As a photographic society, one of CAPA’s most important roles is to nurture and encourage photographers at all levels to increase their knowledge and expertise in the art. Historically, one of the very significant ways we did this was to ensure that members received evaluation through judges with wide experience and knowledge of all aspects of photography.
Originally created in Western Canada, instruction courses have evolved and grown to encompass new technology and techniques. CAPA provides nation-wide courses teaching the fundamentals of judging, so that those who enter our competitions, can be assured of consistent and well informed evaluation and commentary of their work.
CAPA has trained judges since its inception to provide skilled competent judges and commentators at CAPA sponsored competitions, club events and international exhibitions. CAPA clubs particularly seek the help of CAPA judges for their own in-house competitions on a regular basis, and look to us to provide a consistent standard of judging across the country.
Many individuals take the judging course as a means of understanding what we expect in competitive judging. Significant time is spent on image analysis and an understanding of what an evaluator means when commenting on things that can improve an image’s impact and score.
Course Options
Our course is now provided in two versions, a one day course, for a general introduction, and a more comprehensive course covering two days of intensive review, assessment and participation.
Course Schedules
The CAPA Judging Course is held across Canada throughout the year. View the current course listing and register for a course here.
How to Become a CAPA Certified Judge
CAPA offers a distinction to individuals who meet the CAPA high quality standard for Judging. Those who successfully participate are authorized to use “CAPA Certified Judge”. If you are interested in going forward with certification, the steps to take are set out in the Certification as a CAPA Judge PDF document.
A special CAPA thank you to our members for their generous support by providing many of the photographic examples we use as teaching tools during the course. We appreciate your work and support.
