I think what we need is a thread which strips images down, no holds barred, constructive criticism, and points out flaws so the photographers can learn from our mistakes and grow. I did this for a few years on photo.net, and learned a great deal from being active there. Thoughts??

 

Norm it's a great proposal. The one thing that would have to be understood by the participants is that critiuques are fair and the poster must learn to accept them and be willing to try to incorporate the critiques into their future shooting. The one thing I would hate to see is people taking things personally and battles starting.
Dave

 

It would be best if things were anonymous, but I think we are all adults here.

 

As a hobbyist, getting specific feedback (more than the typical C&C threads would be great.)

Something just as important is how to fix the problem, or suggestions to that end, not just identifying flaws.

 

Yes.. A thread based on constructive criticism

 

My suggestion:

- probably a good idea to have whomever critique a photo post one of their own inside the reply as well for someone else to crit.

- poster could have a choice of pointing out (should they choose) what they feel needs work with the photo in the same post with the photo. Not as a reply to the critique however, that's just defending your own work which isn't the purpose of a critique.

 

I took a photography class a while back. We had critiques each time we finished a project. The critiques were brutal, I was nervous every time, the worst was the instructor, she held nothing back. But those critiques were never personal, everybody knew what they were in for and everybody was totally helpful in their criticisms, as I said nobody got personal. It was by far the greatest photography class I ever took, I learned more in that one class than I did in the previous 25 years of taking pictures. I think this is a great idea.

 

One of the first things you learn at an art school is how to take critiques without feeling insulted. 2 things I suggest:

First all critique responses should be in a similar form to, I think this doesn't work because of such-and-such reason, and could be improved by 'blah'. A lot of people who critique for the first time make the mistake of saying basically, 'i don't like it'. If you don't have a suggestion to improve what you don't like about it, then don't post (there may be some very rare exceptions to this however).

The second suggestion would maybe be that any photos submitted for critique, should require a response posting later (different image if original location etc isn't available) that tries to incorporate most of the suggestion. This may be difficult since a single thread would quickly get lost / overwhelmed. Perhaps another suggestion would be a sub-forum, that way each poster can have their own thread?

Edit: If it isn't apparent, I am definitely for this.

 

love this idea... its just a awesome way to finally get good comments than, awesome pic or nice shot.

So should we start with a new subsection for real photo critiques or just state in our thread title?

 

Well if the powers that be allow it my vote is to have a stickied thread above for critiques. Although we do have 10 stickied threads up there already. But IMHO that would be the best place for it. I also agree with most of the suggestions on what format the thread should go in. It may be difficult however to post a pic of your own in response to a critique of someone else. But I think if we all offer our best advice in a non condescending manner all should be fine. Richuk should be the final word in the thread but in my experience dealing with him he is very fair and would be the person to oversee it. Some of us are very active here and in photography privately or professionally and I think we collectively have a lot to offer others interested in it. I personally look forward to helping others.