Please post no more than five images a day and respond to as many images as you post. Critics, please be constructive, specific, and nice! Moderated by gahspidy and mtbbrian.
By posting on the Photo Critique forum you agree to post only your own photos, be respectful, and give back as much as you receive. This is a moderated forum and anything abusive or
off-topic will be removed.
I can understand that! The critique forum used to be one of my favorite forums and the main reason why I first joined. But I rarely visit it anymore. A sincere reply with not so much as an acknowledgment kills the helpful spirit pretty quickly.
I wish you, Seb, and others would come around once in a while. I'd certainly appreciate it, I can tell you that.
I don't really know how to feel about this thread. I am quite happy to judge the art of others, but I am not necessarily happy talking about it. What do I know about art? I mean I know a few things of course, but I really don't feel qualified telling other people how to go about improving.
I do think that most people can learn to be comptetent at any given thing although some struggle at it a lot more. I used to go to a life drawing session with a friend of mine, and it was always obvious to me that he struggled with it a LOT more than I, but I had been studying anatomy and drawing for a lot longer.
I like posting in the critique forum just because I like hearing what others have to say, and hence I try to offer opinions, but I rarely have much passion behind them unless I like the work.
But I long ago realized that I could never beat Michael Jordan at basketball. And I have largely realized that I am unlikely to produce art that really appeals to huge numbers of people. But I also recently realized that I do it because I am compelled to. I may not be that good, but I know I can be better. So I keep telling myself it does not matter how I feel about it. It does not matter how others feel about it. I just have to keep doing the work.
If I don't have anything nice to say, I don't say anything.
While I can totally appreciate that approach... because I've been guilty myself... it is usually not very helpful when someone is asking for a critique, which many (though, admittedly, not all) who post on the Critique forum actually are.
I've long suspected that there are a lot experienced photographers here who could be of serious help to comparative newbies but choose to remain silent. Granted, it takes thought and energy to critique a crappy image - or one that you just don't particularly like - but even if you could offer one suggestion for improvement... or one pointer for next time... your efforts would most likely be appreciated by those who are truly looking for honest feedback and not just a pity pat.
If I wanted to limit the feedback I get to either "amazing!" or crickets, I'd post exclusively on flickr and keep on guessing as to why the view count isn't higher...
As an amateur hobbyist I often come to the thread to look at what people are posting and review comments to see what sort of critique is given in the hope I will also learn from it.
I'll post a critique myself when I can and I feel it's within my skill level to do so, but the standard of many here is so good I find it difficult and embarrassing to try and critique such photo's, hence shy away from possibly saying something stupid.
I usually pick photos posted which have had none or only a few critiques as it's disappointing for nothing to be said at all. My disclaimer for not posting more is that it really does take time, to think about the shot, try and see what the photographer was trying to capture and then putting yourself in the camera to make an assessment to write a critique.
I do however really appreciate all those who offer their time to write a critique and take my hat off to you all, thank you and thanks to the moderators.
I have learned a lot from this forum over the years and try to post more comments than I receive as a means of giving back to a site that doesn't cost me to join and provides me with value in feedback on my own photos.
:thumbsup: Shootme...
Please don't edit and re-post or use my images (not that you'd want to anyway...). without my written permission. Thank you
I have been taking "snapshots" (mostly of my kids) for a couple years with a cheap point and shoot camera. I decided I wanted to make it more of a hobby because I really enoyed having a camera in my hand. I went out and bought a decent DSLR, probably a little too much camera for my skill level, but something I could grow into. Of course for the first year I continued to use it just like my point and shoot and rarely left the "dummy" settings for lack of knowledge. I started to explore those settings and started reading everything I could about aperture, and composition, etc. Recently I went out and tried to take some shots using the information I read about and actually put thought into the shot and the camera settings. Of course my wife, friends and family think I am fantastic. I decided to post my first attempt on this site and another because I wanted some honest feedback. I wanted said feedback to learn. I don't have a mentor and have never taken any formal classes on art or photography. I want and crave to learn and improve. The feedback I have received as well as reading the critiques of other peoples photographs have truely helped me in such a short time. I find myself looking at images with a more crtical eye and notice things I never noticed before. I believe there is much to gain from even a begginer's opinion. When I look at your shot, I see what I like and don't like about it from the perspective of the avergae person. In my professional life I "practice" dentistry. They call it a proctice because although we have several years of training and experience, we are always learning, and can always learn from anyone.
To summarize my ramblings: I am very grateful for this forum and appreciate all critiques of my work and hope anyone I comment on appreciates it as well.
Adamo, we are glad to have new members like yourself that recognize and understand the importance and benefits of critique. What really struck me from your post here was the ackowledgement that there is much to gain from even a beginners opinion/critique. That is a great atitude and so very true. Too many newcomers to photography feel as though they may not be experienced enough to offer their critique or feedback, and thats simply wrong.
I joined this forum just about the time I first started taking photography more seriously, in 2004. I felt the same way then that you do now and the forum and critique from others in the community has been the single most important "tool" in my work having improved since then.
I have read this thread,....and I am glad that the opinions and critiques of total beginners like me will be welcomed and appreciated as well.
Before deciding to sign up for this forum, I have viewed through alot of the pictures posted in this section, and I am very happy with the details and levels of feedback provided.
I will soon be posting critiques,...I may not be a native English speaker, but I will do my best in my written language to make it as clear as possible.
And also,....I am keen to be a "useful" contributor of critique.
I am thinking this, most of the critiques are from very experienced and talented photographers,....so having me here may bring a different perspective.
Its abit like knowing what an inexperienced person (or non-photographer) public like me think of your photo. You know,...there are plenty of people like me out there.
Photo critique is not show and tell. You shouldn't have to like a photo to be able to offer a critique. Ideally, you should be able to offer an opinion or suggestion whether the image does anything for you personally or not.
Welcome to PhotographyREVIEW.com, PAMM! We're happy to have you and believe you'll find this forum is a great place to learn about and improve your photography
I am very interested in the different kind of photography but as a beginner I am welling to accept some critique so that I will learn from it. Having a critique is not really bad in photography process it is your way so that you can learn from a big things.
Photo critique is not show and tell. You shouldn't have to like a photo to be able to offer a critique. Ideally, you should be able to offer an opinion or suggestion whether the image does anything for you personally or not.
I agree, but if the image does nothing for you personally, how can you have an opinion about it? Disliking an image or having a negative opinion about an image is just as important as a positive one... now, negative comments just for the sake of argument are not at all constructive.
hallo, i'm dellarossa.. i'm interesting with Canon EOS 70D Digital SLR Camera product on amazon, i've read many reviews, but im still not satisfied with it.
anyone can give me more reviews ? i saw it here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J3Y9U6/tag=dellcoine-20
I agree with Asmarlak's comment that things could be set once the person takes the shot, negating the value of post-shooting critique, but that assumes that the person either can't or won't understand, accept and/or learn from the critiques. Some do, some don't - some just don't see things that others do, some don't learn from their mistakes as quickly, and some people just let their egos get in the way (which is especially sad).
I also really like Ed's observation that practice has the danger of making things permanent, not perfect. I think practice doing the same thing over and over, slightly refining along the way, can help you nail the technical aspects of photography, but not the artistic aspects. You must keep an open mind in that .. it's really black magic, and nobody has had any real success formulating creativity.
What I love about this critique forum is the wide range of different angles the comments take. It helps break me out of my normal mold.
I think you really have to have a little bit of a thick skin to post your work for critique. Art's a personal thing, and depending on what you're posting the critiquers may not just be evaluating the photographs you took, but your artist vision. Yeah it can sting a bit if someone doesn't like it, but if you don't put your stuff out there you'll never really know how good it is.
I've wanted to write a real article about the photo critique process for quite a while. I finally made it a point to sit down and write a short article on the subject. I'd love for everyone here to read it and comment. I hope it inspires people to be more serious about photo critique.
Those of you who have been around here for a while know that I occasionally jump in and scold people for not posting real critiques and wax philosophical about how and why true critique is so important. We've got something special on this forum. It would be a shame if we didn't give it the value and respect it deserves. For the sake of the forum and also because I am showing us off to the whole photographic world, I'd like to see everyone here step it up a bit. I would like to see a lot less comments without any critique. There's no such thing as a perfect photo. There's always something that can be improved or even just done differently.
I'd also like to see more discussion about concept and meaning. Technical issues are just the surface; they're easy to point out. What is more difficult - and what will help us all grow more - is looking more deeply into content, meaning and motivation. Why did we take this picture and not another? What does the relationship of the subject to other elements in the photo mean? How might we further explore a given subject? These are the questions that can transform photos from pretty pictures into something bigger and more powerful.