> >> 7. I generally give only positive feedback and feel that praising the >> positive is the best way of promoting improvement and continued >> excellence. The photographer can learn the basics from a book and with >> practice, so I feel no need to give instruction. > > Well, yes and no. Only giving positive feedback can have exactly the > opposite effect. > Here's a metaphor. > As you know, I take pride in my abilities to train dogs. As a dog > trainer, one of the tools I use is called "positive reinforcement". This > training technique (and it is quite successful) used praise when the dog > does something tight, and no feedback at all when the dog doesn't do > what you want. > The idea is that by ignoring undesirable behaviour and praising the dog > whenever it comes up with a way to please the owner, the dog will tend > to start doing that which gives it feedback, and will cease doing the > undesirable stuff which gives it nothing at all. > > So, lets take what we have learned about simple psychology and apply it > to photography. > A person goes out and shoots a subject, any subject, and manages to hit > on a decent picture. They post it to the internet and get back positive > comments, comments that may be semi specific in relation to aspects of > the image. > So, the person starts looking for those aspects, since this is what > garnered positive feedback. > And next thing you know, they have a whole body of work of what is > essentially the same picture. > Take it from someone who has a whole body of work that is essentially > the same picture, I know of what I speak. >
I understand exactly what you're saying, but have problems with the metaphor (you knew I would). First off, you're talking about dogs and I believe most people are capable of being more intelligent than dogs. Secondly you said you take pride in your ability to train dogs, and therein lies a big difference, You have an interest, often a vested interest in dog training. I and many others here have no vested interested in 'training' or teaching people photography. We share a common interest yes, and sometimes offer either praise or helpful negative feedback - but I'm not interested in providing negative feedback to numerous (many) posters who display an image, in much the same way and for the same reason I don't give to every charity that asks me to 'do my fair share'. I either have no interest or no time to provide feedback to very many posters simply because they posted an image (and as mentioned before, many posters are not really seeking feedback regarding the merits of the image itself). There's also some genres I have no interest in, or have little to no experience with, and therefore refrain from commenting. >> 8. Take a 'no comment' as either negative feedback or lack of interest >> on my part. If not that, then it means I was simply too busy too look >> or respond. > > But it isn't negative feedback, it's just no feedback at all (negative > feedback would be, metaphorically speaking, a good solid jerk on the > leash). So, your "negative feedback" becomes meaningless in the face of > the positive motivation that comes from the gushers, and the person goes > out and takes another picture of a pretty girl in front of a hunk of > canvas, or another sunset, or another of the many, many cliches that are > abused by photographers on a daily basis. > And life goes on, and photography gets dumbed down a little bit more. > I agree with the first statement, but I think that's where human and dogs differ. If I show a picture to 10 people and 9 out of 10 don't respond, I figure either they didn't like it or it didn't interest them enough to comment. Either way, I figure the image was not that great (i.e. failure), and therefore I learn to be more critical of my own images I present. Basically it gets down to the fact that it's not my job to be a photography teacher or critic and therefore I'm not. I sometimes give negative feedback on a very good image with lots of potential. > Did you know that every time I do a studio shoot a kitten dies? My hero. :-) Tom C. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
