I've spoken with @Scrivener and he's willing to change the site to support a special section of photos tagged #critique-me if we as a community manage to kick-start the idea.
The idea of a critique tag has come and gone a couple times and he wants to make sure that there's support for the idea before changing the site. My position is that without tool support the idea will fizzle out.
So let's work together as a community to keep this idea going long enough for tool support to be added! That means not only tagging your own photos, but also critiquing other's photos with the tag.
Here's the idea: If you are looking for constructive critique of one of your photos, add the tag "critique-me" to the list of tags. If you're in the mood to see photos others want to have critique on, then you can see them here
Also, new people join all the time and are unsure of how to request critique. Since we don't have the idea of "sticky" posts in these forums then if you see that this post has fallen off the first page of posts please reply to it. The reply can be as simple as "+1", or "ping" or "refresh". Any reply will bring it back toward the top of the list.
edit: I've seen some people tagging their photos with critique me without the dash. That means you get two tags - one for critique, one for me. The dash is important - critique-me so that you get a single tag.
@mrangryuk That would be up to Ross based on how easy it would be to implement. The same idea was brought up in my original thread "idea: critique tag". I'll make sure I bring it to Ross' attention.
I like the idea. In the interest of people learning I suggest people should be specific in their feedback. For example, what do you like and WHY & what do you think would have made the photo even better. In the general posting most of the comments are very +ve which makes us all feel nice and I like BUT it does not really help people to learn
OK... @eyebrows on even days I'll tear 'em down and you build 'em up... and on odd days everyone sucks... we will give out roses on days that are divisible by zero....
could it be an 'ace' membership thing that we just click off from the title bar? Bonus points if we can move from one tag to the other without needing to back out after each photo... hey we can dream...
I'm with @wietpruim, otherwise the comments are just like the others. In fact I was browsing said photos, but did not see too many suggestions for improvment. But I'm about to give it a shot. :-)
@bobg Gotta start somewhere. Several people have gone in and retroactively added the critique-me tag, so no, not much *yet* in the way of constructive critique.
Love the idea! One question though, whats to keep people from tagging all of their photos? Not trying to be difficult, I'm just sayin' those people are out there!
@rendermemama Some people have already done so. I think that a key feature will be the ability to have the photos separated by day so it doesn't get overwhelming. Also, you choose which photos to comment on and how many.
@scooper Perfect! Unless there is a way to limit to a certain amount of times a day/week/whatever you can use a certain tag. I have no clue how all this website stuff works though so I don't even know if that is even possible. The honor system is sadly dishonorable.
Totally agree. There are a lot of threads from people asking for critique and this is a fantastic way to facilitate it - both for the critiqu-ee and the critiqu-er.
I love the idea, I have a few photo's with that tag, and still no critique, I wonder if some just get lost in the shuffle right now. I really like feedback, and always welcome it!
@staciehighland The way I do it is if I'm looking at someone's photo, and I have some critique, I will look for the tag on that specific photo. I don't browse all photos with that tag.
@musicguy1982@wormentude I take the same approach as Daniel when reviewing other's photos.
I'll tag my own photo if I'm proud of it or if I know there's *something* wrong with it but I can't figure out what or why.
If I know that the shot isn't as good as it ought to be *and* I know why then I leave the tag off.
I've added the tag to my 4 most recent photos as I'm quite pleased with them but I know that with more practice they can be improved and I would love suggestions on how to do this.
So, @Scrivener said he would add support in to the site for the #critique-me tag if we were able to keep momentum going on this. I'd really like to see that happen.
Here's a thought I just had - tell me what you think - every time you put #critique-me on a photo, you should find some other photo with that tag and give critique yourself. What do you think?
I know there's probably more angst about giving critique than getting it. You might think you're not a good enough photographer to be giving critique. But my experience in trying to critique as many photos as possible with the #critique-me tag has shown me that giving constructive critique is actually a lot easier than making a great shot.
Heck, just look at my shots and compare to the critique I give. The pictures I make don't come anywhere near the quality of most of the photos I critique. It's easier after the fact to see "oh, there's a distracting element there" or some such.
Giving critique isn't saying "oh, I could do better" it's more "here's an idea which would make this photo appeal more to me. What do you think?"
So, after this long posting - what does the community think? Should we try to give critique as often as we ask for it?
Minor correction - Ross said he would consider adding support if we kept things up. I don't want to publicly commit Ross to something he never said. :D
If you are an artist or even someone that is posting something in a public forum, shouldn't you be willing to accept criticism? Does everyone in here just want good comments even if your work needs work? It's like listening to the horrible singers on American Idol because all of their friends hyped them up on how good of singers they are. You are just hurting someone by lying. There should be tact but all people should be willing to take criticism not just people that tag themselves as such.
@sgtpaul5 A significant number of people here are using this as a way to document a year in their lives, and have no interest in changing how they take pictures. There's no one right way to use this web site. There are myriad other reasons to want to take a photo every day. Indeed I would say that the people using this site to improve as photographers are probably in the minority.
With that in mind, many people are hesitant to critique, as repeatedly hearing "neat shot but your focus is off" would probably get those people to stop using this site. The #critique-me tag is an easy way to signal that you'd like tips on improving a given photo. I don't tag every photo that way because many of the photos I post here I already know what's wrong.
The #critique-me tag only works if you give at least as much as you get. This won't work if we don't all pitch in with critique.
@scooper I get what you are saying but you should always be open for suggestion, I think people throw the word critique around like it is a bad thing. I say if you are on a public forum, you just gave yourself the "#critique-me" tag. I take all my photos with a phone for pete's sake and I'd love comments, criticism, critiques, and anything else people can throw at me. I don't consider myself an artist and I can take it. Why does everyone get so butt-hurt over this whole thing?
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could it be an 'ace' membership thing that we just click off from the title bar? Bonus points if we can move from one tag to the other without needing to back out after each photo... hey we can dream...
@musicguy1982 none that I know of. Tag just a few of your most recent ones is my suggestion, and tag new ones as you add them.
I'll tag my own photo if I'm proud of it or if I know there's *something* wrong with it but I can't figure out what or why.
If I know that the shot isn't as good as it ought to be *and* I know why then I leave the tag off.
Here's a thought I just had - tell me what you think - every time you put #critique-me on a photo, you should find some other photo with that tag and give critique yourself. What do you think?
I know there's probably more angst about giving critique than getting it. You might think you're not a good enough photographer to be giving critique. But my experience in trying to critique as many photos as possible with the #critique-me tag has shown me that giving constructive critique is actually a lot easier than making a great shot.
Heck, just look at my shots and compare to the critique I give. The pictures I make don't come anywhere near the quality of most of the photos I critique. It's easier after the fact to see "oh, there's a distracting element there" or some such.
Giving critique isn't saying "oh, I could do better" it's more "here's an idea which would make this photo appeal more to me. What do you think?"
So, after this long posting - what does the community think? Should we try to give critique as often as we ask for it?
With that in mind, many people are hesitant to critique, as repeatedly hearing "neat shot but your focus is off" would probably get those people to stop using this site. The #critique-me tag is an easy way to signal that you'd like tips on improving a given photo. I don't tag every photo that way because many of the photos I post here I already know what's wrong.
The #critique-me tag only works if you give at least as much as you get. This won't work if we don't all pitch in with critique.