Do you post your work in the image critique group?
Do you learn from them, or is it not helpful?
I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Let's try and I want to stress the word try and keep it constructive.
Please don't offer critique on anyone participating here, unless they specifically ask for one.
Regards
It's always worthwhile getting a critique as long as anyone asking for one doesn't get upset and defensive if anyone criticises their work, modelling, photography etc. You have to get independent feedback on where you might be going wrong, especially when you just wing it like I do.
"Do you post your work in the image critique group?
Do you learn from them, or is it not helpful?"
I don't post in the critique group. From what I've seen it's rarely encouraging/constructive.
Mostly because so much of it comes with baggage and is quite incurious.
I used to regard the critique group as the please be mean to me group. You'd get a few polite, helpful comments but lots of others which were not very nice.
However, I dared to use it recently and it was much better. Many useful comments and no mean ones.
I've used it a couple of times. I specifically asked a very directed question, and while the usual fluffy off-topic replies came as well, it did bring some really useful, constructive advice.
It's very much a case of "ask a better question, get a better answer".
On the other hand, when I've tried to give directed, specific, constructive critique, I've more than once been rewarded by getting blocked :')
The best critique is ask the model/sitter/second shooter/assistant/ for feedback during shoot. Invaluable and part of process, especially video using a directors monitor, instant critique.
I've asked for a Critique yesterday, no one seems to follow the guidelines, I specifically asked for them to pick the photo they like and the one they don't like the most and tell me why. I got back a general review of everything in the albums, which basically tells me to go and shoot with other photographers and stop being so wooden :-) They really have a point lol
Critiques Welcome (Page 1) / Portfolio Review
Edited by tandi
No, I don't ask for critique on here.
Personally, if I want a second (or third or fourth...) opinion about something, I ask certain people privately. The people on my 'to ask' list will give me a focussed and 100% honest opinion rather than a 'polite' opinion, and they will know me well enough to (a) know what I'm trying to achieve and (b) make suggestions that are relevant to the limits of my skills and resources. (An example of point [b]... Someone once suggested a host of editing stuff that could be done in Lightroom or Photoshop. All well and good, but I don't have Lightroom or Photoshop. So their comments, although well-intentioned, were irrelevant.]
I have. Not very recently, I think.
I have learned,
- from critique I've asked for;
- from critique I've seen given to others;
- from trying to find something useful to say about the photograph someone has asked for critique on.
Some of what I've learned was about some other members. This has improved over a few years.
If you want an honest critique of your image or portfolio, ask someone you know and trust. You'll rarely get a fair or unbiased answer from the community. When a model asks for critique, she will often face a queue of photographers who, if interested in working with her, will provide positive feedback, and if not, may give a negative review simply because they’re not interested in working with her. If a photographer asks for feedback, they are likely to be met by a slew of 'the best photographers in the world,' eager to give advice—even if they themselves haven’t quite managed to get the camera off manual mode in the 30 years they've been shooting.
Bottom line: a review or critique only has real value if you trust and respect the person giving it, and if it helps you progress as an artist. Otherwise, most of the time, you're just setting yourself up in a shooting gallery—and not the nice kind with shiny cameras.
I have a few people I talk to regularly on here whom I trust, and I often share my work with them because they give me honest answers and feedback I can rely on. I’d rather do that than throw myself into mob rule controlled by clique bias and self-adulation :-) Just saying.
Not done it for years. It used to be full of people being rather unpleasant but when you looked at their profiles they certainly weren't in a position to give that type of critique.
tandi said
I've asked for a Critique yesterday, no one seems to follow the guidelines, I specifically asked for them to pick the photo they like and the one they don't like the most and tell me why. I got back a general review of everything in the albums, which basically tells me to go and shoot with other photographers and stop being so wooden :-) They really have a point lol
This may have sounded as if I was upset with anyone who gave me a general review, I apologise for that. I was not upset with anyone and gratefully received the advice which was accurate and confirmed what I already thought about my modelling and the photos in general.
bad john said
I used to regard the critique group as the please be mean to me group. You'd get a few polite, helpful comments but lots of others which were not very nice.
However, I dared to use it recently and it was much better. Many useful comments and no mean ones.
John - understood.
I think that there have been extremes. On one hand there used to be someone who fancied himself as PP's answer to Craig Revell-Horwood and whose 'critiques' (please note the inverted commas) were often very personal. But that guy seems to have gone quiet.
On the other hand, I think that a lot of people go by the 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' adage. So there could be instances where someone thinks 'I might be able to offer constructive comments, but I'm rubbish at walking on eggshells', so they take the safe option and say nothing.
Just my take on things.
"I think that there have been extremes. On one hand there used to be someone who fancied himself as PP's answer to Craig Revell-Horwood and whose 'critiques' (please note the inverted commas) were often very personal. But that guy seems to have gone quiet."
If this is who I think it is.. They were *exactly* of person I was thinking of. On nearly every image or port review. Long treaties on what the photographer got wrong (usually). Often full of bias. And like bad geek podcasts, they mistook length with importance. But also thin skinned and never took his own advice.