I liked the old brutal TPF better...

[amolitor]

Critique can be pretty random. It depends a lot on who's online when the photo goes up, the first few comments really set the tone.

Also, if you're posting basically competent professional stuff, you're not really going to get much critique. Commercial baby photos aren't going to draw much artistic critique, and if you've got the focus in the right spot and the lights in the right spot and the color balance is pretty in the right spot, and you managed to not stick a tree so it's growing out of the poor kid's head, there's not much technical critique to give. There's only so many times a week I can say 'Ugh, I hate canned commercial crap that looks like everyone else's canned commercial crap' and if you're not one of the lucky winners, you won't get that.

Sorry!

 

[Josh66]

There's only so many times a week I can say 'Ugh, I hate canned commercial crap that looks like everyone else's canned commercial crap' and if you're not one of the lucky winners, you won't get that.

Well, we live in a society where canned commercial crap is just another form of entertainment. You can go on YouTube and watch commercials - just for fun. How many people do you know that watch the Super Bowl "for the commercials"?

Kinda sick, if you think about it...

 

[TATTRAT]

I see about 157 threads a day where the best response would be, "How about trying the damn search feature before posting a question that has been asked a million and six times in the past month alone", and close the thread. But, I just keep my cyber mouth shut.

 

[runnah]

Well, we live in a society where canned commercial crap is just another form of entertainment. You can go on YouTube and watch commercials - just for fun. How many people do you know that watch the Super Bowl "for the commercials"?

Kinda sick, if you think about it...

Says the guy with a jeep logo for a username.

 

[Josh66]

Says the guy with a jeep logo for a username.

Haha. I think probably changed some since I created this account.

 

[Overread]

Intermediate to advanced critique on more higher end photos IS A problem. It's a problem shared on a lot of photography sites and mostly, I think, boils down to the fact that once you're good intermediate or higher the problems with photos become:

1) Basic nitpicks here and there - you're no longer making big mistakes just little things here and there that are often just a result of the fact that you're not in 100% control over everything

2) More focused around opinion and personal taste than out right "mistakes" against compositional and content conventions and theories.

So a lot of intermediate people can get very discouraged when they suddenly don't get the hacking apart with critique that they used to because they still feel that they are beginners or not as advanced as they actually are. It's also a matter of population; sometimes you need far more experienced people to really take critique to the next level - that often requires a lot of work and often as not many of those highly experienced people are few in number; so they can never get to everyone (many of them also come to forums to unwind and relax so are more likely to focus on simple answers for beginners or to say "I like it" type posts - all still very valid, just not always what intermediate learners want )

 

[Derrel]

Very insightful critique from Overread above in post #36. C&C on the work of intermediate to advanced photographers' photos is tricky to give...many times the C&C giver gets met with a rash of negative feedback. The last intermediate/advanced photographer's work that I offered less-than-I-love-the-heck-out-of-it type C&C on was met with a $h!+storm of negative pushback in the thread, as well as another thread created by another poster coming to the defense of the original 'offended' poster. So, lesson learned...I try to avoid giving C&C to people who really only want smoke blown up their ____es. Wonderfully-scented, deliriously fragrant, hand-rolled,custom,imported, $1-a-stick Indian incense smoke...

The few really,really caustic attack posters we used to have are...now gone. We also have a mostly new mod crew, with a few of the same old stalwarts, and that seems to have helped. I dunno...TPF has changed...mostly for the better I think. But it is pretty kid-glove in most respects. "it is what it is". It's a mix of all types of people with all types of dedication to the art and craft and science of photography.

 

[CherylL]

I'm doing my part, lol!

Honestly, I'm not trying to though. I think people just take this whole "internet" stuff way too seriously. People think you're out to get them when you're just trying to help.

I think in the last 2 months, there have probably been at least three people that said they were leaving as a direct result of things I have said. I can't be the only one. I think that maybe because of the over-reaction of many of the new members, people may tend to 'play it safe' and not say anything that could be seen to be offensive. So, everything gets watered down in an attempt to be "PC".

Sometimes I read the comments and wonder why I haven't been banned, lol. In 6 years, I don't think I have ever been contacted by a mod and told to relax or anything like that. I'm not trying to be an ass or anything, but people just seem to interpret it that way. If I am doing something wrong, nobody in an official capacity has ever said anything about it to me...

Consider yourself lucky! I seem to have collected a small coterie of pantywastes that follow me around reporting my posts... lol!

Not me! You are the reason I am now shooting my speedlite in manual. So thanks!

I think some first C&C posters do misinterpret critiques as insults instead of someone taking the time to be helpful. I had a critique last month where Lew posted in very large font that my image was WAY TO BRIGHT. Well, now I see that large font when I am shooting and check my exposure often. It made an impression and helped me to remember to work on that. If someone had just noted that it was too bright I may not have really thought about it. So thanks Lew!

 

[vintagesnaps]

Timothy, you said it about as well as it can be said.

Empty praise isn't particularly helpful, but neither are sarcastic or insulting comments instead of straightforward reasons and suggestions in a critique.

 

[Qveon]

Go **** yourself.

Better?

That was like having sex with a sandpaper condom

 

[o hey tyler]

That was like having sex with a sandpaper condom

Coincidentally this is the best way to enforce abstinence in troubled youths.

You know, those ones that bang like a screen door in a hurricane.

 

[Tiller]

Positive reinforcement is better than negative. I haven't been here long enough to know what you're talking about, but I quite like TPF the way it is now.

I do agree that empty praise helps nobody though.

 

[bentcountershaft]

I've decided against my video critique idea as it's too much trouble. In order to save time and effort I will, from this moment forward, be handling critique in any of the three following non-verbal methods.

If I like it, you get a cookie:

If I love it, you get a beer:

And if I don't like it, you get a rotten egg:

 

[amolitor]

The cookie photograph is underexposed and really needs more depth of field. The beer should have more of the pourer's hand in frame but is otherwise OK. The egg has flat lighting, and almost works as a composition but you cut off the hole with the leaves in it, and we need to see the whole thing to balance the egg in the frame. Also, more DoF again, and the light is flat.

In short, you suck, and you need to look in to your TOTAL cost of doing business before you even consider posting anything, you retard. LOL. <-- j/k so it's ok to call you names.

 

[TimothyJinx]

If I like it, you get a cookie:

You had me at cookie.