How to Become a Better Photographer with GuruShots: 9 Steps I dont know how these requirements are set, its not at the challenge creation time, maybe at review time by the moderators. Whereas in another currently running challenge (500 guru picks) The photo had stopped receiving exposure but the boost window was open as soon as I joined, so I used the free boost and that photo received over 550 votes extra. While those posts are not 100% true, there is some truth to them. This is based on our NLP (Natural language processing) analysis of over 4,160 User Reviews sourced from the Appstore and the appstore cumulative rating of 4.5/5 . Get 'All Stars' 3. For sure, if you join in the last few hours of a challenge, you will no really affect your final score as long as you maintain your exposure to the max level. How to win or cheat ANY online voting contest - Whole Whale Again, maximize user engagement. . To win you need to enter at the peak voting time. Best photos never win. When is the best point in time to fill and . Here is what I found out5,6. You get to meet new people and can chat with them. You can leave a team at any time (or being kicked out by team leaders). That is ok! This example is for a one photo only challenge. PRO version of the script? The same small group of people wins most challenges, because they learned how to manipulate the rigged system best and when exactly to enter, boost, swap and fill. Here is a bit of advice regarding Gurus pick. When you dont have one, youll need to buy one. People actually need to vote positively to at least 100 photos a time to get full exposure. Its a great way to discover a new talented photographer. It is worth keeping in mind that a click from a Master is worth 8 votes verses a click from Rookie which only gets the photograph 2 votes. The last thing you can do to make sure you get the most votes possible on Gurushots is the most important thing. Winning the game has nothing to do with how good your photos are. Personally, I do put all four photos in one shot. GuruShots.com was founded in 2010. Ive been a GuruShots player for about 3 weeks, I achieved Expert quite soon but could not move on. If you have Fills available, use them when you enter a challenge and see quickly how your photos are performing. Its a trick, so you feel the need to spend more time in voting sessions13. Only the obvious ones go to the top which means, more often than not, caricatural images. As such, you cannot sell nor can the site buy any photos. Ensure the subject is in good focus. Each player may have a different experience of the game, hence different point of views. The person that made the negative comments above seems very bitter and negative. GuruShots' goal is to suck away the maximum of your life and probably of your money in return for meaningless and empty fame. Gurushots has invented a new smart way to involve people : they create Events twice a week, like contests of contests in small groups, involving 100 photographers of the same level at a time.. After a bunch of them where I finished 1st 2nd or 3rd, here's what I found : When an Event stops, stop (or slow down) posting pictures in the new challenges, keep them to get fast points at the . In the first article "How to Become a Guru at the GuruShots Game" I described how to create your photographer profile, how to enter challenges and play. The Guru moniker has lost its lustre over time; there are too many of them who can run their challenge. That bing said, there are obvious conclusions that we can infer from this game on which many players would agree on. No, it is not. We have chosen the 20 best contests to enter each year. and I am the founder of Digital World Beauty. The easiest way to get your exposure meter filled without spending ten minutes per contest per 12 hours is to just vote for everything as fast as you can . Now, heres one of the common critiques you might come across: There are numerous ways to expose your photography work without spending hours on the website voting to gain visibility. Vote per view ratio: This is where the thinking gets a bit tricky. In the first part, I covered all the basics but sprinkled in some tips & tricks as well. Gurushots - Survival Guide (Part I) - GlobalPhotoClub Its a good enhancement to the gameplay. DigitalWorldBeauty.com Copyright 2023 | This time, I want to give you the best tips and tricks on playing the game. Guru's have the same voting system as everybody else. As I won the first challenge as a Newbie and I got the Gurus Top Pick Winner on the second day the biggest challenges were already made. Change). GuruShots | LinkedIn I would like to ask about how to recive the prize in gurushots. Absolutely there are bots that have been placed in the game, often using images that are copywritten. The context of the conversation was that I had good images and they wanted me to join the team and win more comps. Going from Elite to an All-Star level in a challenge requires many more votes than before, making it harder to reach the top level. The main reason for leaving the game the first time was that I noticed I was spending too much money to play the game. While two teams are engaged, there has to be an equal number of up to 20 players. In a four-photos challenge, starting with four photos is not always the best strategy. But what I think really counts is when people with highest voting power vote (it's better to have 1 guru vote than 3 newbies) and this is towards the end of the challenge. My goal here is to help other players benefit from my experience in a way that let them better understand the implications that come with playing and being successful at GuruShots. Im not done with this guide yet. I suspect this is the case for many players. The Best Photography Contests in 2023 (Updated) I also work with other affiliate partners and may be compensated from the links below. Get Guru Picks Some tips to get there: 1. It has never been the case and never will. Welcome to part III of this Gurushots article series. I am enjoying submitting my pics and I am always learning in the field of photography. how vote more effective in gurushots - YouTube Despite the shortcomings in the voting system, Gurushots remains popular due to the monetary reward for winning and prizes in the form of bonuses for further . Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. Why Have Accounts in Multiple Photography Communities? Utilize your auto-fill feature during the day when competitors are looking at voting on photos on the platform. What happens when you become a guru on GuruShots? Choose a few options to ensure a higher likelihood of finding the best time for everyone to meet. Exposure Bonus depletion seems faster than it used to be. By the time they figure out the algorithms and win (if they are smart and lucky enough), they would have wasted A LOT of money and time. Track your progress in real-time throughout the game. It comes down to the judges vote and then the crowds votes. At the top of the Leagues page you will see a counter counting down the time left in the season.. Take advantage of swaps: Swapping at a specific time is the key to gaming and gaining the highest ranking. The simple and direct answer is yes. While Guru is not a platform for selling artwork, you can still make money. Im sorry but I dont do support for them. This is what your participants will vote on. The purpose of this site is for photographers to compete against each other on different subjects. While many challenges ask for images that arent exactly worthy of framing and hanging in a gallery somewhere, there are several challenges that do ask for great photography. Gurus who pick photos like to see the metadata. GuruShots wants engagement at all costs. Getting More Votes On Gurushots - siouxsays Just look into their investors, Altair and Buran: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/gurushots. Once registered on Gurushots you will have the status "Newbie", the goal of the game will be to pass GURU with good results on the challenges but for that you will need (a lot) of time (there are 9 ranks) and beautiful pictures ! This game is so twisted in its conception; it is mind-blowing. For challenges with four photos, as soon as you decide to enter the challenge, select four photos, no less. Please do share with us Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. GuruShots Review: Truly the World's Great Photography Game? Its really given me a platform to showcase my photography and Ive been displayed in multiple photography galleries and magazines because of GuruShots. The Fill allows you to skip voting by automatically filling your ' Exposure Meter ' in all of the challenges you are participating in. First, lets put a frame around GuruShots7. GuruShots is a great start. Landscape photos perform better than portrait ones. Choosing the right time to vote or using auto-fill is the best strategy to maximize your photos' exposure level. Apply to as many contests as possible, I would actually try and apply to ALL of them. This is important, since you get more exposure for your photos 3. Just visit this page: https://numericcitizen.me/newsletter/. Without a doubt, there are pros and cons to GuruShots.com platform. Without a doubt, there are pros and cons to. Sorry to hear about that. GuruShots is like speed dating; it has nothing to do with photography as an art form but to consume images. I received none of those prizes when I won. The competitor with the most votes gets to win. Thus, while downloading and joining the platform is free, it will cost you some dollars depending on how much exposure you want for your work and if you are looking forward to winning big. Yes, GuruShots is a free app to download. So many people might abuse this, and vote yes just for the sake of voting and having their own photos exposed. The COVID-19 pandemic brought me back to the game for a while. If you are raising your exposure meter in the wee hours of the morning when fewer Gurushots users are looking at and voting on images, you wont get very many votes by the time your exposure meter starts dropping back down. You will get the same number of views whether you enter early or late, but one possible difference might be the rank of the voters. GuruShots - Worldwide Leading Photo Contest - YouTube Each one will be discussed a bit further below. . But a lot of folks actually DO enjoy this game-like social platform, and its a great way for beginners and enthusiasts to improve their photography skills. The best time for someone in New York wont be the best time for someone in California, or Russia or France or Madagascar. Trust me. This article is for everyone interested in GuruShots, who played the game or would like to start playing. After a participant uploads a photo or photos in the challenge, the voting system ensures that all photos receive the same number of views. GuruShots has partnered with big brands like Adobe, Kodak, B&H, Adorama, Polaroid, and Skylum. GuruShots goal is to suck away the maximum of your life and probably of your money in return for meaningless and empty fame. The short answer: Yes. Challenges are redundant because too many people can create one. Playing on the bigger screen would allow for better image visualization. If I have a free swap available I may swap to a new photo towards the end of the challenge. Your email address will not be published. I left the game several years back. Best time of day? : r/gurushots - reddit When you submit your photos to a contest, you can vote for other people. Reading aims to ensure your photo complies with the competition guidelines. The standard view is displayed on the photo as the number of times a photo has been viewed on the platform. We already covered a bit of that further up where I made some calculations about how much time you could be spending on voting alone. While participating in a challenge, you receive a level depending on the number of votes your photo receives. I led up until 2 minutes remaining, then someone took me over. When Is The Best Time To Vote? Here's How To Avoid Long Lines - Romper Either way, the only way to find out whether youll like it or not, is to trying it and seeing it for yourself! Also, you are a guiding light of inspiration that ensures all members earn the same amount of exposure and experience. Voting for our Best of Nac opens this weekend and will continue through 5 p.m. March 27. *. I joined exactly 2 hr before close. You can find a useful FAQ on Reddit about Gurus picks. It is built on the premise that contestants have to pay to win. When uploading your photos, make sure to keep EXIF metadata. Entering the challenge will require to unlock keys even before 24 hours. Thanks for your comment. Some also call it a Guru Shots photo game. Swapping is encouraged by GuruShots for underperforming photos as they require a voting session to expose your newly swapped photo. No matter what i do, guru decides. Otherwise you can use a key and decide to boost a photo at the time of your choice. A good photo has factor 3. This app is almost essential for managing a large number of challenges in GuruShots, the most played Photo game on the Net. Get 30 All Stars 3. Justuseapp Safety Score for GuruShots - Photography Is 60.6/100. The voting view is the number of times a photo has been viewed in a specific challenge. GuruShots - Photography on the App Store Use them in the last hours of the challenge. Late afternoon and early evening are great times during the week, because people have come home from work, eaten dinner, and are settling in at home and checking all their programs, apps, platforms, and networks. The game puts pressure on players to vote as much as possible. As your team wins, members receive rewards like fills and swaps. The reason seems to be related to the visual space they occupy on the photo wall during your voting session. Answer: In order to unlock Guru you have to (see image below): 1. Boosts are locked throughout the challenge and unlock in a random window of time once during the challenge. . However by then the leading images have usually already scored a couple of thousand votes so it is impossible to catch them up or overtake! Its like walking into a casino, where the dice are loaded and all the games are rigged. To move the needle, I would have to create a support request, then maybe Ill get some attention, and maybe theyll approve some of them. What is the 'Fill' feature? : FAQ Month view lets you see all the days of the month and then add the times on the right. If you decide to enter early in a challenge is because you may just love to browse (and vote) for great pictures! This time, I want to give you the best tips and tricks on playing the game. What is the best time you would join? But this might help if your pictures isnt performing as expected. GuruShots is free to download the app. The iPad still lacks a native app, which is sad and tells a lot about the lack of attention to the art form. ==> Click here to SUBSCRIBE to my new channel for video-based content! They often belong to people for whom half of their achievements consist of successful swaps, which is why this is a game first and photography can take a back seat. Once you have obtained Guru status (you must, among other things, win a contest to obtain it) you . Thats a positive change. swap the least performing photos and near the end, boost your best shot. Yet, you can still see a challenge lasting for 15 days from time to time (500px started something called Quests and they last for a month). After uploading the photos, they end up in ones gallery. That being said, not all is bad about teams. Be picky when selecting photos for a challenge. Generally: Guru Picks = Early, High Votes = last 4-6 hours of a speed contest. I am in CET time zone. You should see your exposure meter fill to max high! Late morning and mid-afternoon will be the easiest times to get in, but if you need to go later, don't let long lines scare you off; as long as you're in line when the polls close, you will be . Photographers compete against one another to . Lastly, if one of your photos is not receiving enough exposure, you can use swap. Was hoping they would have made some changes to that but not going to waste my time on this nonsense again. Guru picks a little star icon that appears on your photo. I observed that the final issue of a challenge always flip in the last few minutes. Now, challenges for a specific member level are now possible where only Newbies are allowed in, or for Masters only. Im currently working on a major new and updated article on the Gurushot game. GuruShots is built with Angular JS and the way it's made had to do with this issue. The question is: why would anyone want to do all that? 1. I became an active member back in early 2015. Usually, they are locked during the challenge and only open randomly once during the challenge. Zedge Announces Transformational Acquisition of GuruShots, the - Yahoo! 20 Best Photography Contests to Enter in 2023. How it works. Move up Team Leagues . Of course there could be even more lower level users joining then as well, it's hard to tell. How to become a Guru in less than 30 days - Gurushots And use your Boost near the end of a challenge and apply it on the best performing photo. When is the best time to enter a contest? : r/gurushots - reddit In my own experience (I'm at champion level), the biggest influence on my scores is not when I join but the quality of the photos and their relevance to the theme. A winning photo could be awarded anything, including: I am going to stop playing this game. One per day. There are not only important for you to progress in the game, but they are also an indication of the Gurus taste. That said, good photos do tend to be up there in the top 50, it's just that there's often a bunch of not so great shots there too. Social However, in a 4 photo challenge, do not fill the exposure after the swap; instead, swap back 8 minutes before the challenge ends and fill the exposure only after the votes have stopped. They added Guru I, Guru II, etc. 5 Best Photo Contests Apps For Android & Ios 2023 4. To unlock a single key that will allow you to boost one photo will cost $2.99. These are activities where the goal is to get as many votes as possible (by participating in as many challenges as possible, obviously). An update was published later in 2019, that you should read too. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road (A Final Farewell to Hard RockPark), discussion page that explains the exposure. 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You see, people get bored pretty easily, the turnover must be high to keep the interest high. (Refer to the previously mentioned, and linked, post to find out what those are and how to use em!). This is a summary of things I learned over the year playing the game. Vote for others! Its a major problem in the game platform as it shouldnt make a difference if votes were evenly distributed during the challenge running time. I enter most challenges at the beginning. Hi Jennifer, I joined Guru Shots back in December 2016. This script also runs on a Cron Schedule, by default it runs every half hour. Everything in your article is easily found on the site if people are willing to read. Gurushots Survival Guide Part IV | by Frithjof Moritzen - Medium Love taking photos? Deadline: March 31, 2023; Grand Prize: iPad Air; 1st Place Prize: 1 gold bar and Apple Watch Series 3; 2nd Place Prize: 1 platinum bar and Apple Watch Series 3 Period. Im sorry but I dont do support for Gurushots. Boosts allow the challenge participants to gain a lot of exposure to a particular photo. You have to wait for the next match. As the competition is running, the guru pro creator will select a few of the best pictures. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The more one-photo challenges you join, the more time it will take to keep your exposure level up. It simply will not allow me. Imagine if political staffers could collect permission to vote on behalf of voters in a district in perpetuity not really the will or action of a crowd, but highly effective. With these tips, I hope you get better at GuruShots and eventually become a Guru! Again it rose up to just over 1300 votes and promptly stopped. Finally, for the contest creators Basically, your images get equal exposure time along with the images of all other users who have submitted photos to that particular challenge, based on the exposure level for each user. Once youve reached maximum amount of votes possible voting on your picture have ended and you are in # 1 position (you may need several swaps and fills to get there) swap your picture out of the contest. Also, the app does not require any sort of membership fees to use. ), Before reading this post, make sure you read my short and sweet guide-slash-tutorial on Gurushots to learn more about the app and how to use it. Still on the subject of notifications: expect a lot of promotional popups while using the games website or the smartphone application. I also hate that mediocre images win challenges over great ones. Gurushots is a gaming platform, not an art contest site. For speed, challenges enter in the last 4 hours. What other photography game have you ended up joining? And so on for four photos challenges. It does not keep the 'Exposure Meter' up for the entire challenge. But Your best shot is a way more general theme and it is difficult to get a good score in these challenges because you are competing with very talented photographers. I've really taken my time to vote only for shots that respect the challenge theme and are well photographed. The reason the quality matters is that a lot of people have figured out the best time to use a swap (usually around 4 hours to closing time). Some people might have difficulties finding enough photos to enter a four-photos challenge. Also, your photo has been selected as a winner of the Guru top pick award. GuruShots is not a platform for selling photos. I had one in my group and as soon as I reported them, their profile was deleted. In the end, you just have an empty feeling as the virtual interaction bypasses anything that one considers socially fulfilling. In this article, it wont be exactly a GuruShots review, but rather some of the frequently asked questions you may have about this platform and will offer you more insights into it. What's Next? While the highest number of users are between 20 and 40 years, some are in their 60s using this website. In a 4 photo Challenge you have the choice to choose one photo per Challenge and give it a boost.. For this you will use a key. Thus, I have accumulated quite a few earned swaps (I never buy swaps, fills, and boosts) without having shots performing sufficiently poorly for me to want to swap. Enjoy playing! It no relevance to the competition and it was a poor photo in general. Winning the public vote requires you to have impeccable timing and knowledge about how the current implementation of the Gurushots system works. Vote on other players' photos, collect votes and see how you rank compared to others. It is very annoying. In one case, the All-star level is set to 2000 points while in another it is set to 2300. There is one or more team leader who decides which challenge the team enters as a whole. You can see this clearly if you keep track of a picture's average vote total per voter. ==> Here are the 10 ways to make money with photography. The free boost only unlocks for members who have joined the challenge before 25% of the challenge time has erupted or before the first 24 hours have ended. Make sure you are time-zone aware, however. When you click on a specific challenge, you can see how you rank compared to other artists. The first thing was that the same small group of players were consistently winning games with very average images. Youll see what Im talking about. Its human nature for a guru to be looking at the start of his/her challenge. The problem is that voting takes time. This way seems to get you much more votes all along the process. I use the free boost and I just vote to get my exposure meter up. The time left in the Season is displayed in each leaderboard. To calculate the factor, here is the formula Factor = POINTS / (Total_visitors -initial_visitors) 7) Respecting the times indicated .