Bucky wrote:
"I agree with you that honest critique is healthy and useful. Rude
critique,
however, is not. It is a trivial task to convey useful feedback without
being contemptuous ("This is just a typical, amateurish photograph,
something just barely worthy of a beginner photographer")."
All hail Bucky! Somebody finally gets my point! Of course we should only
offer honest critiques, there is no use in just trying to plump egos here,
but "rude critique" is simply not justified.
In his critique Shel said something along the lines of "This is just a
typical, amateurish photograph,
something just barely worthy of a beginner photographer". In subsequent
postings, he elaborated on this a little which put that particular comment a
little better into context for me, however, I don't understand why it would
have been so difficult to simply state, from the beginning, something like
this "This is just a typical, amateurish photograph, something just barely
worthy of a beginner photographer. I happen to know that John is an
experienced photographer, who I believe is capable of producing an image
which shows a greater level of technical expertise and emotion, blah, blah".
He would still have been honest, and constructive, and encouraging whilst
giving a critique that is relevant to the particular photographer and
without coming across as seeming so harsh and inconsiderate to some.
By the same token, if I were to submit a shot of a horse jumping, and
knowing that you all know that my experience and passion is with
portraiture/fashion, I would expect something along the lines of "Fairy has
tried to expand her expertise by trying a subject that is completely foreign
to her, as such this shot in particular could have several improvements
which would assist it in looking both more professional and in having more
impact to the viewer. Perhaps a sharper focus on the horse, a more even
exposure (especially the background) and overall a little more dramatic
lighting to increase dimension", rather than "that shot by fairy is such
total crap, I don't like it, the horse is out of focus, the background is
overexposed, and overall it is just flat and well, boring."
Of course, we are not always familiar with the particular photographer's
line of experience, and so in cases like this it would be much easier not to
assume anything and just attempt to be at least pleasant about a critique eg
"personally, I don't "feel" shots of horses jumping, however, this is a
totally subjective thing. I would however like to suggest a couple of
improvements. One could be to place the horse in sharper focus, secondly to
bracket the shot to ensure the correct exposure (particularly when the
background is so bright) and thirdly to attent to shoot from a different
angle to achieve greater dimension to the shot through different lighting.
I would however, like to comment that the composition is fantastic and the
timing is great, and that this was a great effort by the photographer in a
difficult situation and with a difficult subject".
BTW, my above example of a horse jumping was only used as it is about as far
away as I could imagine a subject to be from my usual stuff. Please no one
who has posted horse jumping photos here or previously, be offended or feel
that I am using them as an example!!
It's just a basic grasp of grammar really. As someone has already pointed
out, we don't have body language to rely on over the internet and as such, I
believe that we should take special care to phrase our words to prevent us
from being misconstrued or taken out of context....now have I made myself
clear? ;-)
hehe....in saying all of this, I don't feel that we need to "sugar coat"
everything, just offer honest and constructive comments while being a little
considerate of the fact that the picture wouldn't have been submitted by the
photographer if he/she didn't feel that it had some type of merit or felt
some type of excitement about the shot.
And just remember that just because we personally don't like something, this
doesn't mean that it is "crap". God, I have seen people pay gazillions of
dollars for a dot on a page that my 3 year old could have painted and yet
critics have called them "amazing, fantastic, inspiration works of art" etc.
Just something more to think about....
fairy.
8-)
-
This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe,
go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to
visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
