A Word (Well, A Bunch) About the Critiques

[Michael_Gan]

I would encourage all of you, whether you are trying for certification, or not, to review the critiques that are being made in the certification section of the Gallery.

Yes, I am only one of the judges, but I think it's pretty safe to say that the other judges will come to close agreement with my assessments. Unlike print competition, we are conversing over the images through a one week evaluation period (we just barely made it through the 98 candidates last time for 1960 images).

So here's what I'm trying to do: I am trying to teach as I am critiquing, so I will have technical tips in here. Hopefully all of you will benefit from the information I give. All of this is especially important in light of the fact that the public cannot tell the difference between the multitudes of people with their Costco SLRs and what many of us are struggling to make a living. We hope that you will learn from these tips to elevate the profession.

I certainly hope this will be helpful for all of you (except the Diamond award winners :D)

[Anne_Raker]

Michael, I've read them all, and really appreciate the insight you took the time to share. Thank you for being willing to do this!

[Michael_Gan]

You're welcome!

Oh and one other thing I want to point out: When I say accepted" or "rejected" I want to make it very clear that these our my opinions only and not the expressed views of the Certification judging panel! Each one of us have been out-voted in our opinions about the body of work.

Rejections of some of the images do not necessarily constitute a rejection of the submissions! If the candidate has demonstrated that he/she knows what they are doing in most of the images, it is possible that the images can pass. We're not total Ogres. ;)

[Sherry_Piche]

Michael,

I love to read your critiques. I am in the process of gathering all my images and hope to take the certification exam sometime within the next year. You are providing wonderful information for all of us and I am paying very close attention! Keep up the very informative critiques.

Sherry

[Jack_Reznicki]

Wow, this is a fantastic feature if anyone hasn't seen it yet.

Kudo to Michael Gan who's driven this to make it happen and is spending incredible time, sharing and teaching.

Thanks big guy! :cool:

[Ashley_Short]

Michael,

I plan on being certified "someday." Hopefully I'll get my act together and actually start trying, sooner, rather than later. I plan on submitting them here first, so once I find the time and stop making excuses, I'll be really appreciative! As for now, I'll learn what I can from what you post on others'. Hopefully, it will help when I finally sort through my images!

Thanks for all the work and time you've put into this project!!

Ashley

[Michael_Gan]

Wow, this is a fantastic feature if anyone hasn't seen it yet.

Kudo to Michael Gan who's driven this to make it happen and is spending incredible time, sharing and teaching.

Thanks big guy! :cool:Aww, giving back to this profession is fun! :) Thanks!

[Norine_Piet]

Michael, I'm nowhere near being ready for certification and your critiques really help by pointing out what the judges are looking for in their reviews. I believe this will help me take better photographs. Thank you very much for your time and dedication.