Why you shouldn't worry about internet criticism
A few well known photograhers and theirs pictures which were subjected to criticism on Internet. People do not know who they are. Their names were changed. It is very interestig experiment. Enjoy reading.
Piotr Daniel Great! :D
Tomek Zimnocho
nice one. some of authors of comments thought that these are new photos though and according to modern standards some of the pictures are soft. And actually as I like Eggleston's work that one could be considered a snapshot (amazingly good, but snapshot). Same for Webb's photo - without the context that one doesn't look that great...
[EDIT] and Cartier-Bresson - nothing unexpected that his photo is not exactly in focus. It's not the only one like that as he was focused on other values than sharpness - and again modern standards are a bit different and we expect photos to be focused where they should be... we have auto-focus in our cameras for that...
Ian Prince I think it’s satire 😉
Tomek Zimnocho I think you underestimate Internet ;)
Ian Prince I’ve seen way to many real comments like these, which makes it all the more funny 😄
Asia Funny, and show how how easy it is to judge others on the Internet. But it's really true that old photos are great if we know they are old. Now, if we have a new, more advanced technologies, we expect something totaly other from photos :)
Ian Prince I think the question is: should we? 😁
Viola Kuniej exactly! "wrong end of horse" hahahahahha
Magda Parkitna Yes, it is:-)
Tomek Zimnocho So let's pretend I have no idea who Keith Carter is. Can you explain to me why focus point is on horse's bum and not on a head? Or even better - I'm familiar with some of his work and I noticed that big part of his animals photographs are focused in... let's name it "more classic" way... why? Because, TBH it looks like "wrong end of the horse"
ponzu This is satire: the comments are not real, but written to make a point. I have always liked this post. I belong to a critique group flickr.com/groups/theicebox and have meant more than once to submit a photo from a famous photographer as a prank. I have not done it yet.
Aga Ka thanks for sharing, Magda :)
vera
This raises interesting questions! ...
Does "artistically correct" exists in photography?
Ian Prince Well it certainly does in Internet forums 😂
vera indeed🤣, and on Tookapic???
Ian Prince Well I haven’t seen any like those the article makes fun of. Which is of course a good thing 😁
vera Fortunately !!! But I'm not sure that everybody has the same convictions about it, even on Tookapic. That's exactly why I'm a little sceptic about constructive criticisms. I think it's a very delicate question. It's easy to fall in this type of critics. "The framing is not good", "your focus is on the wrong point", "it's too blur", "not good colors" and so on. If what you've learned, or prefer, becomes a rule. That's very good to learn and to be critic to yourself!!! I don't want to be misunderstood about it! But if we impose it as must rules, we could sometimes kill the creativity, or discourage to try something new, different. I love Tookapic because we have so much latitude to try and show everything!
Tomek Zimnocho
As long as you are certain that focus point isn't at the wrong point (or anything else you could read in comments) it doesn't matter what someone else thinks. But sometimes we may need other point of view, someone to point things out, to make us think about them and improve. Creativity and artistic freedom is great, rules are there to brake them and nothing is a "must". But to brake some rules we need to know them and be able to apply them first, otherwise it's just ignorance and not artistic point of view. And in places like Tookapic, where majority of users are amateurs, we don't know everything, many of us are here to learn... but again, as long as you know that photo is exactly as you wanted, does it mater what other people are thinking?
[EDIT] and please, criticize my punctuation, I know it's bad :)
Aga Ka I understand why you are so careful about giving criticism @vera . And I agree, we should be polite and respectfull. At the same time I don't know if criticising others work will kill their creativity... giving criticism can encourage people to try new things. like if you say for example: ''i would try it with warmer colours'' or have you thought of the frame like...'' or ''I like the photo, I think I would love to see it with bit more contrast, I am courius how it would look'' etc etc. It can make people look differently at the same thing and it can make people try new approach. without that we won't grow.... Sometimes i take a photo and when I loot at it later I know what I like and don't like about it, I can try to take it again later with what I learned. But there are also times where there is something wrong with my photo but I cannot really put a finger on it. If there is no one to point me in some direction, I'm stuck. Criticism can be very inspireing. I am fortunate to have friends in real life that I can ask about my photos, but to be honest I would like some more directions from other people here as well.
vera @Tomek @Aga Yes! I agree with you about the idea that we need to learn, I think it's very good to improve the quality of the photos of course! It's very good to progress and learn technics and it can also serve the creativity!!! But we can learn some rules from different ways: take lessons with a good teacher, look at tuto on websites, read books about photography, magazines... On Tookapic, I think also that it's better and more careful to encourage people with positive comments in saying what is good and successful in their photos. I do it often for other people very freely on Tookapic! But if in the beginning of my project, when my photos were worse than now, if I had received too much negative comments on my photos, even politely, from different people who I don't know in real life, I'm not sure that I would continue to publish photos. Perhaps I would have been discouraged and then abandoned the photography? or I would have complied, and still do and publish the same kind of photo that I master well. I think that's not so easy to receive a written and public critic, because we are not in a private circle. Perhaps I am too sensitive? Or susceptive? Sorry! perhaps we don't have the same feeling? The option to choose to have a feedback on Tookapic is great for that! You can use it for your photos. I don't know if it works well. I don't use it and I'm very happy with the comments that I receive on my photos.
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Ian Prince So funny!!! Excellent, thanks for sharing, each “criticism” is golden. Rings so true, sadly, which makes it all the more hilarious 😂