Have you ever had a useless critique?

[peetyvulture]

A while ago I asked on a forum, not DPS, for a critique of some of my live music photos. And I got a really useless reply, which was the only one. It was completely useless.
Why?
Well the person who critiqued said to all the photos something along the lines of "the only thing that ruins the shots is how far away the members are to eachother" or "I don't really think the location works for this kind of shot". Obviously the first response was to all the shots with multiple members in the frame. The second response was to almost all of the shots.
I mean come on. Those are two things that I, as a LIVE music photographer, have no control over. I cannot stop the band mid song and say "Sorry, but would you mind moving a little closer together? You're ruining the shot". Nor do I pick the venue.where they play.
I guess the problem was that whoever critiqued my work was not familiar with concert photography. I have learnt from that to ask for critiques from people who have experience in the genre. This has worked for me because they told me why my images would or would not get published etc.
Have you ever had a useless critique? I'd be interested to hear your stories.

Thanks
Peet

[scootermcq]

Well, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have.......

[MrJones]

I don't think any critique is useless. even if someone tells you he doesn't like your photo and that's it. you can listen and try and understand or you can ignore.. both way are just fine cause it's a matter of taste.

as for the critique you got, he might have a point there. to the observer, it doesn't really matter why you got the shot that you got. if someone looks at the picture he doesn't think "oh well.. it's not the photographer, it's the environment" - he looks at the picture and says, "oh well.. just another regular photo".
when taking a photo there are multiple variables that not all of them can be controlled but they do affect the end result.
you can take a picture of a street and say.. it's not my fault nothing happened there.. I'm just the photographer. it will still remain a boring picture.

[UlpilotSC]

I think the problem with the critique section is there's just too much stuff. You'd have to look at every section, every day, because people post so much.
I look at some sections every now and then, but I havent critiqued. I'm still pretty amateurish - so I tend to shy away from offering others advice. I will occaisionally give my opinion, but its rare. The fact you got one reply is good. You might not have gotten any.

[BexJarratt]

Well, I'm no pro and have no experience of shooting concerts but my first thought to "the only thing that ruins the shots is how far away the members are to each other" was to narrow the angle, not shoot so square to them so that the distance between them appears smaller - less dead space. For "I don't really think the location works for this kind of shot" I thought maybe closer cropping or processing to omit the location would help. Of course, I have not example to go on as to what you're referring to, whether this would have helped. Maybe it was the lack of suggestion on how to counter the problems the person saw that was useless, maybe it was because the viewer didn't have those answers, but their opinion is still valid.

I occasionally post for critique on here, I even less frequently get a response. I have to say no comment is WAY more useless and demoralising than a bad comment, or a useless comment. If I get bad critique you may not see me about so much for a bit, but only cos I'm working harder on what I got wrong last time.

[Izzy]

Like BexJarratt I was getting no response sometimes in the crit section until I changed the way I posted. Anyway it is better you got any response rather than none. No response says you suck and for no good reason or at least that is what is going through your mind.

The question I ask rather than a general, "why does my picture suck?"

I ask, "What would you have done different?"

Sounds like you are letting this one crit eat you....Why?
Do you doubt your work that much?

[Jim Bryant]

It's only useless if you don't happen to agree with the critiques. Most photographers hear daily on just how great their photos are and don't want to hear anything but.

[Niresangwa]

I think there's a couple of points here.

First of all, I think a critique has to be taken in context of who is delivering it. If it's a Rolling Stone editor, maybe you should take note... it's what they do for a living. If it's someone with little experience, a limited portfolio f their own, take it with a pinch of salt.

Having said that, if your market is that someone with a limited portfolio who you're looking to sell to, you do need to take into account what they say, and balance their feedback as a customer with your own vision.

Critiques are kind of funny.

I post a lot of photos on my Flickr site, and usually get a few unsolicited critiques. If I post a high-speed photo, I rarely get a critique. If I post an HDR or portrait, suddenly everyone feels they need to tell me what I did wrong with the photo.

Most of the time, I have a general idea what I could've done better, but occassionally someone suprises me with a good idea. So if you can filter through the "experts" to get to the real experts, sometimes you'll end up with a good tip or two

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by peetyvulture

Have you ever had a useless critique?

Yea, sometime I post in the critique section...