Well Shannon I take a slightly different approach, but I will admit it sometimes is tough to do. Words like stink, bad ect are just not allowed during the process, even if it's true. I won't do it with a student, and I won't do it with myself. Why??? Its not productive.
Being your own worst critic can be both the means for improvement, or the source of discouragement that can lead to frustration that keeps one from wanting to take pictures in the first place. That can lead to a camera that lives on the shelf and an ex photographer.
When I look at my work, I think two simple things. First is what did I do right??? There is almost always a small success in even the worst of images. Find it. We learn from both our successes and our failures. Instead of what is wrong, I think "What would I do differently if I retook or reprinted this image??" The focus should always be on how you would make it better. Can I make it better by redoing something is possible post capture such as reprinting the image with a different crop? The image I am looking at may not fit what I expected, but are there other uses for which it would be suitable? What questions do I need to ask and what do I need to learn to improve the end product next time???
It may sometimes be good to let a non photographer sort some pictures and just see their reactions, but when the opinions that really matter to me are the ones that can tell me WHY they like or don't like an image. Just not my taste is a perfectly acceptable, but tell me that. The best help usually isn't a statement but a question. How would you think this printed on warm tone paper would work? allows me to think of the image in a new way, maybe come up with another idea like, well instead of reprint how bout brown toner, or any of a host of other options that were not selected with the first print.
Going to do something drastic today, and get some work done. lol
Mark
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Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Self Critiism (WAS Is anyone out there???)
From: Shannon Stoney <shannonstoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, May 12, 2009 9:09 am
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
What I do is, I try to find somebody who will sort the prints into
piles: a good pile, a bad pile, and a mediocre pile. The person
doesn't have to know much about photography. Most people can tell a
good print from a bad print; once a kid who was about thirteen did this
for me, and he had a great eye.
Of course if you can get an old photographer to do it, all the better.
I find that if I put the prints up on the wall over my desk and look at
them every day, some of them grow on me and some don't. So I can tell
that way which ones are really good.
One problem is if you have some attachment to the subject matter of a
print, it's hard to separate that from the print itself. It's hard to
know how somebody else will look at, say, a picture of your favorite
tree with your favorite dog in front of it.
The thing is, some pictures will appeal to some people but not to
others. De gustibus non disputandum est.
--shannon
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