How do I give a good crit??

We don’t like being told that we are wrong. We also don’t like it when people say negative things to us. We generally like to ignore the critique that others say about us or our work, in order to preserve our own self-image of ourselves.

However, it is important to get honest and constructive critique to improve our photography. If we never get any guidance and feedback, how can we strive to improve and upon what ruler can we measure our progress?

© Fred Herzog

I don’t feel that it is possible to give constructive criticism on the internet that is less than 4 sentences. Comments and feedback such as “nice shot”, “nice light”, and “beautiful” help boost our ego and are generous, but are equally as useless in terms of improving ourselves as photographers such as “you suck” or “you are a horrible photographer”.

Let us break down two points:

1. Critique is generally used to find faults in certain arguments. According to the definition, it is not required that you include the positive aspects when you critique, but in order to give a constructive critique I believe it is important as well.
2. A critique should be based on an informed opinion, and never upon a personal opinion. In the end any critique you give will always be your opinion, but it should be based on your past experience, your techinical knowledge, or training you have received in the past.

©R. Friedman

Whenever my good friends or street photographers are close to me ask for feedback on their images, this is generally the flow of what goes on in my mind, and the questions I like to ask myself:

1. Remove all distractions

When giving a constructive critique to somebody else, turn off all distractions. If you are giving it via the internet, close any other applications or tabs you have open to give the critique your full attention.

2. Judge the composition

I first start off by looking around the frame, for every small detail in terms of the composition. I try to do this for about a minute (at least). This is what goes on in my head (questions I ask myself):
a) Is there a random hand in the background that distracts or adds interest?
b) Are there cars in the background which are distracting? (there usually is).
c) What is the main subject, who should I be looking at?
d) Is the composition good?
e) Do I see nice leading lines in the image that lead to the subject, or does it lead away from the subject?
d) Is the light good or flat?
e) Are there any triangles I see that achieves balance and harmony in the frame?
f) Is the perspective good? Should the photographer have crouched down lower for this shot when taking a photo of a kid, or shot more eye-to-eye with his subject?

3. Judge the content

I then start judging the content. When I refer to “content” I mean try to figure out what is going on in the frame. What is the story? Is the photograph an interesting photograph or not?
I generally judge content based on certain things:
a) Does the photograph immediately pique my interest?
b) Is there something unusual or wacky happening in the scene?
c) Have I seen a similar photograph taken before by someone else?
d) Does the photograph make me feel anything? Does it make me smile, laugh, cry, frown, feel depressed?
e) Does the image make sense in a series or a photo essay? Is it a stand-alone image or a part of something bigger?
f) Is this image memorable? Will I remember the image a month, or even a year from now?



©R. Friedman

Giving the critique

Once I have fully absorbed what I have looked at, I then ask the photographer, “Do you want me to give you an honest critique?” This helps the photographer getting the feedback and opportunity to mentally prepare for what he/she is going to hear. If they say “yes”- they will expect some of the negative feedback you will give them (instead of it coming out of nowhere).

1. Tell the photographer your initial impressions

Start off by telling the photographer what went in on your mind when you first looked at the image. Verbalize what your mind was thinking when looking at the frame. For example you can say something like,
“When I first looked at the photograph, my eye immediately looked at the brightest part of the frame, which was the top right corner. I then had to search around the frame a bit to look for what was going on, and then found an interesting background, and found the subject.”
Tell them what initially drew your eye to the frame, and how your eyes personally looked around the frame.

2. The top bun (positive feedback)

Every image has some sort of merit or intent. Try to think about why the photographer who is asking for feedback took the image. After all, he/she probably took the photograph because he/she found something interesting going on enough to click the shutter.
Tell the photographer what you liked about the frame, whether it was the gesture of the subject in the photograph, an interesting background, dynamic colors that juxtaposed well, or if the subject him/herself was interesting.

3. The meat (negative feedback)

This is where the critique gets tricky. Giving negative feedback is tough to give, and tough to hear. After all, you don’t want to hurt their feelings. But as mentioned earlier, they agreed to you giving them an “honest critique” so it doesn’t make sense if they get upset for your honesty. After all, it is very rare nowadays to get honest feedback (anything in life).
Talk about what in the frame you don’t like or you find distracting. Tell them what you find is weak in the image. Some feedback I generally give people:
a) The background is distracting (too many random heads, people, or cars)
b) The subject is boring (the subject is standing too static, not moving their hands or making gestures, wearing ordinary clothes, or a blank facial gesture)
c) The subject is too centered. Typically I prefer subjects in photographs a little more on the left side of the frame or the right side of the frame (think of the rule of thirds).
d) The lighting is bad. The frame itself may be good, but the lighting may be too harsh and there are blown highlights (generally happens when people shoot mid-day or afternoon).
e) The image is too busy. There may be too much happening in the frame, and it can be overwhelming to look at.
f) The photo doesn’t fit in a series. If someone is asking me to critique an image in a series, I sometimes find images which are good as single images, but don’t work in a series based on a concept.
g) There is too much post-processing. I see many images that are too “over-processed” by having too much highlight recovery (HDR-looking), by having too heavy a vignette, or the colors are oversaturated.
h) The colors are distracting. If the shot is in color, sometimes colors can be a distraction, especially if there are bright colors such as red or yellow in the corners of the frame (and the subject is more near the center of the frame).

4. The bottom bun (positive feedback)

I then conclude the critique by leaving on a positive note. Remind them again what you like about the image, and what you think that they can improve on. Tell them if you think the photo is either a “keeper” or something that they should not show publically or remove al-together.