Critique Review

[iml]

I believe that while it is great to state the positive comments, it is also very important to offer another perspective. It is OK [in my opinion] to say "I would have maybe taken this image that way". This actually may be against the current rules for the critique sessions.Sometimes, a participant gets furious and feels insulted when someone states some perceived negative aspect of a posted image. Why? I want more room for constuctive critique.

I agree with that, I find informed critical comment more useful than praise.

I would like to see a critique/advice session "What's Wrong With This Image" in which we could post not-so-good images that may benefit from the advices of RFF members.

That's a very good idea.


Ian

 

[Todd.Hanz]

The critique threads are great, though I've stayed at a distance for a while because I participated alot at first, giving others the chance to try it.

The guidelines are fine with me, keep it up Ray!

Todd

 

[nico]

Hi All,

We’ve got over 50 critique threads in the books.😱 Here are some of my observations and thoughts, please let me know yours:

We seem to have a strong core group that really enjoys participating in the critiques. This is great. However, is everyone who wants to participate getting an opportunity to do so?
On occasion, I’ve received a few requests to add threads, but on the whole I’ve settled on irregularly posting one new thread every two or three days (sometimes longer, sometimes less). I’ve considered taking this down to once a week, but maybe adding three threads instead of one. Maybe regular scheduling is better?

Five participant threads seem to work best. Five images is a lot of critiquing. Bravo to everyone for managing this. The critiques seem to follow that the critique-ers reply to all images in one thread. Do the participants feel that they are getting enough feedback?

We’ve had some misunderstandings in the thematic critique threads regarding whether an image fit the theme of the critique, so I’ve backed off on those and kept the theme open. Would anyone like to see the thematic critique threads again?

I’ve added a couple of guidelines regarding image size and an image posting timeframe, any suggestions regarding the guidelines?


Thanks!

hi Ray,
first of all, thanks again for this job on the critiques threads. About your questions: i like your recent "random" posting. Maybe, it's worth trying twice threads each time one "open" and one "tematic" (it's interesting for me to see 5 different points of views on the same theme).
Guidelines are ok for me.
ciao 🙂
Nico

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I like it just the way it is. Thank you.

 

[RayPA]

Thanks everyone for your input.

Would anyone like to see the thematic critique threads again?

I would like to see this.

Ian

Ian,
I was creating the following thematic threads:

Portraits
Landscape
Street

These seemed to get the better response, and pretty much cover a good generic range.

hi Ray,
first of all, thanks again for this job on the critiques threads. About your questions: i like your recent "random" posting. Maybe, it's worth trying twice threads each time one "open" and one "tematic" (it's interesting for me to see 5 different points of views on the same theme).
Guidelines are ok for me.
ciao
Nico

Nico, I'll try putting up two threads (one open and one thematic) on a regular basis. I'd like to avoid having too many unfilled critique threads sitting an waiting for members to join. I thnk a couple threads in that state are OK though. I gives folks the opportunity to browse some options.

I would like to see a critique/advice session "What's Wrong With This Image" in which we could post not-so-good images that may benefit from the advices of RFF members.

Raid, let's talk some more on this.

Another member had a request for something similar. His idea was to have a thread wherein someone would post an image with minimal-to-no post processing and ask other members to "work" it and then post their results, including the post processing notes/list of what was done. There are a few issues with this, but if there is enough membership interest we can probably work something out.

As far as generating more constructive criticism as opposed to JUST praise, this will have to fall to the participants to encourage one another to offer more, especially since there isn't someone to guide the session. I've been tempted to comment on critiques in which I was not a participant, but that would be breaking the guidelines.

A non-participant facilitator (eww, hate that word!) could help to generate more constructive comments. I wouldn't mind trying this out to see how effective it is. If enacted, we would need a handful of facilitators (and I would probably look to the current core group here). If we went this route we would need the facilitators to "own" a thread/critique and see it through to the end.

Thanks again!


🙂

 

[raid]

Raid, let's talk some more on this.

Another member had a request for something similar. His idea was to have a thread wherein someone would post an image with minimal-to-no post processing and ask other members to "work" it and then post their results, including the post processing notes/list of what was done. There are a few issues with this, but if there is enough membership interest we can probably work something out.

As far as generating more constructive criticism as opposed to JUST praise, this will have to fall to the participants to encourage one another to offer more, especially since there isn't someone to guide the session. I've been tempted to comment on critiques in which I was not a participant, but that would be breaking the guidelines.

A non-participant facilitator (eww, hate that word!) could help to generate more constructive comments. I wouldn't mind trying this out to see how effective it is. If enacted, we would need a handful of facilitators (and I would probably look to the current core group here). If we went this route we would need the facilitators to "own" a thread/critique and see it through to the end.

Thanks again!


🙂

Ray: I like your suggestions above. Let's find some facilitators who are both able and willing to do the job well. The goal is to assist RFF members with no hidden agendas at all.

Thanks for your open-minded approach!.

Raid

 

[iml]

Sounds like a very good idea Ray.

Ian