Today I had seen my fair share of deviations being bashed in a very inappropriate or impolite way, the spirit of this whole community called deviantart is not to self praise ourselves by making other feel lower or less skilled than us, it is to help people evolve in the way to improve their skills as many people help us to improves ours, that is why there are polite ways to do constructive critique.

In this particular article we are going to focus on how to do a constructive critique on a photography, parts of this article may well be used to do constructive critique in other forms of art.

IMPORTANT: Before we start you should know that you must know that there are people who actually don't like critique in any way and you should respect their choice.

1. Check carefully what you are going to comment and analyze it.

This means checking all the details you see, paying attention, checking everything that is being presented. Analyze it in depth

2. Portrait, landscape, street, macro, advertising, etc?

Different types of photos have different rules that come in to play, while there are basic guidelines that are used for every kind of photo, there are also specifically made guidelines for each one of them, if you aren't familiar you may hit Google and check them out, if you are familiar with then you may follow to the next point.

for point 3 and 4 you must think carefully what you are going to write

3. Which things are good in the photo?

After taking step 2, check composition, depth of field, focus, colors, black and white usage, angle, framing, lighting-or lack of-,etc what do you like in the photo? there must be something you like, constructive critique is made to reinforce what he has done correctly

4. Which things are bad in the photo?

Now before we continue, we have to clarify this, your parents, tutors or guardians were and are kind enough to teach you about manners, don't let them down instead make them proud show them that you learned about manners with them , this means, there is no need to act like a smart ass and being pompous when pointing the flaws, this isn't a superiority contest, as said before the idea is to HELP not to bash or minimize the efforts made by other people, be friendly!, is kind of a bummer when something we did and made an effort to do it right from the start isn't working and sometimes is very hard to hear that part of the work isn't good enough, being friendly will minimize the impact of this.

Ok... let's continue, in a polite way talk about what doesn't work in the photo, and why it isn't working, do you have a source to cite?, do it! be it your photo professor, be it a book you have written about the issue, be it your own experience, let them know the technical base of why that particular thing is wrong, but remember to do it in a polite way, if you have seen examples that you could show to the deviant in question, do it also.

The things that need to be addressed here could be rule of thirds usage, Depth of field, pose, color correction, cropping, angle, etc.


5. Examples on how to do constructive critique:

Let's suppose deviant "a" posts a photo of a landscape but it has some flaws, a kind hearted deviant could tell him/her:

"You got the exposure right, colors are vivid, and the horizon is in level, the angle you choose is good, I like the time of the day you choose to take the photo, just one thing, remember that in landscape photography using the rule of thirds as a guideline helps you make it more appealing to the watcher, keep the good work up."

You see that wasn't so hard to do , you have liberated yourself from some bad karma in the process!

6. Examples on how you shouldn't critique:
Let's suppose deviant "a" posts the same photo and he receives this kind of "critique":

"well the whole thing is mediocre and your shot could be better in the trash can"

"And you call that a photo"

"Many people has tried it and you have done it like everybody, simply it isn't interesting"

And there are many more impolite ways to do it, but this are enough for us to realize that this isn't helping at all, not only it isn't helping the deviant in question to realize what are the mistakes he or she did, but also we are practically shooting with a shotgun to his or her self esteem, we are here trying to HELP, and also we are here to LEARN also, so if you can't say anything in a polite way, then DON'T do it.

In the end as said before (and it is important to repeat) the whole idea of a community is to inspire, to help, to lend a hand, but as any social structure you need to maintain certain level in your manners, a standard that procures an stable flow of ideas that can lead to the goals after mentioned in peaceful and enjoyable way.

"And if I receive an impolite critique what should I do?"
In my humble opinion? don't sweat it much, chances are the person is trying to act big and tall to hide his/her own weakness, and if you enter in the debate you will see you forced in a never ending discussion with silly argument on his/her side. If the critique contains insults contact an admin, if you think the rude critique you received it doesn't helps you out, because it is only a "you suck", then it is only using space, don't hit the reply button, instead use the "hide" message button. Chances are when he/she notices you don't pay attention to the bashing it will crawl back to his/her cave .

Dedicated to the "know it all girl"

P.S. if there are some typos or grammar errors my sincere apologies, I haven't completed yet my english course .