just look at the camera.
Image 2 Score - Not Awarded
This is one of our signature wedding shots, taken outside at 10pm with two light sources off-camera to the left and right. Our bridal couples love these shots, a great finishing shot for the album. Having taken several poses (yes this is a posed shot) this is one of my favourites. I love the expression in the pose, the intensity of the eyes fixed onto each other, and the dramatic lighting giving shape but still showing a colour to the sky.
Image 3 Score - Highly Commended (yeh!!!!)
This image is from a low-key shoot with 18 month old Ethan. Much softer lighting on this photo compared to ‘Image 1’ but still very directional from the right hand side to give that light fall-off to shadow to left. This was almost the last shot of the session. We went through the structured poses but Ethan wasn’t in the mood to perform, so we then changed the shoot to a ‘play time’ to try to get some relaxed images. The ‘play time’ shooting process is something we have to do regularly with children but it would normally be a high-key shot with the lighting covering a large area allowing the model to move around freely. It was a bit more tricky with this style of shot because the lighting only works in one position, so we had to try to get Ethan to play in one spot. This shot was captured when we had finished, Ethan thought the pressure was off not knowing that I was sneakily still shooting. A un-complicated scene with vignetting and a streaming light source taking your eye straight to the subject. The relaxed look off camera, and the bear feet showing little toes makes this shot for me.
Image 4 Score - Highly Commended (second Yeh!!!!)
For those of you who follow ASC Photography will recognise that this is a type of image that you are not used to seeing from me. A change in direction from most of my commercial work, but one that is close to my heart. I am a petrol head and would love to introduce car photography to our services. This image is my first exploration into offering a car photograph service to those petrol heads out there who have a loved one tucked up in the garage. The biggest difficulty with car photography is trying to replicate that magazine look that we all love without using a very expensive studio setup specifically to photograph cars. After lots of experimenting I have now perfected a night-time shooting technique using long exposure, light painting and reflecting to produce beautiful images. The car image in this scene is pure photography (no photoshop work enhancement). The car has been cutout of its original scene and placed onto this landscape that I have created using several of my own landscape stock images and some photoshop wizardry. I am really pleased with the result, one step closer to adding Car Photography to my business :)
So there you have it, two images not awarded and two winning a Highly Commended score. Which is your favourite and do you agree with the judges???
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