Critiquing Etiquette...

[Bambi]

Ammo making sense or just babbling?

lol you are making sense and everyone understood that you were not trying to be rude. honest.

keep in mind that this forum is highly supportive of each others works. This may make us a bit soft sometimes which is not necessarily helpful. All I can tell you is that when I make a critique I make sure that mention at least one good thing and then will state what I think misses the mark but try to frame it in a way that helps the person know what to do better next time. I do this because that's how I was treated when I first started posting and it really encouraged me to keep trying and learn.

[theantiquetiger]

keep in mind that this forum is highly supportive of each others works. This may make us a bit soft sometimes which is not necessarily helpful.

One thing I really like about this forum is the smaller size. I joined three forums, this one and two others. The other two are huge and give no feedback, they are basically guys pounding their chest about their "masterpieces". After a few post,'I finally get a "critique" of my technique of the BW's with a slash of color left. I know they are not great shots as for technique, but I thought I had done a great job on the colorizing considering I just learned it that day. My critique was basically all colorized photos like this are garbage.

The critique did nothing but basically keep me from going back.

This site is not like this. You guys are helpful and patient (especially with me because I know I have crap right now). Like Grim said above, if some one is ASKING to be critiqued, don't sugar coat it, critique it, good or bad (without being rude).

[mellowinman]

For an example of the worst criticism I could possibly ever get, go to this thread:

http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f2/self-portrait-15772.html

[NorthStone]

@ theantiquetiger

I respect you for following this up and I know where you're coming from as you were trying to give your honest assessment of TBold's pic. I'm not sure if you said this but some mentioned that critiques are subjective and open to interpretation. I would suggest choosing words with care, this is not just aimed at you but anyone. Taking time over a critique is a good thing in any case as it allows us to develop more cogently reasons why we like or dislike something and make word choices to be both constructive and friendly. This is easier said than done but I think it's something we should aim for.

Regards,
NorthStone

[thoughton]

My own personal technique is to look at the photo and decide what I like and what I don't like, but then when I post I talk about the bad stuff first, and end on the good stuff. The idea is that even if I accidentally rub someone the wrong way with the bad news, hopefully the good news at the end cheers them up a bit It can sometimes be a challenge to find the good stuff, but there's always something. A whole bunch of smilies sometimes helps too

Of course, some people simply don't want critique, they just enjoy sharing and pats on the back, so try and be sure that they actually want constructive criticism.

[Wicked Dark]

and before everyone gets all up in arms, go back to the fantail thread and read what the Original Poster thought about theantiquetiger's critique.

[NorthStone]

I don't see any comments from TBond on theantiquetiger's critique.

[tbond]

Being the recipient of the critique, I would like to say thanks for the honesty.
I do want to know when an image doesn't do the job, but I also want to know what could have been done better, and I realise that there was very little information provided to assist anyone critiquing the image. I have added some more information to the original thread in terms of the camera settings used, etc.
In the educational world we have a little axiom about critiquing someone's work that has served me well. It may be of use in this arena as well, especially as emotions are tied into creating, viewing and responding to images.
The concept is to make a sandwich of the critique. Place the the meat of the critique between two positives.
Be honest because a critique is useless otherwise. however place the meat of the critique in a sandwich.
Regardless of all that, I liked the honesty and I appreciated comment. So many people seem to look and say nothing.
cheers.