On Photo Critiques

To grow as a photographer means putting your work out there and then being thick-skinned enough to accept honest critiques from the more experienced. It’s easy to put a snapshot of a baby, cat, dog or sunset on Facebook and get hundreds of “likes” and comments such as…”awesome shot!”…”great pic!” etc.

But those are not serious critiques.

Facebook pics have their place, but if you want to get better, what you need–and what I constantly strive for–is an honest assessment from someone you respect about what SPECIFICALLY is both good and bad about your image or portfolio. And I want specifics–discussion of camera placement, composition, color theory, lens choice, post-processing techniques, monochrome conversion techniques and so on. Local camera clubs, photography classes and workshops are good places to look for this type of critique.

One guy I have found on line who is pretty good about doing critiques is Craig Tanner with his website, The Mindful Eye. His site is free (you just have to register to participate) and he has a whole collection of critiques of images that have been submitted to him–everything from landscapes, to portraits, to abstract, to street photography. In 2010, even one of my images was selected by him for critique!

I have learned a lot about composition, color and also HOW to critique images from Craig’s videos. As an example of Craig’s style, here is a six-minute YouTube video in which he critiques a landscape image from Death Valley National Park:

NOTE: For a completely different perspective on the whole concept of critiques, see my March 13, 2013 blog post.