How to stop being discouraged from lack of feedback?

nerwin

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Today we are so incredibly fortunate to be able to share our work with the entire world with a press of a button, while it's a blessing, its a curse.

We are so use to people these days providing some sort of feedback on your work and we enjoy getting that feedback, it makes us feel good.

What happens when we don't get feedback? We feel discouraged and makes you think that you are not good enough.

There are times when I get a lot of feedback on my images in forms such as favorites, likes, comments (negative or positive) and that really encourages me to keep going but there are occasions when I get very little if not no feedback on my work and it makes me think, well maybe this photo just sucks and I start to feel discouraged and contemplate deleting the photo.

Social media is a very odd thing. You see all these photographers on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, etc and they have thousands and thousands of followers and get an alarming amount of feedback but yet their photos are mostly mediocre and processed using a one click VSCO filter, every single photo looks and feels exactly the same.

Is that what photography is? Just to get views and popular on the internet? I'm seeing this more and more everyday. I know many photographers who's work is outstanding, heck a few I know have photos on display in popular art museums and yet, they get next to no feedback when they share their work on social media. Why is that?

I'm unfortunately falling down this trap, I'm starting to post my photos certain times of the day using certain tags, processing them a certain way to get the maximum popularity just so I get that little tiny bit of feedback that makes me feel good but even then, its not a guarantee your going to receive that feedback your looking for. When you do all this work and get little or no feedback, it can really upset you and bring you down.

What can we do keep ourselves encouraged when we don't get feedback on our work? How do you keep yourself encouraged?

One might say to not post your work on the internet, while I understand that, I certainly don't want to end up like Vivian Maier! I like to share my work with the world but how can I get the thought out of my head that I NEED some kind of visual or verbal feedback on my photos to keep going?
 
Shoot what's personally fulfilling and you won't care what kind of feedback you get. I love when a photo is well received, but the general public will also fawn over terrible HDR and VSCO shots, so I don't care if a photo I love doesn't get much attention.

If you want validation on social media, start doing composite moon and Milky Way photos, those always get thousands of likes despite being utter garbage
 
Your absolutely right, I should be taking pictures for myself and not for others or to follow a certain trend.

I'm honestly starting to hate Instagram, its like so fake. I hate it when people follow you and if you don't follow them right back, they unfollow you. I hate that crap! I want people to follow me who WANT to follow me.
 
I would have to agree with the above, shot what you like and enjoy. Find other photographs who inspire your work and work on meeting or exceeding their work.

Many chefs cook because they love it not because every guest stop by the kitchen on their way out and gives them a comment or feedback.

One of the biggest issues with social media is people are not 100% honest, because someones feels might get hurt or if you don't conform to main stream you are "bad", there are tons of photos on there that suck.

Keep your head up and keep learning and enjoy what you are doing.
 
Most of the Social Media photos are so bad I can't even think of how to make it so bad.
People support the selfies of everyone as "beautiful" etc etc no matter how bad the image looks.

It's not a positive critique, but a positive reinforcement of that person themselves, not of the photo itself.
 
Sounds as if you are a person that suffers from approval addiction. You can live for others and try to do what pleases the crowd at any given moment, keeping in mind that the crowd mentality is very fickle and want to change, or you can live for yourself and purse what pleases you.

Perhaps it is time to step back from all of this social media a bit. It is neither social in the true sense of the word nor is it a form of media with much true value in it's mass form.

"There are so many different walks of life, so many different personalities in the world. And no longer do you have to be a chameleon and try and adapt to that environment - you can truly be yourself."
Hope Solo
 
Compliments are like a drug, they make you feel good. The more you get the more you want. Social media is full of those "pat you on the back" kind of places. Couple of years ago I was on a social media site for photography, I found out quick that the only comment wanted were complimentary. Any attempt at valid criticism was sure to make the pack turn on you. Personally I'd much rather have valid critique on an image so I can grow and learn, that way I know when I do receive a compliment, that it's valid and not a shallow remark.
 
Shoot for you not to impress others. Likes and comments can be deceiving. If you were around this site 5 0r 6 years ago you would have gotten a lot better critique on your photos. I've noticed in the past year that people on here will like just about any photo that's posted. If you don't get likes or comment on here it's really the silent way of people saying the photo is either not interesting or not that good. So the only one that needs to like your photos is you.
 
Keep in mind, based on Facebook's algorithms, every time you post a photo, it only goes out to a % of people who liked your photography page. If you are using a personal page, the same applies to your friends. So when you look back at your "likes" per photo.... it's not I got 20 likes of my 50 friends. It might be I got 20 out of 30 that saw it. And even on the newsfeeds of people who get it posted, if they follow too many people they may not have a chance to scroll and see everything anyway.

(People who turn notifications on/off or set the follow override these algorithms of course, but in general you will not hit %100 of your "liked" list with each photo.)
 
Compliments are like a drug, they make you feel good. The more you get the more you want. Social media is full of those "pat you on the back" kind of places. Couple of years ago I was on a social media site for photography, I found out quick that the only comment wanted were complimentary. Any attempt at valid criticism was sure to make the pack turn on you. Personally I'd much rather have valid critique on an image so I can grow and learn, that way I know when I do receive a compliment, that it's valid and not a shallow remark.

I like those comments that give me valid feedback instead of "nice picture" or "beautiful photo" as its usually just an attempt to get you to look at their photos or to follow them. I've done this myself as well and it feels stupid.

Sure I'll click like or favorite on photos that I like but if there is a photo that really draws me or peaks my interest, I'll leave a good comment and explain why I like it or what I think it could make it better.
 
Keep in mind, based on Facebook's algorithms, every time you post a photo, it only goes out to a % of people who liked your photography page. If you are using a personal page, the same applies to your friends. So when you look back at your "likes" per photo.... it's not I got 20 likes of my 50 friends. It might be I got 20 out of 30 that saw it. And even on the newsfeeds of people who get it posted, if they follow too many people they may not have a chance to scroll and see everything anyway.

(People who turn notifications on/off or set the follow override these algorithms of course, but in general you will not hit %100 of your "liked" list with each photo.)

I make my mom share my photos, since she has like a thousand friends hehe (don't laugh). But I only share photos once in a while on Facebook as I'm not a big FB fan, its usually as a means for communication with family.
 
To me it's a marketing tool. And I wont laugh at getting your mom to post. It makes sense. When I shoot for trade with models, a big factor in selection process is ... do they have the look I'm aiming for and next... how many friends do they have. I'm older (45). My generation typically has fewer friends than my son's generation. So when I shoot people in their 20s, I'll get like 20-30 likes maybe on my photo. But that same photo on their timeline...the feedback dwarfs mine. (All of which I then invite to follow/share my page :) and even have a referral payback as an incentive)
 
One thing I like to suggest on here is to go to the website of the people your getting likes and comments from. This will give you and idea of their photography skill and knowledge.
 
I've been very slow joining the social media craze. I don't have an active instagram, twitter etc. I only just recently decided to start facebooking my photographic work. Not because I want likes or anything like that, but because I want people in my area to see what I'm doing and see those instances when my path intersects with people they know. I do a lot of street photography and I volunteer at the local colleges pretty often for their events. Since I'm not a pro photographer, rather a hobbyist who pays for his gear and photo trips through some photography work driven almost entirely by word of mouth, these events that I volunteer at drive in a lot of new business. Getting onto facebook has allowed everyone to tag the people they know in those photos. The other thing it does is show me metrics I've been studying on my own. I can see what types of photos seem to resonate with my community more solidly through likes and engagement versus just which prints they choose to purchase for themselves a la carte. But I have to take that information with a grain a salt, because it can be skewed by who is in the photo itself and how popular they are.

When I want feedback on my work... I don't go to the uneducated. Whether they like a photo or not is definitely valid, but... most of the time they can't tell you what it is they like about it or why. In general they will lack the communication skills and the specialized contextual knowledge/language to enrich your photography in any meaningful way through articulate discussion. That's not a bad thing, we are a species of specialists. I submit work to contests and my peers when I want someone to tell me something about what I'm doing. In that case, I usually also add my thought process and creative process as part of the post. "I wanted my background to look like this so I did this, I wanted this sort of mood so I angled my light this way... I was in this type of room and fighting with this condition so I placed my lights here and used adjusted my camera settings" That way... my peers can think about what they would have done under similar circumstances and maybe even suggest a solution that didn't occur to me because I'm entirely self taught.

Since that's what I am looking for when I post among peers, that's also what I choose to provide. I don't love/like a photo without leaving a comment about something in the photo that drove me to press that button. "This is the thing or things I like the most in this photo" or "These are the things that resonated with me the least in this photo."

You'll get out of these things what you put into them, and they will reflect your intentions at you as they pay out. If you want to make an 8 year old happy, make him a grilled cheese sandwich. If you want to make a better grilled cheese sandwich, make one for a chef. The way the 8 year old feels is certainly valid and he will effusively tell you how great your cooking is... but let's face it, at this point the height of his culinary exposure might be spaghetti o's and boiled hotdogs with boxed mac'n'cheese. The chef, on the other hand, can tell you what he thinks based on nuanced experience and knowledge of the subject... and while his tastes/feelings may certainly play a part in his assessment, they won't dominate it.
 

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