Dealing with negative critique
It is relatively self-explanatory that doing a photo critique is quite difficult. What few people stop to think about, however, is that receiving a photo critique can be as difficult - if not more difficult: When you move beyond mere snapshots and start putting more of yourself into your photographs, you are a lot more intimately involved with the work you are putting out there.
Putting your photos up for criticism - whether it is at your local photography club, via a site such as DeviantArt, or even when asking a good friend to give some feed-back - is like putting your own head in the guillotine and taking a chance.
Nonetheless, it’s one of the best ways to improve as a photographer, and one of the best lessons you’ll learn is to discover how to deal with negative photo critiques…
Hayley in the 1950s by Photocritic.org, on Flickr
1) It may come across as crass, rude, or wrong, but there may be a kernel of truth in it.
If someone tells you “LOL learn how 2 autofocus, you dweeb”, you need to do 2 things: Live in the happy knowledge that whilst your camera might have had an off day, at least you know how to string a grammatically correct sentence together.
And perhaps that picture is a little bit blurry, now tat you look at it closely…
Take a step back, and take commentary on face value. If you honestly can’t say you agree with a piece of criticism, that’s perfectly fine, as long as you are objective enough to be able to try and see it from their viewpoint.
2) They might disagree, but they are your audience.
Ultimately, you are the photographer, and what you decide is how the final result gets done. Nobody can tell you what to do, and if you like your photo, then you’ve won one of the huge battles.
At the same time, it’s quite possible that the people ripping your photos to shreds are the people you were trying to target: whether you’re thinking about selling them as microstock, as art works, or just to give your mum a present is irrelevant.
Your photos are out there for interpretation, and if you care about the message you are sending, you’ll have to go the extra mile to make sure that they aren’t getting misinterpreted.
3) As soon as you let ‘em go, you no longer own ‘em.
It’s the curse of all writers and poets: They spend months - years, even - crafting their masterpiece, and then nobody ‘gets’ it. They all ‘get it’ wrong. Tell you what though, that’s where part of the beauty comes from: If you are taking a photo which you meant to symbolise the innocence of youth, and your first 10 commenters feel it’s a strong commentary on, say, child abuse, then they are per definition right.
It is not your job to interpret your own photographs, it is your job to take them. This is a good thing: if people can make up their own story to go with the photograph - their own connotations and bias, as it were - they are much more likely to connect emotionally with the photograph. If this is achieved; if someone is caused to feel something because of your photo; your mission is complete.
4) They talk. You shut up.
Remember that, just like you are not there to interpret your work, you’re not there to defend it either.
In a way, the best thing you can do is to never respond to any criticism. Let’s be honest - you will never be able to re-create the EXACT same image ever again anyway. Take the criticisms on board as points of reference for future photographs.
Learn from your mistakes, learn about what makes your audience buzz, and learn from your own opinions of your work.
5) Remember that the best works might be universally hated: Be thick-skinned.
Technical aspects of your photographs might be objective: A photo can be accidentally over-exposed, blurry, or have some rubbish in the background which makes your photograph less-than-perfect. Once you start killing the technical foibles of your photographic work one by one (don’t go too perfectionist on it though, it’s not useful to end up deleting all of your photos because of every little detail), the actual creative work starts shining through, and this is where the worst potential for getting hurt comes from.
You can kick yourself for small technical mistakes in your photographs (and you’ll continue making them for the rest of your photographic career), but if people start critiquing your artistic choices, it’s a different thing altogether.
The important thing here is to believe in your own work 100%: If you feel you’ve done it right, and if the image is an accurate representation of what you were trying to do, then all you can do is to shrug off their comments and move on.
Just think about it: Pink Floyd, The Decemberists, Pendulum, Metallica, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Zero 7 - they’ve all been called ‘the best band ever’ by reviewers at one point or another, and yet it is never difficult to find someone who doesn’t care about - or even actively dislikes - them.
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Nice post, good point, just found your blog will have to rss. Sometimes what looks terrible to me is great to others and vice-versa, sometimes you just never know.
“It is not your job to interpret your own photographs, it is your job to take them.”
Well said! I’ll print this line and glue it to the ceiling over my bed :-).
Wonderfully helpful post.. ON the other end of this spectrum.,…I have a few photos that My husband used on his blog, ( I really don’t like them) and everyone that sees them just loves them..(arugh!! I would rather delet them, but I promised my husband I wouldn’t) But your right, it is not my job to defend them. after all I am trying to get to a point were I can actually sell my work, and being negative or defensive is NOT the way to get there.. maybe I should ask for some critical advise so I will know where to improve.. thanks
Hi, I recently critizised a photo in a photography forum. In my opinion I wasn’t being rude, but simply stated my opinion, which I confirmed in another reply, after some others wrote me off as rude.
My point basically is that one can only get better through honest critique. Telling everyone who knows where the shutter is on their DSLR how amazing their shots are, is not helping them. The case I’m referring to involved a presumably very point n shoot looking portrait of two people, and the use of some obscure software, called portrait professional. Now it is one thing if the mom from next door starts taking pictures of friends, and then maybe uses some software that she can handle, for a little post processing. But in this case the original poster was talking about her “clients” and stuff like that. I think, when someone starts charging money for their work, they, of all people should be able to accept criticism. And, also very important, they shouldn’t use preprogrammed software like portrait professional, that’s just unprofessional.
What do you think about that?
Step21… I think I may have even commented on that one. What you have to understand is that forums have many varying levels of photographer - they’re not all professionals. While you told her - point blank - that she shouldn’t use portrait pro, you have to realise that some people don’t have PS or, if they do, they might not be that good at it.
I think your post [the one you mentioned above] was a bit harsh and not in keeping with the skill level of the photographer in question, and then asking that she post a full res version somewhere “to silence you” was just plain taunting and upsetting for the photographer.
That said, you’re right - it’s not good just to praise photos even when they are not up to scratch, so to speak. I wish more people would give me some decent critique… As an admin of DPS, I usually don’t get anything outside of… “Oh, that’s lovely…etc”
/rant
Great post, Very good points… oh, and I still love Pink Floyd ;)
Hey how can you not love Pink Floyd? :)
@step21 .. recently critizised a photo in a photography forum. In my opinion I wasn’t being rude, but simply stated my opinion
Which seems to be acceptable as long as the photographer isn’t famous! Apparently :-)
Very cool post!
I guess some critique is better than none. I got plenty of exposure to critiques… group critiques and all sorts of people attacking my work while I was doing my BFA… but you always end up learning so much more when you leave school… and sometimes you lose perspective if you’re not working in what you studied (like me)…
Very refreshing to read. Made me smile.
Thank you!
I’m an amateur who picked up photography as a fun way to document my travels. Being self-taught, i realize that there’s lots i can improve. I really want to move beyond the obligatory praise of my circle of family and friends and develop my skills. any suggestions on which forums i should seek constructive criticism? i.e., which ones are appropriate to which level and kinds of photographers?
thanks!
Thank you very much for this article - I do a lot of photo-critiques on various forums and events both online and offline, the information here will most certainly be linked to and used when people whine at me for being overly harsh. Thanks once again
Just found this post. Good advice! It’s always hard to take criticism, in *anything* that we do.
Here is one thing that I have started to do for myself, when reviewing a day’s shooting. If I’m uncertain about a photo — or even if I think it’s great — I’ll sit back and try to pretend that it’s not mine, that I just saw it on a critique forum somewhere. Then I’ll give it the harshest critique that I can imagine. “What’s with those bright spots distracting my eye?! The composition makes me feel like I’m falling off the frame. My eye wanders around and doesn’t settle on anything. Your colors are WAY oversaturated.” That does several things — first, it helps give me a sense of whether the photo really is as good as I thought (and if I still like it — now I have a better idea of WHY). Second, it prepares me for what others might say, and whether they will be legitimate critiques or just nitpicking. It also helps toughen up the skin a bit. :)
I’ve found that this is extremely useful to do on my own photos, and it’s really helped me improve.
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