Taking Criticism

[John 2]

Came across these two postings today. No, I'm not making a specific point. The individuals that populate this site are particularly good when it comes to critique. I have seen much, much worse. None the less I thought they might be of interest. The first is a video. The second is an article.

http://petapixel.com/2015/07/06/how-...-photographer/
http://petapixel.com/2015/03/26/shou...them-the-door/

[Manfred M]

Thanks for posting, John. These are two well thought out pieces on how to think about other people's critiques to someone's (your) work. I think in most respects these are "bang on" and have identified the key issues very well.

To me, being able to "listen to and understand" a critique of one's work is absolutely critical if one wants to improve one's own work and even if we are "good at it" we need the occasional "sanity check" to make sure our work continues to improve.

Positive criticisms are good because it tells us that at least part of our audience gets what we are trying to do and helps re-enforce that we are doing something right (and also helps stroke our egos?). Negative criticism is even more useful, as that points out areas that we need to improve on, whether these points are technical or deal with our creative approach.

What I find least useful in any critique is when someone tells me they like or dislike something, without telling my why or what. Even here, one has to be careful, an answer of "you should have used f/11 rather than f/8" or "you didn't follow the rule of thirds" is not useful data. A response that a key image element needs to be sharper and why that is so or why the negative space is working or not are far more useful.

[IzzieK]

What I find interesting is the comparison between critique and opinion section. Sometimes we as people do not really know ourselves by choice of words, especially people like me who has to translate our thoughts and feelings (opinions) about a certain image. And there are many here, I can assure you that wanted to participate in our conversation but do not know how and/or don't want to because they feel their work is not good enough to voice an opinion of other poster's work. And there are some that voices really strongly their feelings and opinions that a poster sometimes are taken aback and wouldn't want to come back to the site that criticized their work.

I think it all boils down to -- how do you, as a person, accept criticism of your work. In any forum it is the survival of the fittest. If you can take criticism and be bold enough to want to learn, then it is a win-win situation. If not, you are the weakest link.

As the Dalai Lama sez...If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito in a room.

And this is my opinion on the article. I had not seen the video...yet. If I made any mistake here on tenses and stuffs, please know that I am only human and have to sometimes translate certain words in my mind as I type this response.