Critiquing and spotting flaws in other people's photos.

Is it just me, or is it normal to instantly spot flaws in other people's photos but not your own?

I guess that's one of the major reasons this site exists...for photo critique. You post a photo thinking it looks great, and then several people expose its flaws that you didn't notice because...well...it's your photo.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, you know what you want to achieve and if you did it. Others know what you could have achieved so its a different set of expectations. When others with more experience point out flaws, its probably because they have dealt with that issue before and know to look for it.

I think it depends on the Photo, But when you pressed the shutter there where 1000's of elements that lined up so the photo is that way.

Yes shooting studio you can control just about everything but out on location or street shooting all you can control is the camera and your actions. (Why I love street photography)

So when you take the photo you know why it looks the way it dose as its a story of a moment (Not trying to sound stuck up)

This mean you will see the photo and understand everything about how and why it is how it is and hopefully got what you wanted in the photo.

someone looking at your work will see a photo without knowing the story so they can make comments on technical side really quickly without understanding the why.

Just an idea
Alex

I have the oppisite thing actually. I always find others shots very nice and find the smallest flaws in mine (along with a lot of major ones too).

JakAHearts wrote in post #14927430
I have the oppisite thing actually. I always find others shots very nice and find the smallest flaws in mine (along with a lot of major ones too).

I'm the same, sometimes when I browse the critique forum I just want to say I love them all, until someone else points out what is "wrong"

I'm very judgmental of my own pictures, mostly rightfully so

^ +3
One thing i find annoying with critiquing, is when people say.."you should have stepped one or two steps to the right/left( not knowing that you couldn't..due to conditions, etc.). There are far too many assumptions. I think that critiques on overall exposure, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc., can be helpful... but compositional critiquing ( while it can be helpful), often is moot.

01Ryan10 wrote in post #14927275
Is it just me, or is it normal to instantly spot flaws in other people's photos but not your own?

I guess that's one of the major reasons this site exists...for photo critique. You post a photo thinking it looks great, and then several people expose its flaws that you didn't notice because...well...it's your photo.

I spot flaws in my photos all the time. I just try not to mention those flaws until a critic mentions them first.

Hell...if anything, I'm more critical of my photos. I've tried to pass off a lot of crap as acceptable work, and justifiably been called out on it by the people who I respect. But more often, I've made something that I thought was cool, then started second-guessing myself and picking out the nits, and then having those same critics saying that the work was pretty freaking cool.

I guess what I'm saying is just that it's really freaking hard to distance one from one's own work. Sure, lots of people think their work is far better than it is just because they made it, but it's also a very real phenomenon to tear one's own work apart and start picking out nits when no one else has a problem with it.

I guess the key is just in maintaining a healthy balance between those two things. Lack of confidence can absolutely result in crappy work, but so can excessive self-confidence. One just has to find a healthy balance. And that's sort of hard.

I think it also depends on the audience of the photo tbh... you're right that another photographer is likely to point out technical issues that could have been addressed, however, friends and family are way way more forgiving than I am on myself... for example at a wedding the other week I managed to chop off the feet of a full-length candid portrait where both subjects were laughing... great shot in my opinion, but *really* annoying that I chopped the feet off... it wasn't an issue as I had enough space to crop for a tight shot on them laughing, but I could of had the full-length option.

Basically, i'll add another +1 for being most critical about my own photos

I'm somewhat the opposite. I never think my photos are good enough and I beat myself up about why I didn't do this or that or fix whatever technical problem. I see the technical problems in other people's work... but somehow it seems far less important. I'll be on some other photographer's website and think a photo is WOW, then I'll really look at it and realize that if it were my photo I would have never put it on the website. But I still like it! hah. I think I'm just harder on myself than others.

01Ryan10 wrote in post #14927275
Is it just me, or is it normal to instantly spot flaws in other people's photos but not your own?

I guess that's one of the major reasons this site exists...for photo critique. You post a photo thinking it looks great, and then several people expose its flaws that you didn't notice because...well...it's your photo.

probably true for me !