Let's have constructive criticism with discouraging ratings

I've noticed a lot of photos on the site have recently been voted down as being bad or terrible, for example by gra.ferrari http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/gal...ge.php?i=13125, http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/gal...ge.php?i=10932 and http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/gal...ge.php?i=10588 .

It's great that people take the time to look at the photos we've taken but I'd like to suggest that if a photo is rated terrible, constructive criticism is included too as WDC is about community criticism and feedback, not discouraging judgements!

Thanks,

Ben

I totally agree, I also think that should a member of WDC decide to leave negative feedback, they should also take note on the way in which they leave it, I have seen lots of negative feedback that has been provided in a really “attack full” way and\or extremely negative without providing any Constructive feedback. This can be very disheartening to member that are new to photography and are starting out or experimenting.

While I appreciate that some pro photographers will say that they have all received negative feedback at some point in their life we just have to keep in mind that everyone has different takes\perspectives\perceptions and opinions of a photo and sites like this should be about sharing photos, offering opinions and suggestions to help each other, not discourage and dishearten people.

Hi .I totally agree with the both of you. I don't see the point in criticising photos for fun. The ironic thing is while gra. ferrari was busy downgrading other peoples and upgrading her /his own photos she /he forgot to count his/hers.In the colour comp the photo allowance is 10 gra has approx 20. And on the animal comp gra has 10 and the allowance is 3.

I think syn may have a point in getting wdc to edit the critics and ask them to submit a creditable explanation... graham

Glad you agree Syn and Graham! I've only just uploaded a new photo, and it's already been voted as terrible by gra.ferrari with no feedback. It's not so much the ratings that are sad because everybody's got their own tastes, but it would be good to have some criticism so we can improve.

Here's the 'terrible' photo; http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/gal...ge.php?i=14449 :)

Anyone else experienced this?

I agree don't just vote it terrible say why. I belong to a club and they have regular competitions but the judges do give reasons for there likes and dislikes of pictures.
As to me I like the pictures well done

hi all gra.ferrar as done the same with some of mine Ben as well giving them 1 star ratings.
Know Ben ive seen your work m8 id not worrie about it im sure people in this field can tell a bad photo when they see one and yours are not 1 star rating photos.
Like your new photo nothing wrong with that one
as you will see ive commented on it :)
As they say any body can point a cam at some thing and take a photo its what thought as gone in to the photo and what we do with it later in post processing.
Any 2 days ago i had to sit some one down and just show them what i mean by quality photos and not the one they asked me to two put right for them i blow this person away and that was just inside adobe camera raw by the end of it he new what the difference was.
so all i hope gra.ferrar can come and join in and tell us why our photos are so bad id love to hear why i might learn some thing new as with out constructive criticism i would not be were i am now lol :D

[IMG]http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/gal...imageuser=5338[/IMG] Could some Knowledgeable member of the forum please inform me why this according to gra.ferrari is plumb duff... I think it is a good shot with a lot of humour in it ..graham

Hi Guys and Gals guess you have found out how petty people can be; personally I don’t take any notice of such markings as the ones you describe, if they cant be bothered to explain why they think that way why let it bother me and generally should you view their images they are usually pretty poor, ill thought out and no more than a snap shot at best, plus you will always notice that they will rate their own images with a top mark. You will get this type of person on all the photography web sites which is why I only use these sites to enter the odd competition when I have the time or an image I feel may make the grade. And even then my own images aren’t as good as a lot that I see, as I am still learning myself. For honest feed back and constructive criticism I use flickr where my contacts know that’s what I want so I may learn and in return I give feedback how I see it in my own vision of their images. We always first explain what we think is wrong then how we would personally improve the image. So my suggestion to all on this and other sites like this is if you want to learn and improve do what I do and build a good contact base up on a photo sharing site who know that you want your image pulled apart then put back together again and ignore the petty people who do as you are describing.

Happy Snapping Aidy

Rating someone picture is a nice feature to have but maybe the moderators should add functionality such as if you are going to "mark" the picture below average (such as a negative rating) you are forced to leave some sort of feedback as to why you did so, that way you cannot just get a negative rating without a reason and people wont just click a negative rating as it wont be so easy.

I am VERY new to photography and one aspect of photography i like is HDR, while i know there is a long on going debate about HDR and some photographers class it as "non true photography" i still think it is the same non the less.

I have received some real negative feedback on some of my photos and i have to admit, while i am open to suggestions and comments i feel that they may have been "Targeted" a bit due to the nature of the photograph (HDR)

If anyone would like to have a look at some of my photos and let me know what they think i would greatly appreciate it and i welcome ALL suggestions, positive, negative, neutral though, if you are negative please do give me a little insight as to why and what i can do to improve, after all, we are all here to learn and i am "fresh off the boat" in the world of photography and very eager to learn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by graham_c

[IMG]http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/gal...imageuser=5338[/IMG] Could some Knowledgeable member of the forum please inform me why this according to gra.ferrari is plumb duff... I think it is a good shot with a lot of humour in it ..graham

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seems a good photo!