Missed opportunity

[runnah]

10 pages, jeez. Anyone want to sum this up for me?

 

[rexbobcat]

10 pages, jeez. Anyone want to sum this up for me?

TPF is like high school.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

10 pages, jeez. Anyone want to sum this up for me?

It's a lot of talk about critiqueing, without actual critiqueing. Which changes nothing.

 

[amolitor]

Just give critique the way you would like to get critique. It works for me.

Complicated systems are interesting, but I don't think they're very practical. Don't get me wrong, I encourage you to go for it. I most likely won't take part, though, because I'm not much of a "system" guy, and my availability of time and my interest are sdufficiently random to prevent me from committing to any sort of scheduled or organized critique.

Modeling the behavior you'd like to see is, on the other hand, pretty effective. TPF critique has changed a lot over the last six months, for the better.

 

[ceeboy14]

As a newbie to this forum ( a nice one, I might add), I am somewhat baffled as to the context of this discussion. One joins a photography forum to post their shots and hopefully get some decent critiques, suggestions of imrpovement or some well deserved kudos. The degree of expertise, or lack thereof should never be the issue, nor should the egocentricities of some members play a part in how one responds. What I most love about a forum is the ability to not make a comment; I don't have to like a work; I don't have to wonder as to the reasoning of a poster; I don't have to like everything; mostly, I don't have to be liked by everyone to be a contributing member. Just my opinion.

Yes but it's the issue that some more eccentric or popular members will get comments on their posts regardless of the content. It could be a snapshot of a piece of toast and it would get comments.

But I see a lot of newer or less prominent members post something pretty awesome but get no comments.

It's not always an issue of liking the photos or not.

When I was a teacher, there were students who got all the attention, all the kudos, all the scholarships..yadda-yadda-yadda. It was rarely because they excelled as much as because others reveled their glory - parents, influential members of society, etc. The regular students most often put out the best work for me even though they weren't in accelerated programs or were housed with the Top Ten of their class; they had to work harder to get to the same place. It is the nature of man that some live at the top, a lot more at the bottom and a great many in the middle. Call it a photographic caste system but it exists in every forum I've ever enjoined with.

I just left one for exactly the reason you are describing. A lot of crap was getting great attention and a lot of really good stuff was often panned. Mostly I left because the comments were often limited to: Oh, that's great! good god, what does that tell a photographer? My advice is to do your best to speak your feelings about as much work as you can. I think everyone deserves a comment about their work, even if the comment tends toward the stinging side. You can't grow if you don't know.

 

[The_Traveler]

10 pages, jeez. Anyone want to sum this up for me?

It's a lot of talk about critiqueing, without actual critiqueing. Which changes nothing.

Actually that's just a facile comment, unfortunately typical of your participation, to make your own attitude look good.

No one has to participate in the discussion and, if it encourages people to do more or ask for more it's good.

OTOH, look at your vibrations thread, lots of great pictures, lots of interactions - but what is the eventual good to anyone who participates or looks?

If you don't think this is worthwhile, unsubscribe and don't read it.

Let whoever wants to do something, do it and stop trying to make your attitude seem like the 'cool' thing.

To summarize, this entire thread has been about encouraging the people who can do good critique to do it, to tell the people who are just finding their way to understand that trying to critique is the best way to progress in their own artistic vision and lastly, to encourage the people who want more critique to learn how to ask for it.

 

[runnah]

10 pages, jeez. Anyone want to sum this up for me?

It's a lot of talk about critiqueing, without actual critiqueing. Which changes nothing.

Thanks, I'll go back to making inane comments with vague sexual undertones.

 

[ceeboy14]

10 pages, jeez. Anyone want to sum this up for me?

It's a lot of talk about critiqueing, without actual critiqueing. Which changes nothing.

I have to agree with you there. What's the point of an empty expression..."it's great or Nice, or gee, I wish I'd shot that." Photographers at every level should share what they know, how they do something, ask good questions and work toward building their abilities and not rest on their laurels. I recently read that 70% of all the photographs ever taken, were taken within this year's time period. That's staggering but it goes to show the influence of the digital world. But, of all the photos taken, there are but a precious few of truly stunning catches, catches that the regular, everyday photographer cannot ever hope to attain uless they are given good guidance through good critique.

 

[runnah]

What's the point of an empty expression..."it's great or Nice, or gee, I wish I'd shot that."

Despite how I appear I don't always have the most thought provoking things to say. It's takes 10 second of my life to say "Nice job on the photos" and hit submit.

Will my verbal gems inspire them to greatness? No, probably not.
Will it make their day a little brighter and encourage them to keep taking photos? Yes I'd like to think so.

 

[amolitor]

I would like to add one more thing that I actively try to do, which is to give critique to newbies, to people I don't recognize, and to people who have not given my critique. I have a very very short list of people I won't critique because I think they are pests, but I really try to spread my critique time around a bit.

It's tempting to give critique mostly or only to people you like and respect, and that's not fair, that's not modeling the good behavior I want to see. I don't critique everything, but a long shot, and I am certainly unbalanced, but I do try to spread the love around a bit, at least.

 

[Designer]

Gee, I don't know if there's room for another pointless post, but Andrew's post above sparked another thought:

When I see photos that are far superior to anything I can do, I feel self-conscious in offering criticism, and kind of silly parroting the "great work" kind of post, but I also recognize that the artist appreciates compliments as well as helpful criticism.

On the other hand, when I see a photo that holds no hope of being any good whatsoever, I feel like I may be wasting my time, unless I am the first to respond, and I try to "project" into the mind of the photographer to divine his level of competency so that my remarks might actually be of some help if it seems the poster is actually trying and is receptive to constructive criticism.

If it is someone I remember offering some criticism in the past that wasn't well received, then I probably won't subject myself to another pointless argument.