Critique Night
I suspect this is going to be a very rambling stream of consciousness even by my rambling standards. Just to clarify the purpose of these blog posts - these are for my benefit, they are only being published to promote discussion and as an accountability exercise.
The camera club members seems to have an obsession with the merits and pitfalls of competition photography. Judging by the general lack of number of images submitted to the competitions, it would seem that the general consensus is that members are not that bothered. In stark contrast, members seem to be very happy to put images in for critique nights. My question is what is the difference other than assigning a ranking/scoring system?
When I joined the camera club I was utterly incompetent. I was roughly capable of taking a photo but only just. I remember the first few theme competitions came and went with me saying I wasn’t good enough to enter and was given some words of encouragement. I submitted some exceptionally dicey images - they were obviously not good enough to be in the top three but encouraging words from judges about how to improve things and my confidence grew. Generally speaking the judges are not monsters - they are not there to be horrible about photos, they are judging because they like photography and want to help people improve - OK, a few are there to stroke their own ego!
Everything is a case of you get out of something what you put in. While I am fiercely competitive when it comes to most sports, I don’t think I really am with photography. I enter photographs into competitions mainly boost the numbers but also to get critique, critique is everything.
If there is one thing to take away from this drivel it is this - People pay to have photographs critiqued, if you are having a free opportunity to have images critiqued take it with both hands!
Even if someone is talking absolute nonsense and saying something you totally disagree with, at least it is engaging your brain about it. Why are they coming to a conclusion that is so different to yours?
Accepting criticism
If someone is (constructively) derogatory about your photo how do you react? There are a few things like it is too noisy when your camera is at its absolute limit in dark conditions or it would be better if you were 3 steps to the left which would have had you plummet to your death down a cliff etc. it can be difficult to stand by and listen to people say things like that when the defence is so obvious. However, if there is a fundamental compositional issue like that, I think you have to be clever to avoid it being a fundamental flaw to the image. The two options you have are to A) blow the photo out of the water making it so good that the viewer can’t help but love it with its flaws or B) don’t submit it. If you accidentally made a cake and iced it with salt instead of sugar, I doubt you would put it into a competition. Don’t give judges easy flaws to find.
A passable image but it always feels compositionally off, A few feet to the right would make it much better but I would be in a very watery grave!
There are other things that make you go aaaaaah, yes! That would have made it so much better. I remember a photo being critiqued that had a barrier in the way and the judge suggested moving the height of the camera to turn the barrier from an eyesore to a leading line. The photographer went back and took the better photo and it looked great. Now when I go to take a photograph and there is an obstacle I look to see if I can use it.
Again this comes back to the same thing, make the best of the situation. Learn from what people think. Reflect inwardly, photography is hard, sometimes you have to accept that the answer is to get good. I doubt the reason people take better photos than I do is dumb luck, I suspect it is because they work harder, have learned more and made many mistakes to learn from.
Don’t Make Assumptions?
When the speaker mentioned this, I was slightly surprised. I always sort of thought that you shouldn’t have to make assumptions. The photographer shouldn’t need you to be making them. The way things like depth of field and various composition rules should mean the photographer is able to dictate to you what you should be looking at. We looked at an image that people seemed to criticise the amount of sky shown but also the proximity of a rock to the bottom of the screen. It seemed very obvious that the two factors were constraining the photographer so have to use this particular composition.
I also think it is vital to ask what was the photographer’s purpose of taking the shot - a story to tell, surely if they have told the story properly you shouldn’t have to assume.
I don’t know if it is better to know what sort of equipment is being used or not. On the one hand if someone is using very entry level gear that is obviously constrain the quality of the image you can afford them certain concessions. Whereas if the same photograph was taken with a top of the range camera and lens the photographer has no excuse to not nail all the technical factors.
Being Positive
I think it is easy to be a snob, or jealous of other people’s photographs and turning a ‘critique’ into a shit slinging contest. I have seen weak photographers hammer images that they could only dream of taking and I think this gives ‘competitions’ a bad name, in fact giving photography a bad name. Again, this comes back to the fact that you get out of something what you put in. These armchair experts are always found out so don’t worry about it.
One of the quotes from the club website is “if you can’t find two positives to talk about in your critique, you aren’t looking hard enough”. I think that is an important thing to accept. That said, I think it is important to look at photographs with positivity first.
There are thousands of groups on the internet where photographs are shared. People normally just leave a like or heart or something like that. I have started to find something I like about the photo and make a comment. It is a rare win-win, the photographer gets a bit of positive feedback and I have looked at something critically.
Actionable points
To find 10 photos a day to comment positively on.
Critique my own images like a bastard.