Are POTN members too nice?

As a new member, I've found a wide spectrum of novice to serious professional. More importantly, so far I've seen that all are willing to provide answers to questions or provide suggestions without condescension or any kind of bad attitude. All responses I've read have been honest and helpful. No Trolls! We must have good moderators here. Dpreview is frought with trolls, although there are some very knowledgable folks over there.

Trolls have a very short life expectancy here.

manderson wrote in post #15429754
As a new member, I've found a wide spectrum of novice to serious professional. More importantly, so far I've seen that all are willing to provide answers to questions or provide suggestions without condescension or any kind of bad attitude. All responses I've read have been honest and helpful. No Trolls! We must have good moderators here. Dpreview is frought with trolls, although there are some very knowledgable folks over there.

We do, but don't say it out loud. I'll go to their heads!

I've found the Critique Corner to be a very good place to get brutally honest critiques. Some of the other boards might be on the nice side, but they are more for sharing than judging right?

I've noticed that this forum is on the touchy-feely side in general. However, I'm not criticizing photos too often.

I've reached the point where if I cant offer something useful and specific, I dont comment. Even then you run the risk of blowback. My favorite is, I meant to do that... Sometimes the poster gets overly defensive and thats unpleasant. One poster even stalked me for a few days, following up any post I made in other threads with some nitpicking commentary. So I tend to ignore the bad stuff as there is no real upside to a real critique unless I know the poster wants it and can take it.

Woolburr wrote in post #15428822
One thing you have to bear in mind. There are people of all skill levels here.

Exactly, and that is why posting some context with your photo and requesting specific feedback tends to work out so much better, it gives people an idea what one is looking for and a quick idea of what your skill level might be. Apart from that, posters do tend to be gracious with their comments.

I don't think the critique here is too nice at all, which is a good thing, definitely constructive. I'm a member at NikonCafe (still a NIkon shooter for now) and you'd swear that no member there has ever taken a bad picture of anything...

joeburke wrote in post #15440425
I don't think the critique here is too nice at all, which is a good thing, definitely constructive. I'm a member at NikonCafe (still a NIkon shooter for now) and you'd swear that no member there has ever taken a bad picture of anything...

They're all graduates of the Ashton Kutcher School of Photography.

bent toe wrote in post #15421531
One of the best photos (for me) i've ever taken is this one:

http://24.media.tumblr​.com …vpWX1rtbm54o1_r​1_1280.jpg

p

I don't know about the rest of your post, but that picture is amazing, great job

But really, i haven't been here long enough, nor do I feel I know jack about taking a good picture technically or fixing it with software. I'm just happy I get RAW files to jpeg with iphoto which is pretty damn easy, but can't do much else.

But to critique this picture, I do like it. For me, an empty platform or just a person or two would have made it better to me.

The out of focus on the subway and tunnel and lighting I think is great, but for some reason, when I see all those people on the platform, my eyes want to see some focus somewhere. I don't know why, it's just my initial impression.

chevyzen wrote in post #15440637
I don't know about the rest of your post, but that picture is amazing, great job

But really, i haven't been here long enough, nor do I feel I know jack about taking a good picture technically or fixing it with software. I'm just happy I get RAW files to jpeg with iphoto which is pretty damn easy, but can't do much else.

But to critique this picture, I do like it. For me, an empty platform or just a person or two would have made it better to me.

The out of focus on the subway and tunnel and lighting I think is great, but for some reason, when I see all those people on the platform, my eyes want to see some focus somewhere. I don't know why, it's just my initial impression.

There.. you gave some construstive critisism.
A photo is always in the eye of the beholder.. some people like it, some don't.
I still think it's good to hear everyones opinion, good or bad.. doesent matter.
In order to evolve.. you NEED to hear what you did wrong or where you can improve.

bent toe wrote in post #15441022
There.. you gave some construstive critisism.
A photo is always in the eye of the beholder.. some people like it, some don't.
I still think it's good to hear everyones opinion, good or bad.. doesent matter.
In order to evolve.. you NEED to hear what you did wrong or where you can improve.

Ah, well, and there you encounter the problem we all encounter -- how do you really "constructively criticize"? Hey, we are all in the same boat, jump in and enjoy without tearing folks a "new one"!!

tonylong wrote in post #15459935
Ah, well, and there you encounter the problem we all encounter -- how do you really "constructively criticize"? Hey, we are all in the same boat, jump in and enjoy without tearing folks a "new one"!!

So giving constructive critisism/feedback is the same as tearing someone a new a-hole?
You must be very sensitive to feedback/critisism.

I can tell someone every possible technical thing they may have done wrong. IOW, the "What"

The important thing to most shooters however stems from "Why"

Why did they capture that image?
Why did they frame it like that?
Why did they select X as the focal point?
Why is Y in focus and not Z?
Why did the choose to convert it to B&W?
Why did they leave it in color?
Etc, etc, etc...

All are 100% personal choices by the photographer and frankly, I haven't the foggiest why they did all or none of the above.

Now, does the image appeal to me? That's an entirely different question which opens the door for me, as the viewer, to lay out many "why" statements of my own.

Critiquing technique is easy.
Critiquing intent is nearly impossible

Food for thought...

First, the image sharing section is not meant for critique but for sharing. Only if you ask for some specific criticism there, will you receive some. If people don't ask for it, it is usually a bad idea to be giving it. More often than not it is not appreciated.

But as Woolburr already pointed out, even when people specifically ask for constructive criticism they can become totally defensive upon receiving it. It is most annoying which is why I think twice before giving honest criticism, especially if the person is new to photography.

I hang out in the birds forum mostly and when I see newcomers I watch them a bit, see how they respond if someone (could be me even) gently gives them a pointer on how they could improve their images. Occasionally a person will respond brilliantly, will accept any and all criticism cheerfully without ever going on the defensive. As a result their progress is often amazing.

As to the 'Nice', "Very nice", etc. comments in the Image Sharing section. Well, there is a bit of a code I think. First of all, when you have been around here for a bit, you start making friends. Sometimes they will make great images, sometimes they will make mediocre images. Just like myself. But you still want to leave a comment because they are your friend. And so you say 'Nice' or 'Very nice'.
However, when the images are really wonderful and a league above 'Nice', I promise you you will see different comments.
I know that if I start a thread with images that get the friendly 'Very nice' and 'Nice' comments, those images aren't very good and it's just my friends being nice to me. My really good images get very different comments. In essence, you just have to learn to read between the lines there...