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Praise can be just as terrifying as critique.

(imagine a slightly nasal voice) 'I love how you got that horizon straight' 'f2 at 1/30th is just perfect for this night scene'

Makes me feel like an incompetent. 'Excellent, johnny, you managed to tie your own shoe-laces'. As if I didn't really know what I was doing.

I try not to comment on other peoples work. If they don't know what's good in their photographs, they must be incompetent. If it's bad, or even just mediocre, they'll have to learn to see for themselves what is wrong.

Getting likes will sometimes tell you one of your photos is better than you thought. Most likely, the likes are because they know the person or the place depicted. Or they need to suck up to you and like an under-exposed, badly shaken smear because they need your approval. 'Let me tell you how artistic you are...'

That's another reason why I don't like issuing comments, wether of praise, or fiery flames : the politicking that goes on in these sites where people congregate to share photos :
I'll give you points if you give me points. urgh.

I still have trouble separating my own work into mediocre, ordinary, interesting or brilliant.
Mostly I get stuck at 'showable' versus 'not to be seen', and I have a hard time weeding out the 'forgettable but ok' from the 'quite interesting'. Sometimes, fessebook and the gallery help in the weeding out process; but after seeing what gets looks and likes and comments, I must admit to being sceptical about the powers of critique of social media.

But I do post, and I do look. Seeing what gets liked is an exercise in cultural anthropology.
 
I think these kind of sites are for praise on others pictures, are communities where simple things in simple ways are treated.
And these sites don´t offer the platform to make criticism nor to learn about it.

So i think it must be kept easy going.
 
If people ask for critique, give it to them (constructively and honestly, but gently).

If people do not ask for critique, don't give it to them.

JMHO...
 
I like Facebook. MOF I ditched Ipernity because no comments & many people seemed a bit snobby. Ipernity is the only place that kicked me out of a group & the reason being I didn't contribute enough, LOL. So a few of my Ipernity contacts are on FB. Most of my photos get no comments, just likes. But most of my photo's are snapshots. I hope to change that through linking my blog to Facebook. Flickr is the same way now. People leave very few comments, mostly favs but I still like Flickr & use it.
 
FB is just the platform. The more important pint is, what the intent was.
If' it's a cute baby family shot showing off with newest member, just let it go. NOBODY wants to be criticised on any shots about his family, cat, holiday selfie.
If it's a group of photographers asking for comments well then give them, hard and dry, tough and honest. You don't even have to be polite, and some images are just so bad, there's nothing positive to say about them, to compensate for the negative.
If they cant put up with it, they can bugger off.

I.e. dont ask a question if you can't cope with the answer.

It's the same here, by the way.
That's why i was rather surprised about the way Joe's crated post went at some point (and some other threads).
 
The criticism you made are things easily corrected, and if the intent of the OP is to put up a worthy example of his work, he can easily correct and re-post.

I believe you can "hide" comments which are hurtful? I have had friends, probably by mistake, i.e. non native English speakers, say something terrible, and if they are a good friend I message them. Or, the post can be deleted.

I showed some work to a serious local photographer who made some complementary observations, and made a suggestion with a fairly simple solution (burn in a corner as the light value drew the eye to the point of distraction, i.e. there was no point of interest in the corner) -- something so obvious looking back, I am shocked I missed it--

But I had. ----------- Very valuable information.

First, we are friends, second, his work is on my wall, third, he was sincere in his suggestion-- these are all things difficult to convey in writing.

On FB, with someone you really do not know, you might have skipped the public suggestion, regardless of the way it immediately hit you, or you might have sent a message with a bit of a personal touch?

We are all getting a bit too immediate in our lives--

What was their response?

Regards, John
 
It is not easy to make a valid criticism, and even more difficult to immediately accept it if you are not invested in the process.

Short post, many do not have the time to read the longer ones. ;-)
 
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