Fair enough I can totally understand that. I hold back my feelings most of the time about photographs I don't like. There are times where I will just point out certain things just deepening how sensitive that person is other times I'll just tell it like it is and be pretty direct about it, but I do like to be constructive..There is no right or wrong really its opinion and everyone has a different opinion. It might not might not be a lack of vocabulary, but knowing how to read a photograph and express what the viewer sees. When I see comments about photographs they are usually in the effect, Nice Work, Well done, I like it..etc…I mean if you like it give me something more I want to learn something for someone else's comment and apply it to what see or not see..
I don't have problems telling people that a photo is good, and I always make it a point to say what I like about it when I do. There's nothing worse than seeing all these photos on flickr with a million comments that all say "COOL PIC!" and have a million sparkly "awards".
By far my most hated comment is
nice bokeh. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?!
As far as the "no right or wrong" thing goes, that's true to an extent but there are standards (or there should be). A lot of people use those words as an excuse for their bad photos. When you're in a juried exhibit there's a semblance of standards that constitutes "right or wrong" and that's used as a criteria for inclusion. Sure there's some flexibility and opinions are obviously involved, but there are lots of "rules" that if broken will get a photo excluded.
I mean this is a slippery slope to go down because some people will say that it doesn't matter what judges or other people think, etc... But without some guidelines how do you even establish standards? Is it OK to have blown out highlights just because "there is no right or wrong"? Then again sometimes the wrong thing works and therefore it's "right".
Then you have the people that say, "it doesn't matter if the picture isn't perfect as long as the customer is happy". But if the photographer knows that they could have made it better, but didn't because the customer doesn't know any better what does that say about the photographer?
I guess what I'm saying is that if you have the ability to make a technically perfect photograph, but you don't because you think it's "good enough" and you're too lazy then you're not really a photographer, just a picture-taker. There are rules to photography and you need to learn them first, THEN you can break them because you will know why you are breaking them.
Then again, what do I know?
