How to stop being discouraged from lack of feedback?

[zombiesniper]

The thing about online interaction is that you have to take it with a grain of salt. Everyone is an expert online.

Ha ha! I caught you there. I'm the court jester!

 

[jake337]

Just don't give a ****!

But seriously, how social media sites are ran with algorithms it matters more on how you market/network now.

 

[vintagesnaps]

What do you think we did before the internet (much less social media)?? Probably you need to at some point learn how to evaluate your own work. Somehow somewhere along the way I knew I had talent, and knew my photos were good. I think the best feedback I got was from instructors.

What's popular can just be a fad that will pass; doesn't mean popular is necessarily good, it may just be the novelty of it. People like something that passes by and then probably forget it two seconds later. Something that's good to me is usually somewhat memorable, at least has me looking at it for a bit not just a glance.

 

[table1349]

What do you think we did before the internet (much less social media)?? Probably you need to at some point learn how to evaluate your own work. Somehow somewhere along the way I knew I had talent, and knew my photos were good. I think the best feedback I got was from instructors.

What's popular can just be a fad that will pass; doesn't mean popular is necessarily good, it may just be the novelty of it. People like something that passes by and then probably forget it two seconds later. Something that's good to me is usually somewhat memorable, at least has me looking at it for a bit not just a glance.

What???.....................Wait!!!........................There was a time before where there was no internet?
There was a time before Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Tumblr???????

How did the world function without the internet and social media.

I have heard stories, on Youtube of course, where people supposedly got together and talked face to face, met up with family and friends and even sat down and ate together at the same table. I even heard that people would meet strangers face to face and sometimes even, "Gasp" would begin dating, all with out an online survey. I thought those stories were some cruel joke of some kind.

Next your going to tell me that there was a yellow book that had all kinds of advertisements in it and phone numbers that you could call on a thing called a Telephone and that there was a printed thing called a news paper that had not only stories of the day but advertisements and circulars in it. People supposedly even went to stores where they lived to buy stuff.

How primitive a society that must have been.

 

[The_Traveler]

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.

One of the mods has a link in his signature to a short post on how to get feedback.
Very useful and, imo, right on target.

I went back and looked at three of your recent postings, actually four but the one about stop lights was more of an illustration and doesn't count for me.
There were two pictures of flowers and one of a chipmunk.
And I am about to give my forthright response.

You aren't working at framing and editing.
You are producing middle of the road images and nothing about them says 'I am the product of care and attention, look at me.'
You are competing for attention with the thousands of like images and you need to work at the art part of it.

There is one certain way to get more and better feedback and that is to pose a question about the image and pick some people to give feedback.
Give people a way to start talking about the image, make it easy for them rather than giving them a blank slate.
Next time you post a picture, send PMs to 4 or 5 people whose critique you value and ask for help with the image.

 

[nerwin]

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.

One of the mods has a link in his signature to a short post on how to get feedback.
Very useful and, imo, right on target.

I went back and looked at three of your recent postings, actually four but the one about stop lights was more of an illustration and doesn't count for me.
There were two pictures of flowers and one of a chipmunk.
And I am about to give my forthright response.

You aren't working at framing and editing.
You are producing middle of the road images and nothing about them says 'I am the product of care and attention, look at me.'
You are competing for attention with the thousands of like images and you need to work at the art part of it.

There is one certain way to get more and better feedback and that is to pose a question about the image and pick some people to give feedback.
Give people a way to start talking about the image, make it easy for them rather than giving them a blank slate.
Next time you post a picture, send PMs to 4 or 5 people whose critique you value and ask for help with the image.

Hmm. Maybe photography just isn't for me... Thanks.

 

[jcdeboever]

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.

I give up

Sent from my SM-T377V using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[nerwin]

After thinking about it and reading all the replies...

I'm just going to take pictures for myself and I don't care if they suck. If taking photos allows me to take my mind off the issues in my life and my depression, it's well worth it to me.

I don't need my photos to be "technically" correct, there is no (in my opinion) perfect way to process photos. How can you make your work your own when other people tell you to compose and process your work THEIR way? We are all unique individuals with unique feelings, opinions, tastes..etc.

Art is subjective. Period.

I'll be honest, I don't take criticism easy. I never have in my entire life, its just the way I am.

There are plenty of artists out there that I don't like and I think their work is horrible but yet, a lot of people love it! That is what I call, art.

So yeah, maybe I am mediocre. But you know what? I don't give a crap. A lot of people like my photos and that puts a smile on my face which is rare for me. I may never be in national geographic or in a billion magazines, on billboards or art museums...who cares, right? I doubt many of those people ever intended to be in magazines or in museums either.

The funny thing is, I do have my photos in a few magazines, in calendars, on local and national TV and numerous websites. Heck, even Boston Cab uses my photo on their website. I even won a couple photo contests! Albeit they are small, but I never thought those would happen to mediocre like me. I guess all those people were wrong...

I'm not the fastest learner in the world, maybe someday I'll graduate from mediocre. Haha

 

[Derrel]

If you want to be more accurate, art is not subjective. Art is intersubjective. Look into the definition of intersubjective. There is a HUGE amount of consensus regarding art of all types: literature,music, dance, theater,painting, sculpture. There actually **is** a LOT of agreement that such and such is good _______, and so and so is an amazing _______, and her work is fantastic, etc.etc..

Again, "art" is not "subjective". There actually ARE principles that art is based around...it's not like a monkey can take some paint and create a great artwork...it takes training, and knowledge, and cultural awareness to make art, and not just kitschy crap. "NCIS" is NOT "art"...it is not a Shakespearean drama.

Justin Bieber's music does not rise to the level of serious "artistic music"...it is bubblegum pop music...Meanwhile, music performance students at universities today recognize the genius of David Byrne, formerly of The Talking Heads.

 

[table1349]

 

[nerwin]

Well you get what I mean...

Its not like I don't put ANY thought into my photos that I take. I put a lot of thought into them, more than you might believe but I'm just not going to be as good as you or many of the other people on this forum. There will always be someone better.

I do know the basic rules of composition, I maybe dumb but I do know some stuff mind you.

Photography is remotely the only thing that people actually told me I was good at..well besides pissing people off.

But I'm fine with being mediocre, I have a mediocre life as it is. It's all good

 

[Derrel]

There's a reason there are actual degrees granted in the various "arts"....people who have studied art at the university level get kind of testy when people who know nothing about it make off-base statements, as if there are zero standards of ANY kind, for any type of "art"...

As we all know and frquently state in forums: medicine is subjective, and architecture is subjective, and plumbing is subjective, and metallurgy is subjective, and organic chemistry is subjective, and mathematics is all entirely subjective... because, you know...well, everything in the world is entirely, you know...."subjective".

 

[table1349]

If you want to be more accurate, art is not subjective. Art is intersubjective. Look into the definition of intersubjective. There is a HUGE amount of consensus regarding art of all types: literature,music, dance, theater,painting, sculpture. There actually **is** a LOT of agreement that such and such is good _______, and so and so is an amazing _______, and her work is fantastic, etc.etc..

Again, "art" is not "subjective". There actually ARE principles that art is based around...it's not like a monkey can take some paint and create a great artwork...it takes training, and knowledge, and cultural awareness to make art, and not just kitschy crap. "NCIS" is NOT "art"...it is not a Shakespearean drama.

Justin Bieber's music does not rise to the level of serious "artistic music"...it is bubblegum pop music...Meanwhile, music performance students at universities today recognize the genius of David Byrne, formerly of The Talking Heads.

I am afraid I must disagree. Apes are descended from monkeys making them part of the monkey family and humans are descended from Apes making them the highest form of monkey. Therefore a monkey can create great artwork and they do.

They also all have some form of feces flinging associated with them. Some fling physical feces while others fling written feces.

 

[nerwin]

If everything in the world wasn't subjective, then it would be boring and I wouldn't want to live in it.

 

[The_Traveler]

Its not like I don't put ANY thought into my photos that I take. I put a lot of thought into them, more than you might believe but I'm just not going to be as good as you or many of the other people on this forum. There will always be someone better.

I do know the basic rules of composition, I may be dumb but I do know some stuff mind you.
Photography is remotely the only thing that people actually told me I was good at..well besides pissing people off.
But I'm fine with being mediocre, I have a mediocre life as it is. It's all good

If you want to be better then there is a clear way to go about it.
Ask for help, ask for specific input.
If you don't care, then no one wants to give input if you don't want it.

Knowing 'the basic rules of composition' and not trying to knit those rules into a greater understanding is a certain formula for staying at a certain level.
Look at really good or even terrific photos.
The 'basic rules of composition' may be part of that photo's success but there is a great deal of understanding and skills and knowledge that doesn't fall under 'basic'.

The photo in my signature is as good a photo as I've taken and the 'Rules of Composition' don't have much to do with it.