eckinator wrote:
2010/6/29 John Celio <n...@neovenator.com>:
I don't post PESOs very often because I pretty much lurk here all the
time. It doesn't seem fair to ask people for comments on my photos when
I almost never comment on anyone else's.
This is something currently on my mind. I wrote this reply about ten
times and deleted it again. In a nutshell I would love for the
etiquette of this list to make room for more critical comments, I
rarely see anyone saying an image doesn't work but I do see an
enormous difference in the number of positive responses per image so
the going rule seems to be "nihil nisi bene" for most people and I
tend to do the same thing because of not wanting to step on any
toes... By the number of responses to my recent PESOs people were
mostly underwhelmed by them so it would help me a lot to know why...
My €0.02
Cheers
Ecke
I don't do nearly enough commenting on other folk's photos, because a. I
don't have enough time and b. It's hard to do it with any sort of care,
which feeds back into a. This lack of activity leads to me being in
semi-permanent lurk mode, and is why I try not to share too much of my
own work. Well, that and a sneaking suspicion that people are nice to me
because I have the keys to the kingdom.
There are different levels of photographer here, with different motives
and different hoped-for responses. Some are serious photographers with
admirable skills who are simply sharing current work. Some are serious
photographers who are not quite there and want a little positive
reinforcement and maybe a gentle push.
Some are perfectly happy with what they do, flaws and all, and have no
agenda other than to stay active and shooting. The list is then a small
motivational factor to them, a place to share. Some are newts, but
they'll get better.
And there are all the various combinations of the above, so fitting a
critique to an individual, and then to the photograph in question, is an
art in itself, especially taking into account the skin thickness factor,
and that a serious critique should not simply break down into telling
someone how you would do it; All that does is produce copies of the same
photo/photographer, and what's the point of that? That was the big issue
with Shel. It wasn't that he was harsh, but that he thought his way was
the only way.
We're all guilty of that, of course, to differing degrees. It's only
when we can set aside our biases in order to help another photographer
on the list follow his or her own path that we can say it was truly a
worthwhile critique.
Then there's the question of who is doing the criticism, which is a
whole different can of worms, innit?
If I, for example, plop down 200 words on what you can do to fix a
technique you're wrestling with, and you, in your heart of hearts,
believe every photo I've ever done was not worth the dirt it would take
to bury it, would you listen to me?
It's all so complicated, and I don't have the answers. I would like to
keep the list from becoming a flickr group, where every photo is
wonderful, but I would also like a more serious level of criticism
without the nastiness and personal attacks.
hmmm.
in my opinion, of course.
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