I find I am typically unable to give feedback on any photo as I have little clue what the photographer was attempting to accomplish. I have no high, medium, or low scale based on some generic "overall goodness" of a single photo. Sometimes a photographer will give a clue when they tell you the location, date, or circumstances thus you know what message they are trying to convey. But many photos here can only be responded as "yes, that particular film, developer, and time works well" so you get 5 stars.
Plus, we would all like to believe that our personal work is so compelling that everyone will form an opinion and take the time to express it. It just ain't so.
I'm not sure that's necessary to make a comment. Just comment on what you, as a viewer, see in any given photo. You don't necessarily have to divine or grade the photographer's intent, unless perhaps the photographer discussed that as a part of posting the photo.
I'm with Bob on this. As I wrote in
this thread from last year, I need my photography to be part of a project. Therefore the evaluation should be done on and how and what the body of work communicates. This is more difficult about a single photo if we can only evaluate technical or aesthetic details.
I'm not interested in the "like": no reason to count how many they are if I do not know why someone likes a photo of mine!
To write a few words does not take much time and it could be more useful. But I know, we are in the internet and in the "social" times, go fast...
Of course nothing wrong in taking pictures simply for the pleasure of it: I'm too guilty, the lakes photos I recently posted in the gallery were just made for the pleasure to use the old Lica X1 but now thinking of the drought which is already affecting my country where all rivers and lakes are much below usual levels they could be incorporate in a potential project
😉
Same as comments to Bob.. there's no reason to apply the context of your own photographic efforts, and what you hope to achieve from them, to others' works.
I see the 'likes' simply as a way of me saying "your photo for whatever reason resonated with me", and read the likes that show up for mine the same way. I dont need multiple gradings of like, and dont keep a count of them. If participants' names are affiliated with the likes, i get to know over time what those people tend to resonate with.
I just don't see the point of canned "like phrases" to pick from. I comment when i see a photo or group of photos that stand out in some way, either individually or as a group. My comments are individual to the context of what I'm commenting on, specifically. I don't post photos with the notion of winning some popularity contest, or trying to get a lot of likes. I post photos for the pleasure of sharing what I do with others, and if a like or a comment that incites some interesting discussions ensues, more the better for it—but it's not "necessary" to my enjoying making the posts. I like to hear what others have to say about what I post, whatever they have to say. I don't see any comment as negative or positive; any sort of comment is an individual's opinion or question about the photo, so it's all good.
How to incite more commentary, how to get people participating in a photo forum to actually see, digest, formulate, and express ideas about the photographs posted .... that's a big question mark, and not something that I believe pre-canned "like" phrases or graded levels of likes, helps much with. What I find works best with other photo groups I participate in is if the photographer posts a photo, or a set of photos, with some context for why/what it is, what they're trying to achieve, and perhaps even an open question or two to the audience so that there's something on which to base a query or a comment.
And then there's the always difficult issue of what the function of the photo forum is. MOST photo forums incite discussions of equipment, workflow, techniques, etc. ... because these are concrete, complex things that can be delineated with fair ease and discussed with personal experiences or supporting technical data by others doing similar things with similar equipment. Few photo forums define themself around the notions of discussing the ideas of making photographs, or sets of photographs, so few photo forums tend to educate photographers much in how to discuss photographs other than in a technical sense. There is a wide abyss between a forum devoted to photographic equipment and technique vs a forum dedicated to the development of aesthetics of photographs...
G
"Equipment is transitory. Photographs endure."
