How critical are you of your OWN work?

[klynam]

Had a shot earlier this week - posted a few pics in another area of POTN.

I was really pleased during the session, and initially with the end results.

Now that I've had a few days to go through the photos, I'm getting pretty critical of my shots; in fact borderline frustrated with my shots.

For instance, here's what I see (notes) when I look at this shot (link below)...

Am I being too critical? Too much of a perfectionist?

Is perfection the goal? How hard do you push YOURself to improve?

[OdiN1701]

very

[Flo]

I am my own worst critic, but I think thats a good thing.
The items that you picked out of your photo are things you can easily correct,no? Not having photographed photos like yours before, I would have been only concerned about the eye area being dark:o

[EnglishBob]

Definitley my own worst critic, I compete in small club competitions and most of the time have friends pick the images to enter as I see the faults in all of them.

[Benji]

The more critical you are the more you will try and eliminate those errors and pretty soon people will pay big bucks for your work.

Benji

[meganrose]

I agree with this and I'm the same way as you. I pick at every little detail of my pictures and end up hating them. Is perfection the goal? Yes, but perfection is reaching your goal for that picture. If the picture is what you were aiming for then it is perfect.

The more critical you are the more you will try and eliminate those errors and pretty soon people will pay big bucks for your work.

Benji

[jetcode]

I think it's important to hold a high standard for critical images however even Intel ships silicon with small defects after months of design, implementation, and testing. It truly depends on the target audience.

[Balliolman]

You are clearly very thoughtful about your work and that is a good thing. Dont let it stifle your creativity though.

[klynam]

You are clearly very thoughtful about your work and that is a good thing. Dont let it stifle your creativity though.

Indeed - what I find myself doing is conceiving a shot in my mind then struggling to get it. In my mind I can see it - pose, lighting, perspective, everything. Then as I prepare the shot I begin running through the mental checklists and the practical matters creep in - exact exposures, balancing lights, getting the model to "work it", etc. It seems most every photo I get ends up compromised somehow. Either I get the shot aesthetically, or I get the shot technically. Very rarely both.

Thank the Lord for Photoshop. :cool: PS gives me the freedom to shoot with an eye more toward whats' in my mind knowing I can generally save (most) photos if I'm somewhere in the neighborhood technically. However, the danger there seems to be letting Photoshop become a crutch, enabling me to NOT become a good technical shooter. Fortunately, there are some things PS can't fix - posing, light placement, point of view, etc. Those you have to get right in camera. So that's pretty much the point I'm at now. Once I get that, maybe I'll learn to use the Sekonic meter I've had in my bag for several months...LOL...:p

[joedlh]

I think that someone who is not self-critical will never advance past the snap-shooter stage. It's absolutely essential in my opinion.

Having said that, however, I don't always trust my own judgment. That's why I never immediately delete images unless there is a clear un-redeemable technical flaw. It has happened that I've looked at images months later that I thought were so-so and found something worthwhile in them. Sometimes I get so lost in the moment that I lose the forest for the trees.

[mercersmoments]

I sit and pick the crap out of my pics, then my hubby will come and say "wow That's great"

I am terribly critical of my own work.

[Merran]

I agree with this and I'm the same way as you. I pick at every little detail of my pictures and end up hating them.

Agree so very much that I'm always on the point of giving up photography.

[Gel]

With that picture, the guy isn't standing straight.

Images like that are meant to be harshly lit, right?

[Naturalist]

To the OP,

I think the desire of getting it right is a positive indication reflecting your professionalism. The more perfect your shot is the greater the client is satisfied and the harder it will be for others to compete with you.

Should a photo editor be reviewing images from multiple photographers with yours in the mix, your work will stand out as having been thoughtfully and precisely executed and may be more likely to be selected. They will be noting some of the same things you have pointed out.

Having that post-shoot critical eye is important for each of us. The client, when viewing our images, does not care how long it took to set up the shot, or where the lights were, etc. The client only cares to have the shot they need and are willing to pay for the better images. They will be examining everybody's work with the same critical eye you have demonstrated here - and kicking out those submissions that fall short of the mark.

[alessandro2009]

The only problem that i see in the goal of the "perfect shoot" is that often (better say almost always) it's required a total control of each elements.
But often (except studio if you take your time for each single shoot) you haven't much control ...
I'm very critical about myself but after much frustration I decided to worry only of the shots where I have control (very few) before become self-destructive and pass the desire to take pictures.


The more perfect your shot is the greater the client is satisfied.

Sorry i'm disagree.
There is no automatism if you speak about clients. The clients often haven't knowledge at all and how happen in all the other job (at least for private client) often are more important other things then the shoot (for example satisfy the ego of the customer).
While if the client is an company often you do standard shoot. Only few big photographer are really free.

[cdifoto]

I drive myself crazy.

[Cam97]

Yes, i am my own worst critic.

[pxchoi]

Yeah, I guess I'm pretty hard on myself, but I think that's how we push ourselves to get better. I'm certainly not a professional, but I can understand that even professional images and be picked apart and there really isn't and image that will satisfy everyone or all of our needs.

But on the other end of that, if we never made mistakes, we wouldn't know what it is to be perfect.

I think at a certain point you'll have to ask yourself if it's good enough. If you're spending so much time on a single image that you can't move onto any other work, then you probably need to get help for OCPD. lol

[Cosha]

Yes, sometimes i would actualy say 99% of the time i hate my work!

For example i just made a photobook for my Girlfriend, for her Mums birthday - cant say i actualy liked one of them

My girlfriend thinks my shots are really good, nice clear and crisp, but i dont enjoy them! I pick the hell out of them!

I printed a picture off 2 nights ago, i said my normal stuff, "Humm not sure if that is light enough" an then i get hurled abuse by the other half "Only because you have pro photographers eyes, i think thats perfect" ;)

[ScottKCooper]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, way too many lines and words - first I was like what? and then I was like huh?, oh, and then I got bored - something about cropping... (sorry, my take on the quote from one of the cats in the movie Bolt).

Good use of time contemplating issues with your own work to improve. I think you know what to do in the future.

[AxxisPhoto]

Very critical. Sometimes to my own detriment.