 | Writing Critiques 101 |
| Writing Critiques 101 |
Writing Critiques 101 | ||
| Collecting thoughts for a MHM guide... | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #1 Added: 2005-06-30 11:00:34 | |
| I know that I had trouble writing my first 'real' critique when I started posting on Trek Earth. It was a bit scary to say something critical to another person about their photograph. And to say it in public. I suspect that a lot of people don't readily overcome that uncomfortable feeling and stick with "pretty picture" comments or say nothing at all. I'm thinking that we might put our thoughts together into a "How to" guide that would make it easier to get going and being a contributing member. Here's some ideas to get the discussion started. Open with a 'nice'. Say something good about the shot first. Don't open by kicking the photographer in the shin. Concentrate on one or two things about the photograph that are the most obvious/easiest to fix (or avoid the next time). Don't overburden the photographer with a laundry list of 'faults' in a single critique. If you start with 'straighten and crop' type criticisms, you've given a newby something that's not too hard to learn. You can get to the more complicated stuff later. Avoid empty praise. We all like to hear nice stuff, but nice stuff generally doesn't inform. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #2 Added: 2005-06-30 12:25:14 | |
| And perhaps we could use a "How to Take Criticism 101"? It's not fun having people point out one's screwups. Even if you made them in a state of ignorance. For many of us the initial response is to get upset/angry and want to snap back or at least defend ourselves. Of course if we do this, or at least overdo this, we will stifle criticism and may not get further useful feedback. So how to teach oneself to graciously accept negatives? Don't kill the messenger. Count to ten. Ideas? | ||
| Ali Watters (Ali) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #3 Added: 2005-06-30 13:35:52 | |
| Great idea Bob! > Open with a 'nice'. Say something good about the shot first. Don't open by kicking the photographer in the shin. Following this advice in the forum is useful too :-) Avoid unqualified critism - eg. "this image is terrible" - as opposed to - "this image is very overexposured on the widget" Try to be constructive with the critism - if possible offer a way to avoid the mistake or improve the photo next time. "this image is very overexposured on the widget" add "if your in a similar situation again you can avoid this by - shooting in raw, using bracketing" I'm sure to have more later - then I'll try to start following this advice in my critiques :) | ||
| Andy Leach (RedAndy) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #4 Added: 2005-07-04 13:23:01 | |
| All good advice, thanks :) What about being a 'critique mentor'? Got someone that's having trouble giving feedback? Then maybe encourage them to have a go at some of your own images and then let them know how they did - what they missed, if they were too rude or too fluffy and after a couple of those they should get the idea and develop an eye and feedback style of their own. With such small clubs it might be possible to do something like that if the better 'critiquers' amongst you are willing...? | ||
| Rajesh Ramachandran (fotobirajesh) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #5 Added: 2006-03-29 03:45:54 | |
| photo criticism I would say is a difficult task. often you see that critique will say, you need to try from another angle, even without trying to understand the real life situation that this was the only available angle, or crop it this way and when there is a tight frame, you should have included some more space around and this way and that way. So I never critic a photo unless I have the photographer in front of me, so that I can ask him about the exact situation if I feel like saying something about a photograph. In many international magazines, you can see the same critique commenting differently on different shots. It is really funny to read them | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #6 Added: 2006-03-29 04:14:27 | |
| But if someone says that you should/could have shot the image from a different angle, whatever, you then get the privilege of looking at your image through someone else's eyes and possibly learning something new. You may well know that it wasn't possible for you to have used that angle, but the act of thinking about what you took, how, and why can be valuable. And the act of writing a critique can be a valuable learning tool. When you can put your ideas into words and communicate them to others you are really in control of what you know. Doing something is a skill. Being able to explain to someone else how to do that thing is a higher level skill. Obviously it would be better if we could meet in person and discuss our photographs. But we are scattered around the world. Off hand there are people from California, England, Thailand, and India, just to name a few. Typing out our words is the best option that we have. And because it's harder to communicate with only the written word we are charged with being more careful about what we say. And charged to be careful about how we read the words of others. Best to be slow to take offense and quick to forgive. | ||
| Rajesh Ramachandran (fotobirajesh) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #7 Added: 2006-03-29 05:34:40 | |
| I never meant about the offence factor. I am glad to see the comments and critiques on my photos. for eg. i was surprised about the blue patches you found out in those bull race photo and much appreciated it. But what i meant was that most critiques only speak about this aspect, changing the angle and cropping. And even now I got something from your post. Why I find it difficult for myself to be a critique is because I can never be a teacher. As you say to explain to somebody is a higher skill level. But I must still say, photography critique should not only speak about angle and cropping. It is like some film critiques who spend 90% of their space explaining the story of the movie. | ||
| Rajesh Ramachandran (fotobirajesh) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #8 Added: 2006-03-29 05:36:19 | |
| and yes Bob, just for another eg. somebody commented on one of my photographs here, which is the main subject, water or the carvings. I admit till now, I never thought about this aspect. Nor did many of the people who saw the pictures before. So it was a very good point for me. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #9 Added: 2006-03-29 12:57:58 | |
| We're on the 'general' forum at the moment, but let me speak in particular about the Blind Pig. What holds for the Pig might not hold for all present or future clubs on Jeber. The Pig is an interactive activity in which the members work to help each other make their photography the best possible in every way. My guess is that none of us knows everything about photography and critiquing the photographs of others. We often teach ourselves something new and then share it with other members. I would say that the critiques are somewhat tilted toward editing/Photoshop type work at the moment. But perhaps for good reasons. For the most part we are travelers. We present the photographs that we have already made and those photographs are our memories. In general we won't get the opportunity to take a those shots a second time. So there's a natural interest in taking what we have and making the best possible presentation from them. Then, the fact that someone says that part of a photo is blown out and then spends the bulk of the review talking/displaying how to fix it may, at first glance, seem to be about editing. But the photographer has also been told "Watch the exposure." by simply acknowledging the over exposed area. Or when the Skew Tool is used to straighten some verticals then message is embedded to "Stand square to your subject.". Now should there be more to the critiques? It would be wonderful. But someone has to teach us what those additional things are. Please don't assume that (speaking for myself) we know more than we are showing on the site at the moment. If you know, then teach. If you don't know, go learn, then teach. If you don't know, but know someone who does, recruit them to come and teach us all. And if you don't know how to teach this is a great place to learn. We're a friendly, accepting group. If you misstep, apologize and try again. In the end if any of us improve in any manner we all win. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #10 Added: 2006-03-29 18:24:41 | |
| Here's a site where the 'operator' critiques one image per day. The critique is presented in a video format so that you can hear his thoughts and watch him work on the image. Might be a good learning tool... The Daily Critique | ||
| Ron Craig (Ron) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #11 Added: 2006-04-23 21:44:55 | |
| I remember many such discussions on TrekEarth Bob. At this point in time iTE has got to the stage where the site has largely moved from 'That's nice!' kinds of critiques to a pretty bland 'Good composition and I love the colors' kind of critique. So in some ways people are putting more thought into their critiques but in many ways it's still formulaic. The bottom line is that by advising someone how to write a critique you risk forcing them into a mould. The issue here isn't that people don't know how to write critiques - rather it's that they don't know how to express their opinions in non-abstract terms. By virtue of their membership here some people just do a much better job expressing themselves though images than through words. For me, the best way to approach the critiquing process is to take the initial reaction and put it into words. It's important to note that I'm differentiating between an 'opinion' and a verbalized reaction. So if a thumbnail appears striking, I try to put that into words. In other words, the reaction comes first (I like the photo) and the critique is the 'why' part. The same applies if I don't like a photo. But there's the irony - I'm much more likely to critique a photo that I like rather than one that I don't. I'm sure that most of us are in the same boat. Unfortunately a mass of glowing critiques serves little purpose for the artist other than fanning their vanity. So if we're going to give advice, let's try to keep it simple. And let's encourage members to treat their critiques as they treat the images they post - something that other members use to measure them. A critique is also something personal which you should be proud to be associated with. Ron. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #12 Added: 2006-04-23 23:24:37 | |
| I agree that advising someone on how to write a critique could force them into a mold. But to not advise could leave them struggling as to how to start. I think the best idea might be if several people were to give their ideas about how to write a critique and then people could pick and choose, come up with a mix that best fits them. But, hey! I'm just guessing. I don't know much about writing critiques. I'm just reflecting on the type of feedback that I find useful to me. | ||
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