Getting knocked back

I thimk ive ever only ever used this forum for photography i haven't even been tempted to look at other sites, as the advice and critique has always been spot on. I dont post as much on here at the min as i havent been out as much with the camera, plus most of the images is of my 2 year old growing up which isnt really of any advantage to this forum, its just been for family stuff. But even to this day if im thinking of trying new stuff ill always turn to here for advice as its been the best place ive found for help over the years
 
This is quite close to me.. - for all the wrong reasons...

At work, I had 3 people who love photography who asked me to critique there photos - I did this and also gave advice on how they could very quickly have made them 'better' with just a couple of tips.

To be honest my advice wasn't taken in the spirit it was intended - I just wanted them to progress their 'game'.

As such they stopped showing me their pics. Now I'm fairly busy, & didn't realise they were now 'hiding' their pics from me in case I told them what they did wrong until I had a conversation - totally unrelated to photography - with one of them..

As such, I now promote the positives in the pictures & do less of the negative - I tend to pick 10 plus's & ask why 1 is a negative - BUT THE LAST SHOT IS ALWAYS A PLUS...
They also have upped 'their game'.
 
Just realsied the OP is from Sussex so that explains a lot.

Up north we would have beat you with your own camera and told you to grow a pair and stop crying how old are you ? Six ! Tell the other person on the other forum who is picking on you that you will tell the admins if they dont stop it, and for good measure punish the forum by not publishing your images until they make him appologise, but ensure you are stamping your feet when you type !

Seriously though, grow a pair and stop crying how old are you ? Six :)
 
Except if they come from 'up North' - LOL
OT, but as a Londoner transplanted to Yorkshire 30 years ago I quickly learnt to soften my jokes/comments/whatever as Yorkshire folk are very easily hurt, at least by friends.:(.
 
Just vaccine - & only if you stay more than a couple of days.... Which never applies to the southern softies....
 
For some of my jazz shots, I like them in B&W and dark and moody looking. On a forum I use to post them and get comments like... Dave that`s just too dark, to which I`d say I took it and I like it.
Why banned?
 
Forgot this, I got it as a Flickr mail the other week from someone I don't think I know, well I smashed all my gear up and sat in a corner sobbing for a week, no I didn't I just blocked him, i can honestly say i am capable of some crap results i can also say i don't give a fig, first and foremost for me is recording the moment.
I enjoy someone else liking my results but in the end i only have to please me.

If this guy knew me he would know why I no longer have a D500 and be supportive

Your new mirrorless
Looking at your pictures your d500 produces much better picture .
The mirrorless pictures you recently posted look like iphone pictures :-(
 
I'm generally open to CC as long as it's delivered in a polite way. I know I'm not a great photographer, and I still like to learn, but CC should always give the author something positive. Negative experiences just push the photographer away, and that's not what we want......
 
I notice the OP hasn't commented for some time......
Don’t you think he felt knocked back again in this thread?
Edit: I take it back. Apologies to OP if appropriate.
 
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There is nothing worse than being constantly knocked back about how bad my photos are on another site. Ok they are not perfect or technically correct but they are what I like. Why do some take great delight slagging off others efforts? It has got so bad from one member on that particular forum I now am afraid to post any pictures and informed the management I won't post any more .

It Must be a lot worse for those just starting getting into photography, Surely those who are more knowledgeable should help and not go out to prove their work is far superior?

Sorry about the moan but it has really pulled me down

They don't like it is their problem not yours. I do photography to please ME ......
 
OT, but as a Londoner transplanted to Yorkshire 30 years ago I quickly learnt to soften my jokes/comments/whatever as Yorkshire folk are very easily hurt, at least by friends.:(.

How true, i'm a Londoner and did some work with people from Yorkshire
So easily upset and moaned about the cold a lot too, southern softies, I don't think so.

Went to York for work by train and there were young women handing out free male deodorant samples at the station.
Made them laugh when I said " its ok thanks, i'm from London, I've seen that sort of thing before"
One of the girls commented "I wish the lads around here had"
 
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I'd have said that the thread has been very supportive and encouraging generally, so if he's really knocked back then it's a shame.
OK, I’ve read though the thread again and yes I agree, supportive. I got a different impression from dipping into it.
 
Apologies in advance for the long-winded response.

Criticism (constructive or otherwise) is often very hard to give for people not used to giving it and hard to receive by people not used to receiving it.

As an example, I work as a writer in a creative department.

For us to get to the one ad you might see, it could take months of work and lots of false starts. In order to get an ad bought, we have to show numerous different thoughts to our Creative Directors. They'll select some to press forward with and some to just put in the bin.

Or sometimes they all go in the bin and we start again.

Then we have to show the new, developed work again.

If a route gets chosen we move on to the next stages.

Then it gets shown to the Account People.

Then it gets shown to the client.

Then it gets shown to the client's boss.

At any of these stages someone can say "I don't like it, start again"

The point of this is that about 90% of the ideas we come up get binned (or sometimes put in our bottom drawer because we feel that the one that eventually got bought is not the best one we produced). So we receive criticism at every stage - even when you're doing well. But a lot of the time there's no real right or wrong, it's just an opinion.

My best mate on the other hand is property developer and also fits kitchens.

He fitted our kitchen for us when we moved in to our current house and one of the end panels was on back-to-front. Now it's not an opinion that it's wrong, it is wrong. But when I told him that he got all huffy and eventually told me that I was hard to work for because I was difficult to please.

So for me, I have to remember that not everyone is used to receiving criticism in the same way that I am and not everyone has such a thick skin.

Despite the fact I'm fairly confident in doing what I do for a living, photography is not how I make money. It's a hobby. I don't know everything and so when I put my photos up for public viewing sometimes people will say things that never occurred to me (and seem obvious once they're pointed out). It can be hurtful - depending on how it's said - but it's genuinely how we improve.

Unfortunately, if you only want to please yourself with your photos, then don't share them.

If you do share them, then work out what you want to get from sharing them.

If it's just praise, then you're only ever going to be hurt when someone says something negative.

If it's because you want to improve, then read all the responses, assess them (and who they're from) and work out whose advice you're going to follow and whose you're going to ignore.

Before the internet, when I was a student, we would trawl our portfolio of work around various ad agencies for 'book crits'. Some of the best advice I ever got was to show your book to as many people as possible and then work out whose advice to take. If only one person thinks a piece of work is s***, but 20 think it's great, then it's probably great. But if only one person thinks it's great and 20 think it's s***, it's probably s***.
 
There is nothing worse than being constantly knocked back about how bad my photos are on another site. Ok they are not perfect or technically correct but they are what I like. Why do some take great delight slagging off others efforts? It has got so bad from one member on that particular forum I now am afraid to post any pictures and informed the management I won't post any more .

It Must be a lot worse for those just starting getting into photography, Surely those who are more knowledgeable should help and not go out to prove their work is far superior?

Sorry about the moan but it has really pulled me down
Photography is a bit like food. I love marmite and hate tuna - others are the reverse.
I have seen photos win awards that I would have deleted, if I had taken them. ( I am thinking some of the Natural History Museum wildlife competition most are amazing others, particularly in the past not so).
Therefore it is not black and white so don't get down hearted.
Of course the fact that it is not always objective makes it a bit harder in some ways - I know Usain Bolt is great runner because of his times - photos are a bit harder.
 
Constructive criticism is useful and as with most subjective things like photography, art, music etc people will differ over what they like. What I might think is horrendous, someone else may think its brilliant. There is a drone photographer in my area who shares his images on a local Facebook group. Huge colour saturation and obviously photoshopped in skies from completely different images. I hate them, loads of other people in the Facebook group think they are amazing.

What I am saying is don't take it personally. Also don't fall into the trap of taking photos hoping others will like them. There is always a risk uploading anything online will get someone making horrible and un-constructive comments. If it upsets you don't share them online, or do it in an area your comfortable e.g on Facebook to friends.
 
There is nothing worse than being constantly knocked back about how bad my photos are on another site. Ok they are not perfect or technically correct but they are what I like. Why do some take great delight slagging off others efforts? It has got so bad from one member on that particular forum I now am afraid to post any pictures and informed the management I won't post any more .

It Must be a lot worse for those just starting getting into photography, Surely those who are more knowledgeable should help and not go out to prove their work is far superior?

Sorry about the moan but it has really pulled me down

Most images we make have both down sides as well as up sides.
I am well aware that this applies to my own photographs.
Criticism is usually a balance between mentioning the positives against the negatives.
Some times people bring up things I have not even noticed, which can be helpful to the normal cycle of learning.

As a photographic student back in the late 50's, we had a period of Criticism, by all years of our fellow students, every Friday afternoon. we very soon learnt how to take well deserved criticism, both good and bad.

However If one is particularly precious about ones work, it is perhaps better to not put it up for comment at all.

Criticism is not about the superiority, or otherwise, of ones own work, it is about offering your own insights about what is presented for comment. false praise is not helpful to anyone.
As we found back in my student days, even those starting out on their photographic journey, could have something useful and constructive to say about the work of those about to graduate. Both could learn from the experience.

When it came to original work, it was just as likely to come from a first year student as from one in their final year. However a first year student was unlikely to have the quality and attention to detail of a final year student. In the professional world such quality and attention to detail is demanded by clients. it is a requirement. In that world criticism is truly costly in terms of reputation, clients, and hard cash. it is not just a bash on ones ego.

Most importantly criticism teaches one to be self critical, and so to avoid most such issues.
 
Who cares what someone says on the internet, it means nothing at all.
Need to harden up or give it a miss, plenty of s***bags out there i'm sorry to say
 
Before the internet, when I was a student, we would trawl our portfolio of work around various ad agencies for 'book crits'. Some of the best advice I ever got was to show your book to as many people as possible and then work out whose advice to take. If only one person thinks a piece of work is s***, but 20 think it's great, then it's probably great. But if only one person thinks it's great and 20 think it's s***, it's probably s***.
although that doesn’t seem to be true for fiction books — there are numerous stories of best-sellers/successful authors who’ve had their first book rejected 20+ time before 1 publisher accepted it. ;)
 
Photography is a very broad church, with many different mansions, rooms and corridors and few clearly-defied dividing lines between genera. The critique you receive will largely depend on the people giving it. For instance, what would the stereotypical old camera club members make of one of Martin Parr's photos such as this? http://www.artnet.com/artists/marti...e-series-common-sense-3IIpgAux6Vh_d75efRUnMA2 Yet, Mr Parr is one of the most widely published and successful photographers of modern times... and the average camera club member?

Crit can be very useful and helpful, particularly when first starting out and learning the basics. However, if everyone followed the same formulaic approach all the time, then everyone's photos would look the like clones. You only have to look at some landscape photos to see where that can go. By all means listen to forum crit, but use it wisely and selectively, as sometimes it's going to be worth exactly what you paid for it. :)
 
although that doesn’t seem to be true for fiction books — there are numerous stories of best-sellers/successful authors who’ve had their first book rejected 20+ time before 1 publisher accepted it. ;)
"Guitar groups are on their way out". A piece of crit from the early 1960s, attributed to a record label executive on hearing a demo recording of a new unsigned band called The Beatles.
 
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As we found back in my student days, even those starting out on their photographic journey, could have something useful and constructive to say about the work of those about to graduate. Both could learn from the experience.

When it came to original work, it was just as likely to come from a first year student as from one in their final year. However a first year student was unlikely to have the quality and attention to detail of a final year student.

Most importantly criticism teaches one to be self critical, and so to avoid most such issues.

Peer group criticism is the best by far, from people who don't just know your pictures but know what you are trying to achieve with them - which is why forums with a wide membership base are not always the best places to get reliable comments. This to and fro discussion of work helps you to think critically about your own pictures and understand what you are trying to achieve.

Until you are capable of recognising the failings in your own pictures it's better to have them pointed out than for the pictures to be praised. The worst thing for anyone is to always have their crap pictures praised as 'stunning' as that only encourages them to make more photos with the same failings.
 
Peer group criticism is the best by far, from people who don't just know your pictures but know what you are trying to achieve with them - .
Exactly, you need to know the ‘intent’.
 
Are you inferring that people from Sussex are inebriated by the exuberance of their own verbosity?

Having grown up in Sussex, it is difficult to ascertain the veracity of such a proclamation, as it is a such a broad generalisation :exit:
 
The worst thing for anyone is to always have their crap pictures praised as 'stunning' as that only encourages them to make more photos with the same failings.

And this is also very true. Tell me what you like, what you don't and why you think that.

It's nice to get praise, but it needs to be deserved too.
 
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