9. The Art of Self-Criticism
Buongiornoooooo!!! Happy to see you again at our Coffee Break Snap appointment!
I hope you had a nice week, and that you could create some photos that you are happy about.
Talking about this: what do you do when you are not completely happy about one of your photos and do not know why?
Do you ask for feedback to someone you trust or you are good in self-critiquing your own work?
Let’s be honest, being able to swallow and accept criticism about our creations (our baaabies) is not always the easiest thing. Usually, these are the 3 possible internal reactions we have after receiving the so-called “constructive criticism” to one of our photos:
1. REJECTION: “Thanks for the feedback!”
(What does this person know about the technique I use? Nothing. This person is not that much creative, this is why he/she does not like my photo).
2. SELF-DESTRUCTION: “Thanks for the feedback!”
(I really admire this person … shit… he/she told me this, so it means I suck as a photographer. I am a tooooootal disaster… WHYYYYY?!?! I should quit. Now I quit. Tell me what to doooooooooo!).
3. NEGLECTION: “Thanks for the feedback!”
(Anyway, I do not really care about what people think. I take photos for myself, and the one and only opinion that matters is mine).
Right? Do you recognize yourself in any of these reactions? I have experienced all of them actually (been there, done that!), until I started training myself in what I call “the art of self-criticism”. One day I wrote down a list of questions that I ask myself every time I look at one of my photos and I am not convinced about it. I have realized that being able to find out my own flaws and imperfections made me improve faster, understand how to achieve the look and feeling I want in my photos, and made me also become more receptive to feedback coming from someone else.
I thought to share these questions with you, what do you think?
I will use one of my photos as an example.
Pronti? VIA! (Ready? Let’s go).
This is the photo I am going to do use as an example of self-critique. It is my very first attempt of in-camera multiple exposure.
Fujifilm X-T4 + xf 35 mm f/2 WR
I remember that I was super excited when I took it (my first in-camera multiple exposure!!! wohoooo!)…but I was not fully happy about it, and did not know why. Now I know!!!!
Let’s proceed point by point, and let’s see which suggestions I can give to myself:
1. Wait for some days/weeks before doing self-critique, in order to get rid of the emotional attachment.
Many times we remember the moment and the emotions connected to the photo, and that’s why it becomes difficult to see and accept its flaws. This photo was taken in September 2022, so now I am detached enough. We can proceed.
2. First impression: does this photo have an emotional impact? Which type of feeling does it convey?
This is the most important thing for me, because I do not aim at producing only aesthetically pleasing photos, but I want them to express a feeling, transmit an emotion. Talking about this specific photo: when I look at it, it gives me a feeling of relaxation, as it was a Sunday morning, maybe a bit of nostalgia… and separation between two different generation.
FEEDBACK: the scene does give me a feeling, but there is something that does not fully convince me. Maybe the feeling is not strong enough, or it is a bit confused? Let’s dig more into this and find out what it is.
3. Why did I take this photo? What did I want to express? Did I manage to express what I wanted?
I took this photo as first attempt of in-camera multiple exposure. I remember that my intention was to show the present and the future in the same image: a group of young people, and how they will be when they will be grown up, still together, but older. The feeling I wanted to give was tranquility, togetherness, and a bit of nostalgia. In my mind, the time passing by was the real protagonist (couldn’t have I chosen something easier for my first multiple-exposure??? anyway…).
FEEDBACK: I managed to put these feelings in the photo, although I should keep in mind that “less is more”. Being a visual language, photography should convey the message in a direct way, clear “words” and no unnecessary explanations (how annoying is it when we read a book and it is full of superfluous paragraphs, that interrupt the narrative? In photography it is exactly the same).
4. Describe what is happening in the photo: is there a story and/or a clear subject?
I see two groups of people: one group looks like young friends and above them, overlaid by clouds, there is a group of older people at a café’. I think that I managed to well separate the two groups thanks to the high contrasts, but I do not understand which group is the real protagonist of the story.
FEEDBACK: I cannot find a clear subject that pops up, and I feel I would like a focal point in the image, a strong center of interest. That’s probably why I was not happy about this photo. Some more questions, so I discover how to solve the problem for next time.
5. Where does the eye go when looking at the photo? Is there any distractive element that draws the attention away from the subject?
When I look at this photo, my eye keeps bouncing between the light and the dark areas of the image, because of the strong contrasts between the two groups of people. Since there is no clear subject, my eye does not know where to focus, and keeps looking for the focal point of interest (not finding it). Moreover, the houses behind the silhouettes and the lines at the bottom of the photo distract me quite a lot and do not add anything interesting to the story (they are rather a disturbing element).
FEEDBACK: next time I take a multiple exposure, I should try to layer images excluding distracting elements in the background, and I should look for a clear protagonist of my photo (what I call “the center of interest”).
6. Does orientation, aspect ratio and colors contribute to the image?
Although I am a colorful person, black and white here was the right choice, because colors would have created even more distraction. I think that landscape orientation was the best choice in this case, but probably having only one or 2 main subjects in portrait orientation would have drawn the attention of the eye to the message of the image in a more effective way.
7. List the points that you want to improve in your next photos.
In my next photo, I will focus on finding clear subjects and I will layer them without including distracting elements in the background. I will try to keep the storytelling and the emotions of this photo.
THE RESULT
This year a scene evoking a similar emotion came straight in front of my eyes.
I immediately remembered the self-critique excercise I did to my first multiple exposure, and kept in mind what I suggested myself to do.
I was quite happy with the result, and although there is always space for improvement, I learnt that self-critique is a powerful tool to improve fast and quickly know what I do not like when I react to one of my photos with a “meeeh”.
Fujifilm X-T5 + xf 56 mm f/1.2 WR
Let me know in the comments if you also apply self-criticism to your photos and if you feel that my step-by-step method might be useful to you too.
I wish you a fantastic Sunday and chat photography soon again!
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