EXACTLY how are ranking points calculated?
Last updated 30/5/23
If you want to know all the precise details of how an image's leaderboard points are calculated, here it is:
The ranking points for any particular image in a contest are calculated by combining three things in the following equation:
How well the image did in that contest (Crowd vote position + expert judge position) x what type of contest it is x how many total images were entered into that contest
Find out more details with some examples below:
1. How well the image did in that contest
The Standard Points available for contest results are as follows:
Crowd vote:
| Final position | Standard points |
| Crowd winner and Top 10 | 10,000 to 8,200 (in 200 point steps) |
| Crowd Top 10% award | 8,000 to 6,001 |
| Crowd Top 25% award | 6,000 to 4,001 |
| Crowd Top 50% | 4,000 to 2,001 |
| Remaining positions | 2000 to c.1 |
Expert judge:
| Final position | Standard points |
| Expert winner and Top 10 awards | 10,000 to 8,200 (in 200 point steps) |
| Expert Highly Commended award | 7,000 |
| Expert Commended award | 5,000 |
| Expert Merit award | 1,500 |
| Shortlisted award (if offered) | 8,000 |
Where a contest has both a crowd vote and an expert judge, the points you receive for both will be combined for that contest result.
2. Type of contest
There are three different types of contests here at Photocrowd:
Each type of contest carries a different weight for the purposes of calculating the leaderboard:
- Premium Contests: 1.5x the standard points (if expert-judged AND crowd voted) or 3x the standard points (if ONLY expert-judged or ONLY crowd-judged)
- Photography Awards: 1x the standard points (if expert-judged AND crowd voted) or 2x the standard points (if ONLY expert-judged or ONLY crowd-judged)
- Community Contests: 1x the standard points
Note that if you're new to Photocrowd, our New Joiners contests, which are available to enter for your first 28 days on the site, are worth 2x the standard ranking points
3. Size of contest
The more images are entered into a contest, the more ranking points are up for grabs.
As contests get larger, the amount of points awarded for a given placing changes:
- Up to 50 images: No ranking points available.
- Up to 199 images: 0.75 x the standard points.
- Up to 499 images: 1 x the standard points.
- Up to 999 images: 1.1 x the standard points.
- Up to 1499 images: 1.2 x the standard points.
- Up to 1999 images: 1.3 x the standard points.
- Up to 2499 images: 1.4x the standard points.
- 2500 images or more: 1.5x the standard points.
Some examples
Here are some real-life calculations to show you how these work in practise:
Example 1
You enter a Premium Contest that is crowd voted and expert judged, and which had 2,245 images entered into it. You come 3rd in the crowd vote, and get a Commendation from the judge.
(Crowd points (9,600) + Expert points (5,000)) x Premium Contest (1.5) x Size of Contest (1.4) = 14,600 x 1.5 x 1.4 = 30,660 ranking points
Example 2
You enter a Community Contest that is only crowd voted, and is relatively small, with 350 images entered. But you win it!
Crowd points (10,000) x Community Contest (1) x Size of Contest (1) = 10,000 x 1 x 1 = 10,000 ranking points
You can see from these examples that it pays to enter contests that are expert judged, and you also get rewarded for entering Premium Contests, and doing well in the larger contests where competition is greater.
Your ranking calculation
If you want to see the detail of how your current ranking is calculated, check out the Your Rankings page.