Professional PhotoTalk

CRITIQUE RULES

Here is a simple set of rules to follow if you wish to have one of your photos on the message board for a critique from the members.

CRITIQUE / DESCRIPTION (TITLE OR INFORMATION AS TO THE TYPE OF IMAGE TAKEN) Your title of the thread must be like this, it will insure that all people who reply can quickly know that you have read and understood the rules for asking for a critique. ALL CAPS IN YOUR TITLE, no exception and the word critique, if its to hard to give a description that is fine, say snapshot, portrait, landscape or something to give a clue to the possible ones that will reply that this image they might be able to give some help to you about things you might not see in the image. This will ensure that the person who is willing to reply and critique your photo knows right off that you understand the rules, and they are not going to be attacked for taking their valuable time to give their opinion as to what is wrong or what could be done better to improve your image.

IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MEMBER ASKING FOR THE CRITIQUE to take in, and accept the information that is shared to you without any hint of taking it personal !!! Why because it is not and never is a personal attack, not matter how well versed or poorly versed the critique might be, it is the honest observation of the viewer, and they are taking the time to share their opinion period. If you cannot accept rule #2, please just SHARE your photos only and do not ask for a CRITIQUE. If any assistant manager or one of the three groups managers opens up a critique and sees that this rule is not followed, the orig. post that starts the thread will be deleted, they can add (via reply entry) that they did it because the rule was not followed and give a link to this page so the member can read and understand the rules better, but the assistant who is taking this action does not have to, so they do not have to give indication as to which of them took and did their job, but if they desire to take responsibility for following the CRITIQUE RULES that is fine with me. This does not mean that ANY members who offer a critique should in any way attempt or go out of their way to be rude, the fact is, most people read into the reply that they were rude when the member offering their critique of the image had no intention to come off as rude in any way shape or form.

ONLY ONE PHOTO IN THE OPENING THREAD BUT WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTION. Two yet never more then three in the opening post of the thread but they must be of the very same image, and you must be asking, WHICH IS BETTER A / B OR C. and again be willing to take additional information that may come in each reply. Do not expect that every member will only say A is best, they should be allowed to say why they feel A or B is best without being attacked for sharing their views of the image. If any assistant manager or one of the three groups managers opens up a critique and sees that this rule is not followed, the orig. post that starts the thread will be deleted, they can add (via reply entry) that they did it because the rule was not followed and give a link to this page so the member can read and understand the rules better, but the assistant who is taking this action does not have to, so they do not have to give indication as to which of them took and did their job, but if they desire to take responsibility for following the CRITIQUE RULES that is fine with me. Only the orig. post would be deleted, all replies in the thread are to remain in tack and the actual critique is over at that point. However if the critique post was made and this rule was not followed and no replies were made, the assistant or manager can delete the whole thread from the message board and not make any reply. So this means if your critique disappeared, be advised, you most likely did not follow this very simple rule, and the thread was removed.

That is only three rules, and I think they should be plenty, if followed I feel that much learning can be the end result.

Remember an honest critique is your friend, not your enemy! Use the information wisely.

You can in the same thread as the one who asked for the critique, post the same image again, after making modifications to it, this shows that you are trying to learn and improve and test what is being shared with you. The limit applies to the first post, and the limit applies to the number of different images allowed in a thread. It is far too much to ask to place multiple images in one thread when asking for a critique, multiple images in a thread when you desire to share your photos for others to enjoy is no problem, this rule only applies to asking for a critique.

Now if your wise, you will accept a honest critique even if one is offered in a thread where you are sharing images with others, if your desire is to grow and learn, and I hope that is the root desire of each member here, then you will gladly and happily accept an honest opinion about your photos at any time, but understand many will not offer that, unless we know that you are seeking just that, so using the CRITIQUE is the best way to get it.

Members who are giving the critique can use your image and do modifications to show and demonstrate their opinion without the orig. poster of the critique being upset in anyway. If you are posting and asking for the critique you are giving permission to allow this. This does not mean they can take your image they modified and use it in any way shape or form for their own use, just that of using it in the critique, if they wish to use it in teaching in another thread or another forum, they must obtain your permission for any such additional use.

ONE LAST THING THAT I FEEL WILL HELP THE PERSON ASKING FOR THE CRITIQUE FEEL BETTER.

Often a critique is made by someone who does a wonderful job, and points out all the problems and possible ways to improve their image that no other critique is needed.

I would like to see this happen, and ask all those who take the time to open up a critique thread to do this.

And that is as a member who opens up a thread to offer a critique and what needed to be said has already been said, then take a quick moment of your time to make a reply and say, looks like a great bit of information has already be given or something to that effect, so that the person who asked for the critique does not ever get the feeling that their critique was ignored. Just to simply say I agree with what has been said already is enough, add an additional point if you see one that was overlooked for sure, or add your own critique from the scratch, but say something, don't just move on with no reply at all.

I think it will help if this last step was followed, I think it would serve well to encourage people to ask for a critique.

One last thing, don't go crazy and ask start 2 or 3 or 10 critique posts at one time, work one at a time and learn what each critique can offer you, don't overload the system and burn out the members by flooding the message board with dozens of critiques in one day.

I don't want to make part of the rules that you can only ask for two critiques in one day, but if I have to add that rule, it's one that I was thinking strongly about.