Critiquing Etiquette...

[theantiquetiger]

This is stemming from my critique of TBold's Fantail shot. I am new to the photography world and critiquing other people's work.

I thought I was critiquing the shot the best that I could without sounding rude and a couple people read it as rude and a couple people read it as not rude (TBold never replied to thread).

What is the etiquette of critiquing a shot you don't care for? As for the technical side of the critique, I am not much help compared to the experts on this site, so I basically can only critique on the image itself.

In the critique, I refrained from negative words (crap, junk, horrible, etc) (and I am not saying the shot was any of these). I jet basically told him I felt he missed the mark he was trying to show in the image. One Of the other critiques in the thread said if the image didn't have commentary, he wouldn't have even know what the shot was of.

Basically, like I said in that thread, It is hard to be honest and sound friendly at the same time. People read with emotion and usually not the same emotion the poster had intended for the post to sound like.

Ammo making sense or just babbling?

[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.

[Andrew]

Google photograph critique or critiquing photographs or something close. There is a lot of sources to learn from. You're right in that you can't "sound" friendly in the written word so we have to chose not only the words but the manner in which they are conveyed. I too suffer from being to abrupt not only in writing but in person and have to be reminded of it once in awhile. Good thing I have a wife that is only too willing to point out my shortcomings. I certainly wouldn't want to unintentionally offend someone. (They'll surely know if I do it on purpose though )

[Gremlich]

And limit detailed critique to the Critique thread where people purposely post their images looking for such.

[theantiquetiger]

And limit detailed critique to the Critique thread where people purposely post their images looking for such.

Touché, Grem!!!

Sorry about that Grem, I guess I was caught up in this critiquing and didn't realize where your image was posted and you didn't have "Critique my images anywhere..." under your name.

Obviously you are a great photographer (and professional one). I hope you didn't take offensive to my layman's critique.

[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.