 constructive criticism welcome. Three words that are sabotaging any sort of growth in photography when you are asking strangers to give you feedback on your images. That's a hazard. That idea that you know you can put a picture out there whatever your your preferred method of sharing even if it's a camera club and just saying you know constructive criticism welcome or feedback okay you know the sort of thing we've also seen it and and expecting something to come back at you that's useful that's going to help you drive your photography forward just why I appreciate why people do it but there is a far better way to ask for feedback criticism critique whatever you want to call it that is going to be much more beneficial for you in the long run and when you learn the skill of asking for for feedback on your images then it puts you in a better position to pass on feedback to other people because you have a better idea of what is helpful and really kind of what's just noise. So let's begin with defining you know what is feedback what is what is helpful criticism as you know constructive criticism welcome for me it's something that if somebody were to say something about one of my photographs and I'm going to use some of my old images here is that's a sample because you know why not right so there's a photograph it's Table Mountain it's a fairly famous scene you know people seen all over the times and if I were to show that to somebody and just say what do you think constructive criticism welcome I would probably get a whole bunch of stuff that would come back at me oh that sky's really dark what are you photographing here it's all just a bit wonky your contrast the processing is not kind of cool these by themselves are not really helpful what would be helpful is if somebody came along and said I see where you're going at you're trying to photograph Table Mountain an iconic scene in a different way but I think you've kind of missed the point here that including just a little bit of foreground interest isn't kind of really doing it sort of things like that so that is a little bit more constructive but to get that sort of constructive criticism that feedback you need to be lucky enough to bump into somebody who is well versed in how in passing on feedback to you so when we understand what feedback is then it puts us in a better position to you know pass it forward to use that phrase so helpful feedback is something that addresses a single concern for the photographer in question so that'd be me and you know would then suggest a way that they could you know approach it from a different angle recognizing what they're trying to achieve and you know giving a feedback that isn't well you know you should have done it this way you should have done it that it's more putting an idea in the photographer's mind that resonates with them because ah yes okay I see I see the point you're trying to make that for you feedback is going to sound different everybody is unique within photography this is part of I think the great problem with asking for general feedback is that everybody has their own approaches when I run cohorts you know I make a point of trying to you know give a broad spectrum for you know for the people who are joining in but also taking the time to speak to the people in the cohort one-on-one you know about their specific photography because somebody may be into landscape photography somebody may be into street photography or abstract photography all of these need different approaches there are various skill levels all of these need different approaches so let's look at you know what we can do right away to make sure that we're actually you know asking for the right sort of feedback here are three views of an air vent that I photographed in Frankfurt this must be or early 2000s what I was trying to do here is lean into those patterns and the shapes of you know what what I'm sort of seeing it's a very interesting piece and I would say if I'm looking for critique and feedback on it now I'd go to this one vent number two and I'll say okay well I've got this idea I'm trying to make a grip an abstract feeling to this do you as the viewer feel that this has led into that abstractness I wanted to get a bit of a flow make a sort of organic feel to what is obviously an inorganic object it's metal but it has a sort of a you know over swoopingness am I communicating that clearly is this something that is resonating with you in a way that intrigues you so there's a bit of feedback or you know I'm asking for specific feedback I'm not saying does it work better in color or black and white or do you think that little piece of yeah it's another piece of fin there in the background do you think I should clone that out do you think I should tidy things up on it or something like that right I'm asking very specifically is this achieving what I set out as a photographer to achieve whenever you ask for feedback on an image online be clear about what it is that you want the feedback to be here's another very old picture this is taken again when I was a student and you know we used to go off and do assignments that I feel at the time I really liked I thought wow yeah I like the framing and all that sort of stuff and if I were to ask again for feedback I would probably say something like okay well I've got Ursula in this frame here like that but I'm trying to get a sense of isolation a sense of moodiness you know a bit of a vibe going on there because it's a broken down building in the middle of the felt and Ursula's wearing this kind of I don't know what it was it's quite clearly not a going out in the bush dress how would you as the person's going to give me feedback say to me okay well what could you do to give a bit more of a of a drama maybe not photographing in what looks like kind of the middle of the day wait until the evening you know take your photograph and make it less contrasty things of that nature it's very tricky as you can see because obviously I'm trying to I'm you know asking for criticism on my photograph and they try to give it back back to me but I hope this is getting the point across that if you are specific not just like do you like this picture constructive criticism welcome because you you know you might come back with a million things that are drifting away from what was actually helpful we used to take these photographs and you know put them into assignments that we've been set at a photo school and then we'd have a critique session you know put the image up on a wall and the lecturers would come around they'd look at it and they'd sort of maybe point out a couple of things and say you know this focus is a bit wonky or you know your tonal range isn't quite right or you know this kind of sort of thing and then open up the floor to this discussion and I've always found whenever I'm you know I'm looking to improve my photography that it's this community discussion that is is kind of really where the where the nuggets of of of growth lie in camera clubs certain camera clubs there are the people you know the the the voice is on high who will sit down and go you must do this and you must do that will have you and often on an internet forum there are people say you must do this you must do that it when you get a good community of people together it doesn't have to be a lot you know five ten fifteen people who are supportive of each other and understand the the you know the benefit of giving you know feedback that isn't about what they would have done better but about how the photographer can grow that exchange of ideas this back and forth that goes beyond are your horizons a bit wonky or your framing sucks is invaluable and that's why I make such a point of you're trying to introduce this into you know cohort discussions like I said we have keep the community small so not only can I do the one-to-one stuff but also everybody knows each other that that's interaction between the photographers working on an assignment you know like a like a sort of you know photograph emotion for example that helps them discover their own voices their uniqueness as a photographer but isn't also pigeonhole you know the images into are you got to do this way or you've got to do that way this you know I hate this idea with you know a lot of workshops or what have you know they're kind of like you know we're going to photograph in this way or we're going to teach you how to do stuff and that's you know okay that's fine if you want to learn a certain technique you know like painting or something like that then obviously you know that's going to be helpful but so many you know workshops seem to be all about you know you press this button you do that button whereas you know I wouldn't I want photographers this is kind of why I do this you know so at least with planting ideas in your head say look you know this is how we can try things out this is how we can move forward take photographs that appeal to you and find somebody who understands that that understands that you know giving criticism feedback you critique whatever isn't about trying to get that person to take photographs like that me I don't want you guys to take photographs like me I want you to take photographs like yourselves I wish I could which I wish this wasn't just like a bank bank bank you know one-way screen here that I could sit with you in my lounge I don't know how much space we've got here I could probably fit about 10 people okay get a bit warm in it after a while but at least yeah we're going some small way to helping you understand what to ask for that you know next time you put up an image that you want some feedback on don't just say constructive criticism welcome say I photographed this ball in Frankfurt again you can you see the theme going on today and I you know I like the reflection of it but I feel that it's lacking something it feels like it's just a little bit of a snap shotty kind of oh look it's very funny I've taken a picture of a reflection what can I do you know I think the framing is wrong on this I think I haven't gone far enough can you make some suggestions about what I could do to you know really lean into that reflection but also make it somewhat recognizable but you know something a little bit more visually dynamic that's what we're going to be doing here that's what I get into so deeply on the cohort and there are as of this video being recorded there are only three spaces left the cohort starts on the 10th of September there's no body on the 6th it's six weeks of I what is about to say intense stuff but it's not intense it's it is digging into your photography and pulling out the the you know the nuggets of gold that are hiding there already polishing them up helping other people growing and helping other people grow photographers you grow as a photographer as well it is fascinating to see the development the confidence of the people who've been in previous cohorts and I would love for you to to join me here please if you are interested check out the link below and to find out more about you know photo school and all the kind of things that you get up to there and some of them good some of them bad check out this video over here thank you ever so much once again for watching and I will see you again soon