Topic
Photos
The submission itself: what makes a rating repeatable rather than random.
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Why the rest of the frame is part of the submission
The tool encodes the whole image; a busy background is not ignored, it is scored alongside everything else.
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The longitudinal series, done honestly
A year of sets is comparable only if the protocol, the device and the tool held; here is how to keep them held and what to do when one breaks.
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Making a submission that can go to several tools
If you intend to compare tools, the submission has to be identical to each; here is what identical means and what breaks it.
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Sharpness as a variable
Blur removes the detail some axes depend on; a slightly soft image scores differently from a sharp one of the same subject.
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Reading the gap between two retakes
Two retakes under the same conditions will not match; a small gap is normal, a large one is a signal that something in the conditions moved.
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Handling an outlier in a series
An outlier is either a condition slip or the tool being the tool; check the log first, and if nothing moved, keep it and use the median.
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A test that needs no new photo
Crop one photo three ways and submit each; the spread tells you how sensitive the tool is to framing, at zero cost in retakes.
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Removing the hand from the equation
A fixed support and a timer remove hand shake, drift in distance and drift in angle in one move; it is a repeatability upgrade, not a quality one.
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A common claim, tested
Some tools say they normalise for angle or distance; whether they do is checkable with two photos, and the answer decides whether you can relax your protocol.
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A control for the tool, not the subject
Resubmit one fixed reference image alongside each new submission; if the control moves, the tool moved, and your new result inherits that.
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The device question, answered
Any modern phone is enough for a repeatable submission, provided it is the same phone, the same lens and the same settings every time.
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Zero variance is also information
If two genuinely different photos return the identical score, the tool may be caching, rounding coarsely or not looking closely; too little noise is a finding too.
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The angle variable, isolated
A downward tilt foreshortens; a small change in tilt is invisible to you and not to the tool, which is why level is the only repeatable angle.
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What a series buys and what it does not
People submit again hoping for a higher number; what more submissions actually deliver is a tighter estimate of the same number.
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Editing as a score variable
A filter, a smoothing pass or a colour grade changes the image and therefore the number; it also makes the result incomparable with any unedited one.
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A term from drawing, applied to submissions
Foreshortening is the compression of length along the line of sight; any tilt toward or away from the lens produces it, and the tool scores the compressed version.
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The events that retire a reference submission
A new phone, a moved lamp, a tool update, a change of state: any of them ends the series, and the honest move is a new baseline.
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The most common confusion about submissions
A better photo scores higher; a standardised photo scores comparably. People want the first and need the second, and the tools encourage the confusion.
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What professional capture changes and what it does not
Better gear and lighting change consistency more than they change the score; the useful question is whether the result is repeatable, and a professional setup can be.
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Separating two sources of variance
Two tests separate them: the same file twice measures the tool; a fresh photo under the same conditions measures you plus the tool. Subtract.
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Two words used interchangeably, and why they should not be
Framing is what you include at capture; cropping is what you remove afterward. Framing changes the perspective; cropping does not.
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Frames from video, compared with photos
A video frame is more compressed, lower resolution and softer than a photo from the same phone; it can be a series of its own, but not mixed with photos.
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Choosing the unit of comparison
A single photo is easier to reproduce; a set is more informative and harder to hold constant. Which one to standardise on depends on what you want to compare.
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Image size as a variable
Below a threshold, resolution costs detail and moves the score; above it, more pixels change nothing except the upload time.
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The crop as a score variable
A crop decides what fraction of the frame the subject fills and what context surrounds it; both are inputs, and both move the number.
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What changing your distance to the lens does to a result
Move the camera and the proportions the tool reads change with it; distance is the single largest source of score movement that has nothing to do with the subject.
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When a tool takes several images at once
Some tools accept a set; whether the score is an average, a best-of, or dominated by one image is rarely stated and changes how to read it.
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A small test for multi-photo tools
Some tools weight the first image or the last; reorder a set and resubmit, and if the score moves, order is a variable you must fix.
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What an old file tells you when you send it again
Sending last year's file today measures how the tool has changed; the photo did not, so any difference is the tool's.
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Frame orientation as a variable
Orientation changes fill ratio and how the tool crops on input; it is a small variable, and small variables are why protocols exist.
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A set with different lighting, angles or states in it
A set whose images were taken under different conditions has no single condition; its score describes nothing you can reproduce.
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Two lens terms, defined
Field of view is how much the lens takes in; crop factor is how that compares to a reference; both change how proportion is rendered at a given distance.
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The one submission everything else is compared to
A baseline is a submission taken under recorded conditions that you can repeat; without one, no later result has anything to be compared with.
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Why a note next to each submission matters
A score without its conditions cannot be compared later; the log is what turns a pile of results into a series.
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Why the capture path changes the image
A mirror adds a reflection layer and a distance; a front camera is a different lens with different processing. Neither is wrong, but they are not interchangeable.
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The term this site keeps using
A standardised submission is one taken under recorded, repeatable conditions, chosen for comparability rather than for score.
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The case for a short series every session
A single submission is one draw; five under identical conditions give you a centre and a spread, and the spread is the part that keeps you honest.
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A complete protocol for comparable submissions
Fix the device, lens, distance, angle, light, crop, background and state; record it; take several. The whole protocol, and why each line is there.
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Everything about submitting more than one image
Sets, slots, combination rules, order, mixed conditions and series over time: the complete guide to making multi-image submissions comparable.
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How to find out how much of your score is you
Identical file, retake, recrop, control shot, short series: the complete method for measuring how repeatable your results are and where the noise comes from.
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Standardising a submission, not flattering it
There is a difference between making a photo score higher and making a score mean something. Only one of them survives a second attempt.