Pros constant nickpick but Clients love it

I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I am in no way this photographer savant...i put in my time read read read, practice practice , read read , see see see ....you guys know the drill.

I take my shoots as they come and my friends , my family , joe blow i don't know tell me they are great , that they love it , wow , awesome etc etc.....so much so i am getting offers to do this , to do that , with pay ....

But when i post my pics in sites where there are other photographers to comment , some times it seems to me that some guys just like to nick pick and comment on your photos about stuff that really does not seam all that important but they phrase it in such a way that i comes across as your photos are junk...but that same pic gains me the opportunity to make money cause it's liked by the lame man . Which confuses the hell out of me.

So should i just " forget about the nick picking photographers and do my thing" or " Listen better to the comments and wait to get paid "

I guess that would depend on what they are commenting on, style, lighting, composition etc...are they legitimate nit picks or are they somebody's personal preference of how they think it should look?...we are either our own worst critics or our own worst at looking through rose colored glasses..I have found that the "I love your work" comments from Joe society usualy dont translate into "I want to buy it"...
You say you post in other sites..okay are you getting the same comments rather consistently across the sites...

I understand comments on lighting , cropping and PP..... composition sometimes is subjective so it really does not bother me when i get comments on that . What gets to me are what i have read hear on the forum are "Pixel Peepers" , the ones that for God knows what reason can never just say Good Shoot o Nice Work. They always have a but . but i would have , but you should have. And really never come across a constructive but rather bring you down .

I know that the regular person might not know the diffrence between hard light and soft shadows , between 4th quadrante of the rule of thirds and below the medium . But @ the end of the day it's regular people that hire you, me , us to do the jobs.

Don't get me wrong it not admiration from my peers that i look for , just wondering if others have seen this too.... that some photogs come across as arrogant when it comes to commenting.

I get many thumbs up and good work from many photogs, great , but like i said i have come across a few that man o man . They really take the cake.

Domwolf wrote in post #9949744
Don't get me wrong it not admiration from my peers that i look for , just wondering if others have seen this too.... that some photogs come across as arrogant when it comes to commenting.

I just read what they're saying, and if it has merit then I can shoot a better photo next time. If not, well...I disregard it. There is plenty of negativity in forums, especially photography. I choose distance myself from all the negativity, but look for valuable critiques. It's made me a better photographer...and less annoyed.

I would take the constructive criticism (if that is what it is) and decide which ones make a good point and can help you develop your skill, and which ones to ignore. The average person will "love" a picture as long as it is in focus and has great color I realize. Take for example, I shoot a lot of landscapes and one of the first rules I learn is to make sure the horizon is straight. I have many shots where the horizon was not straight, and people loved it - they could care less about the horizon being level.

But in forums, I can frame a shot with a tree in the foreground because I think it adds to the image. Another photographer can disagree and say the tree is distracting from the background. That to me, is all of personal opinion and although I might consider it, I would not change my style because someone didn't like the tree.

So in the end, I think it's up to you to decide what is good advice, and what is just someone sharing his/her opinion. However, if your shooting for a client - then you shoot what the client wants.

Being good enough to sell to clients and being perfect are too different things. Depending on your potential clients it may not be that hard to satisfy their needs. If you are starting out it might be good to screen potential clients and dont take on any who you feel are going to want more than you can offer.
If you are waiting on universal praise from the POTN masses on your shots before you turn pro it will never happen. But that criticism isnt a bad thing if you analyze and learn from it. Most people who comment, even if you find it negative, do so out of some desire to help out. If I take the time to add a comment its usually because I want to help, even if the comment indicates I think you could have done better and I want to try to help you learn how. If you just blow off the bad comments you wont grow.

I don't really show my stuff to anyone, I post it all on Flick and get decent traffic there, because I feel everyone is always going to either say they love it, because they don't know what they're talking about, or they love it, because they're being polite. I'm sure you're better than me, but when posting things - is there really any benefit in someone telling you that it's great?

Its all in the nature on the beast! ANY topic will give you the same results. A group of passive people will love something a lot sooner than a group of highly interested people. Wether it is photography or dog training. Custom cars or house painting. fashion or bonzi trees. Flaws simply stand out to people who know the subject. Not so much to the average person.

It is hard for a photographer to not look at a image in technical terms, it gets built in after a while. An average viewer ( unless it is a bad image) really only sees the intent of the image. Not what it takes to build that image.

On forums you have to take the "great shot" with as much of a grain of salt as the "it sucks" comments. Basically just pool the responses and go from there.

RobertMang wrote in post #9949993
- is there really any benefit in someone telling you that it's great?

Only if they can tell you why they think it is great.

I usually post my pictures on my website, share on facebook and then I post the links on here, and a lot of the times, I get constructive crticism here on POTN that really makes me wanna do the picture all over again or do something else in PP. And I have done it. I have never gotten any critic from my friends and family only that they like it.

Thats one of the great things about this forum, that we see things differently, and I hope we don't get to the point where everybody says only good things about the pictures. We have one site in Norway thats like that, and I don't learn anything from this site.

But if I disagree with the critisicm I just dont care about it. Like in transportation, some people thinks that every picture has to be cropped in tight to the car, but I like it more like a location shot with a car in it

Domwolf wrote in post #9949744
I understand comments on lighting , cropping and PP..... composition sometimes is subjective so it really does not bother me when i get comments on that . What gets to me are what i have read hear on the forum are "Pixel Peepers" , the ones that for God knows what reason can never just say Good Shoot o Nice Work. They always have a but . but i would have , but you should have. And really never come across a constructive but rather bring you down .

I know that the regular person might not know the diffrence between hard light and soft shadows , between 4th quadrante of the rule of thirds and below the medium . But @ the end of the day it's regular people that hire you, me , us to do the jobs.

Don't get me wrong it not admiration from my peers that i look for , just wondering if others have seen this too.... that some photogs come across as arrogant when it comes to commenting.

I get many thumbs up and good work from many photogs, great , but like i said i have come across a few that man o man . They really take the cake.

Actually you can tell if its something that is legit by trying it and seeing if it makes image better and nit picking will only make you better and start to notice the little things that separate OK photos from really good photographs. sometimes its a fine line that separates Ok from really good.

If you are working in some areas of photography that can be very lucrative its not the everyday guy judging your work its other professionals like art director and graphic designers and if your going to be in the biz and have any longevity you have to get very thick skin and learn to properly defend your wok and realize in the end in the professional world its the client that has to be happy.

when you post shots on a global forum, (POTN certainly is!) whether you asked for opinions or not, you'll likely receive them!

When I post shots and want help, I'm sure to ask specifically about WB, lighting, composition, etc. If you cite specific examples (post pics) and ask for comments on one aspect or another, it usually yields good perspectives from the more experienced here.

Maybe where you are personally and the nitpicking you perceive comes down to nothing more than stylistic or artistic taste. If so, I'd say you got the gig licked then!

Lastly, if you're customers think you're great, guess what? You ARE!!!

dave

If your shots are all "Great stuff", then the only things left to pick on are the "nits".
If they're not so great, then you don't know the difference & everything will sound like a nit.

And as THE MIZ would say "You GUYS are AWESOME " Thanks

A little off topic, but remember that marketing (what your customers like) is not the same thing as photography. They may overlap, but they are not the same thing.