Larry, Let me share what we have done in the local Pentax group here in the Philippines, I get to be asked to critique photos ever so often and Filipinos are the worst in either giving or receiving critique (okay, someone out there might think their culture are worse...). One thing that I have done is to make a 'rules of engagement' that allows the critique to be private. This "softens" the shame factor of a really scathing comment. This also makes Facebook the worst place to critique photos--its hard to make sober criticism when the photographers' mom "liked" it. So we have this ritual of having them state they seriously want a critique and then they should put the photo in the end of their stream in Flickr (by changing the date the photo was uploaded) so it would not be randomly seen.
>From then on a conversation follows in the comments page which, depending on the one being critiqued, may either be deleted or shared to the rest of the group. I usually add a disclaimer that goes "...feel free to delete this comment after you have read it..." I generally get a "thank you" for my comments, of which I assume to mean "thanks but no thanks" (esp for the bad ones) then never hear from them again. A funny ending to one episode was after I deconstructed this guy's photo, he went ahead and shared to the group the photo complete with my comments. I asked "are you sure?" He said he's actually proud of it--its like showing off a black eye given by Manny Pacquiao... Bong :-) On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 9:10 AM, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > I wasn't referring to the PDML per se, but just the skills in general. Being > an engineer, I could spend a lot of time designing an online photography > critique community, but that is an exercise in mental masturbation that I'll > leave for another day. > > Here is a disorganized brain dump of some of my thoughts on the subjects. > Maybe, at some point, I'll try and actually write a coherent piece on the > subject. Or at least put in enough effort to find one that someone else has > already written. > > 1) Opinions are neither right nor wrong. If someone doesn't like something, > there's nothing to argue about. Different people will like different things. > On several occasions two photos, or two versions, of the same photo, posted > to a group of skilled photographers, with the question "which is better", > and invariably the results are split. And it can be for reasons as basic as > "I prefer color" , "I prefer black and white", or "I hate the shade of teal > in the second shot". > > 2) I can learn from anybody. Even if I know far more than someone about a > particular topic, they can always see something that I missed. > > 3) I least enjoy hearing about what I did wrong, but that is usually what I > most need to hear to improve my craft. If I don't know what's wrong, it is > very hard to fix it. > > 4) It is just as important to tell someone what they did right, what worked, > as what didn't work. > > 5) It is very rarely as useful to ask for critique of a set, as it is of a > single photograph. The person reviewing them won't have time to devote to > each one, and there will almost always be exceptions to observations like > "it looks like your horizon is crooked", or "it looks like your autofocus is > in love with the microphone and hates the vocalist". > > 6) It is often more useful to ask for feedback about a particular aspect of > a photograph. > > 7) Don't just say that something is wrong, give suggestions on how to fix > it. > > 8) I can learn as much from reading critiques of other people's work, as I > can reading critiques of my own. > > 9) Someone looking at a photo on a wall generally won't care if it was taken > at ISO 640, f/8 or with an instamatic, Hasselblad, or 645D. However, someone > trying to help you improve your photography will need to know details like > ISO, shutter speed, aperture, maybe the lens, was it on a tripod or hand > held, what sort of lighting, did you shoot a grey card frame to set the > color balance, was it taken on auto or manual focus, or any of the myriad of > technical details that affect a shot. > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] (from dos4est) > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- Bong Manayon http://bong.manayon.net -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
