Re: A critique suggestion

I am happy to pay for my share if outsourcing needed to make it quicker.

That is exactly it. People post pictures because I presume they are pleased with the shot and want to share their accomplishment with others. Therefore when we have something negative to say, regarding how things could of been done better, I believe the criticism, should be tactful and soft. The use of "maybe if this was my shot", or words like "perhaps" are useful in making the criticism sound friendly. It is just a question of being polite.

Secondly, when the criticism comes over as being harsh, and you find that the critics, photographic skills are not that good, the critic just becomes an annoyance.

I sometimes get the feeling that there are people out there who take pleasure in giving harsh criticism. It is usually pretty easy to spot this type of critic, who likes to play mind games.

Criticism can be very useful at times, when done pleasantly, and I have improved some of my pictures thanks to comments people have made about them.

PS I believe that a threaded view, would make the moderation of this site non-existent, as unwanted replies just branch off into a separate virtual dumpster.

The problem is that a lot of the time the comments in a particular case are not "honest", but are done for some reason many of us cannot fathom out.

Almost everybody can cope with comments made in good faith.

I have personally improved some of my shots or seen things I missed in my pictures thanks to comments made here and elsewhere.

I agree, apart from the "offensive" bit.

So am I

Ok, no problem. Thank you for clarifying that we can do that.

Indeed, one could [hotlink (use publicly viewable image urls) to images here], post the usual negative comments elsewhere, then come back here and post a link to there.

Should appeal to someone with such a penchant for convolution.

I think we have to care about them. This site has set out to distinguish itself from others by being image based. It will live or die according to the quality of the images posted here and the quality of the discussion about those images. The site needs new participants. A site gets one fast go at getting the attention of newbies. A new arrival has to feel that they can get something of value to their photographic experience here - or they leave- never to return. Running into a barrage of aggressive or trite posts does nothing to convince newbies they should get involved.
As has been said over and over, responding doesn't have to be praise. The tone is all important as is the thought that goes into it.

Yes, totally agree but it seems to me there are a few members here that believe unless an op asks for CC, all feedback must be at least neutral or praise for the image.

Agreed. But then there was a little bit more.
"The tone is all important as is the thought that goes into it."

Yes, that is obviously very true.

But unfortunately the tone and the amount of thought someone puts into their posted feedback can be misinterpreted and/or misunderstood by others and that is when threads can go pear-shaped very quickly.

It is not that entirely. I have never been a member of a camera club. I learnt everything I know from reading books, looking at photographs from photographers at the top of their game and above all from taking pictures and learning from my mistakes. I think I have reached a good level, based on past paid work I have done with top level performing arts companies.

I would say one factor is, that photography has become too easy. Once if you wanted to move beyond the Instamatic level, you needed to learn about aperture, shutter speed and what different film types achieved. From a lot of posts I see on a certain big forum, a lot of people buy big expensive cameras, and expect the machine to think for them. They have never read a book about the basics of photography, and wonder why that Z9 is turning out blurred pictures. So they turn to some stranger on the internet to get advice, and a quick fix.

How many people ever read a book about composition? Over the centuries artists have come up with some pretty useful ways of presenting a three dimensional scene in two dimensions, in an appealing visually interesting way. Reading and re reading, "Principles of composition in photography by Andreas Feininger", ( there are lots of alternatives) made the quality of my pictures improve to an extent that no expensive camera or lens ever could.

How many people buy photographic monographs by affirmed photographers? When I became interested in Architectural photography, I bought a few books by top photographers in this field. I wanted to explore in depth how they went about depicting Architecture.

Sure my opinions above are "elitist" in todays upside down world.

With modern digital cameras, the quality of the photographs we see should have improved drastically with the fact we have "free film". It has not because we have been brainwashed with the "good enough" mantra, in a race to the lowest common denominator. I have even read on DPR, in one post, that books and study are "elitist".

That would be a good idea.

It's a bit like a personal gallery.

At first I thought it a good idea but then I wondered if a troll might think it had won big-time by causing such a disruption to the normal forum image-comment sequence.

I think you are being harsh on NCV and a few others who were effectively complaining about me posting my opinions of images.

He might see it as a victory; i don't lnow.

I have no issue if he does.