I'm sorry, but I just have to address a problem. It has been bugging me ever since I got serious about photography. It is, the fact that a lot of the people who vote on the polls have no real interest in photography and can't take good pictures very well themselves. For some reason, this translates into bad taste in photography in general, and thus people that don't deserve to win at all end up winning. I do understand that everyone has his or her opinions, but I hope that people who aren't interested in photography, either in GT4 or in real life, stay out and leave the voting to those who know what's good and what's bad. (Not like I want us to lose voters or anything)
What brought up this issue? Hopefully it's not out of complete dislike for my shot.
Anyway I share your gripe to a degree. I have posted in the past about certain voting tendencies, and received my share of backlash in return. Some people tend to vote just for cars they like, some on the captured driving, some objectively on the image as a 'whole', and some won't vote for certain people they don't necessarily like.
In my entries, I try to cover all bases by choosing well liked cars, try to exhibit my driving style, and try to put forth as much attention to detail as I can into the shot. Adherence to the rules and the theme are extremely important.
Unfortunately some don't analyze the shots as art: observing the subject matter, background, foreground, eye-movement, lighting, color balance, feel, etc.
The Theme should define how one is to vote, as to what the theme-chooser is looking for, and which elements of the shots are more important than the others.
But in the end these competitions are about a Game; about Racing; with photo capturing options. So the actual Photography, is not necessarily common knowledge amongst most of voters, if this were in a photography forum, the voting results would be quite different. Most of the voters are younger Gamers and Racing fans, on average most don't get into the specifics of art and photography until late teens or later.
I think someone should host a discussion thread, on why you vote the way you vote on Photomode Competitions. It could provide some with a resource to gaining knowledge on photography, or art in general, so they will be better equipped on how to objectify the entries on future voting sessions. I think that would be a definite asset to PMC's.
I would start a thread, but there some here who would be a far better host. Someone who already has a very good working knowledge of both art and photography.
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