The true motivations of photos sharing: dare to be critical!

If you read this blog, I assume you are posting on Flickr, Deviantart or else. I am sure you have been refreshing pages soon after posting, seeking praise and compliment, building up your confidence out of it.

But can you remember the last time you read constructive criticism on a photo sharing site?

There are some groups based on a save / delete logic where people vote to keep pictures or not, but most deletes are usually unfunded, coming from people who certainly can afford being the flagship of good taste, and very often just rude.

I once gave constructive criticism to a young dublin photographer who I believe as talent. However, she did a set of well framed, composed shots, and added tons of photoshop vignetting and fake colors, in my opinion ruining the shots. I commented positively on her work many time, and this time I told her the post processing was rather childish, which was a shame as the photos being were good. Her reaction at first was rather violent, insulting, she really got mad. "Who are you to thing you know better, if you don't like it just shut up, etc".

I tried to reason her, explaining that I was also the only one in ages who wrote something useful other than "wow, it's gorgeous". And that if I believed she just sucked, I wouldn't even bother commenting. She ended up agreeing with that at least (she does what she wants with her artistic choices) and invited me to an exhibit or hers :). That was nice.

She also admitted she was only seeking praise to feel confident about her skills, and that she wasn't ready to receive critical comments. However she had the strength and wisdom to challenge herself and make the most of it. Most people don't.

So let me suggest three things:

1. If you post work, be ready to receive positive and negative comments. If negative comments are just dumb and rude, ignore them. If they contain suggestion, ideas, creative thinking, they are worth reading.
2. Ask for constructive criticism. I never ever improved from praising. Only a few dared to tell me "this is close to excellent, but it's not because of X Y or Z in my opinion". Weither I agree or not, it makes me think, reconsider, evolve. 
3. Which takes me to my last point: to everyone who says "debating taste is pointless, if you don't like it shut up". You are freaking idiots. Taste in any kind of art evolves, changes, get confronted to new things, ideas. It is a soft matter, there is no absolute truth so in essence, it is to be challenged. Did you like techno and moved to Jazz or heavy metal when you got older? I'm sure that sounds familiar. Someone being a metal fan told you one day "stop listening to that crap and try this instead". You thought it was insulting, but you listened, and ended up liking it. The comment was maybe rude, full of unnecessary judgmental bias, but it made you evolve and discover new things. Point made. "If you don't like it shut up", is a dictatorial point of view, it's what totalitarian organization tell their people. It's intellectually criminal. 

So next time you are on Flickr or else, dare to be critical. Don't attack the person, highlight the parts you like, explain what you would do different, don't be condescending or patronizing, but say it. You will help the photographer.

If you receive fair criticism, make the most of it. You are offended? So be it, be offended. What's wrong with that?

simplephy.com : a sharing site for dedicated photographers.

A new sharing / expert site in the photography landscape, www.simplephy.com.

An other one you said? Well yes, but I wouldn't mention it if I didn't believe this one is worth trying.

I like simplephy because it is the missing link between product reviews and photography tutorials. It really aims at self teaching from other photographers' input, and help you pick the right gear. Simplephy was very recently created on his free time by a Google employee, he hasn't had much time to promote it and activity on the site is rather quiet for the time being.

Yet, for those of you who use Google + , you can see how much better the interaction can be when a community is populated with fewer yet more skilled people. How about we try to make simplephy the Google + of photography sharing?

It does (or could do) many many things better than flickr or deviantart.

• VS Flickr: flickr is the trashcan of online photography. 99% on what is in there can't even be called photography. The talented few are so...few that after 6 months using it you realize there are only a few closed circles of inspired people always linked to one another. What if you could get a site with only those guys ??? I would personally love it. I also use flickr to find shot samples taken with a given lens or camera. The problem is you can never make up your mind since it is so badly post processed most of the time that you find every piece of gear rubbish. I want to know what a good photographer can do with a good lens. Finally the UI is nice and clean, and the guy who created the site a true photo enthousiast. Last but not least, it's not filled with pictures of old dude flashing their genitals like on flickr...

• VS Deviantart: simply the worst UI ever on a large scale site. I mean seriously? That is the only reason why I don't update it. Ok content is of much better quality than flickr. That is correct, but it's not dedicated to photography, so all that know how / teach yourself aspect of simplephy is absent. And also, the UI is so...oh I said it already. Bad UI.

See you on Simplephy?