In general, photographers are very good at deciding how much they like someone else’s photo. It isn’t hard — your first reaction to a shot is either positive or negative, and it typically doesn’t change much after that. Things get more complicated, though, when you’re talking about your own work. For me, at least, I find it tough to judge the quality of some photos I’ve taken. Sure, I know when a photo is awful, but what about the other shots? This article covers some tips for looking at your work with a better critical eye.
1) Separating the Event from the Photo
Do you ever find yourself at an incredible location for sunset, camera in hand, after an incredibly difficult hike? Or, maybe you’re photographing a basketball game, and you captured the exact moment that the ball left a player’s hand to score the winning point.
In both of these cases, the situation surrounding the photo is incredibly powerful. In the first example, you feel like you have accomplished something — it took a lot of effort, but you made it to an incredible landscape in time for the best light. In the second example, you managed to capture the defining moment of a basketball game, timing the shot exactly right.
Unfortunately, neither of these cases actually means that you got a good photo.
Maybe, in the first example, your composition simply doesn’t do the scene justice. That’s certainly happened to me; even at a beautiful landscape under the right light, I don’t always come back with a good shot. Or, in the basketball case, there may be other distracting things happening in the photo that take away from the moment you captured.
In situations like these — where the experience of taking the photo is strong — it is very difficult to judge your images objectively. Perhaps you did capture everything that you wanted. But, sometimes, that won’t be true.
Quite often, I take a photo that requires a lot of effort to capture, and then I immediately think of it as my new best shot! That happened with the photo below. To get here, I spent a full day hiking up a mountain, then climbing on a glacier. The whole hike was beautiful and memorable, as well as exhausting — the perfect recipe for a photo that is difficult to judge accurately.
I don’t think this is necessarily a bad photo, and that’s the point. It isn’t awful, and it took a ton of effort to capture. That combination — hard to take, and not immediately worth deleting — made it very difficult for me to judge it accurately.
In hindsight, I can look back and tell that there are some problems with this photo. There isn’t a clear subject, for one, and the foreground is empty. These issues should have been obvious at first, but my memory of taking the shot was so strong that I overlooked them. (Obviously, this is all subjective — you may hate the photo or love it, and that’s fine. This is just my own perspective on the shot, which will be different from yours.)
A month or two later, of course, it became easier to critique this photo accurately. A lot of times, that’s how it happens — you need to wait a little while before you can see things with an unbiased eye. That’s also why I try to wait at least two weeks before posting a new photo on my website or on Facebook.
Sometimes, of course, the opposite is true: your opinion of a photo actually improves over time. Generally, this will happen when one of your quick snapshot photos turns out surprisingly well. Since you don’t have a clear memory of taking that photo, it may be a while before you can judge it accurately (a good reason to revisit your archives).
Again, the best way to solve problems like this is just to wait a bit. Over time, your memory of taking the photo won’t be as strong, and you’ll be better at judging a photo based on its internal qualities. I know of some photographers who, for this exact reason, actually refuse to look at their photos until a month after they’ve returned from a trip. Although I don’t have that much self-control, I certainly understand why they do it.
2) Dealing with Ambiguous Photos
Even if you wait a while, it still isn’t always possible to judge your photos accurately. This is especially true when a photo straddles the line between “decent” and “worth displaying.” One day, you may decide that the photo merits a spot on your website — the next, you might decide that it doesn’t quite make the cut.
Photos like this are always very difficult to judge, and there’s no easy way to tell how good they really are. Still, you have a few ways to try.
To start, as mentioned above, you can give yourself a better perspective if you wait a few weeks before critiquing the shot. If you’ve already waited, though, consider showing your photo to other people — your social media followers, or, ideally, a photographer whose work you respect.
If you decide to put an ambiguously-good photo on your Facebook page, see how many interactions it gets compared to your normal posts. More? Less? The same? This isn’t the best gauge for the actual quality of a photo, but it helps you judge how other people like it. If one of my photos gets half as many interactions as usual, it’s easy to tell that people don’t think it is as good as usual.
For a more accurate critique, though, it’s better to show your work to professional photographers. This could be online or in person, but the goal is to see how another photographer sees the photo. That said, you have to make sure that you talk to someone who isn’t afraid to tell you when you’ve taken a bad shot — although it can hurt at first, it ultimately helps to be as accurate as possible.
Another tip, one of my favorites, helps after you’ve been editing and looking at a particular photo for a long time. When an image is strongly ingrained in your head, flip the photo horizontally. You can see a mirrored version of the shot, and it tricks your brain into seeing the photo as if it is completely new. (Only do this for photos that you have looked at for a long time — otherwise, the effect doesn’t work.) I covered this tip in more detail in an earlier article.
Is this photo worth displaying on my website? It took me a long time to decide that it isn’t, but I went back and forth before making my final decision.
3) Conclusion
The best way to critique your photos is simply to look at them as objectively as possible. You should have extremely stringent standards — you don’t want to show anyone a bad photo that you took, unless you work for a photography website and are doing it to illustrate a point :)
Most of your photos will be pretty easy to critique, and you’ll generally have a good idea of a photo’s quality after you’ve taken it. However, there will be cases that are more difficult to judge. Typically, this happens because you have a strong emotional response or memory of a particular photo, making it tough to see the image for its actual quality.
When this happens, the best option is to try waiting a while. The longer you wait, the easier it is to separate your memories from the photo itself. If that still doesn’t work, try showing your image to other photographers or flipping it horizontally in post-processing.
Although it’s not easy to critique some photos, it’s always worth the effort. You shouldn’t show your audience mediocre photos, but you also want to display a good shot when you get one. Perhaps these tips can help you make the final decision.
This article was linked to one I wrote on a similar subject. And in truth, I would see this subject completely differently.
At the heart of it, you mention none of the classic, objective standards for evaluating an image. In my mind that is the main weakness of this article. If you or others like the image says something about you or them, but nothing about how it stands up relative to established standards for what makes an image strong or not – AND – each genre has it’s own twist on those standards. So one would evaluate a portrait, landscape, or wildlife shot a bit differently.
At the end of the day, whether you or others like a shot isn’t any kind of real critique. When I am evaluating my images, I know why I’m canning an image and why I’m sharing an image – I have objective standards for critiquing my own, or others, images. Personal preference shouldn’t come into play. The truth is it’s not that uncommon for me to see an image that objectively is strong – and I still may or may not like it. That doesn’t change the reality that most image-informed eyes would see it as a strong image.
I have enjoyed your blog posts for 1 year and recently i decided to create my own website and publish my own blog post in Persian language and my blog is www.phelamingo.com. I studied engineering but two years ago i bought a Nikon DSLR and my photography journey begun. Thanks for your wonderful blog posts and everything i learnt from your website.
Good tip about mirroring the photo, I’ll have to try that.
I really appreciated this post, found it very helpful and would like to see more on this topic. Thank you Spencer. After a person nails the technical stuff (not perfection but progression) I think critiquing, pricing and marketing become the biggest obstacles to moving ahead.
Hey Spencer, you have touched upon an engaging topic. Here is method which I employ and so far it has always worked.
I make a print (decent size of course but the choice is up to you) of the photo in question and stick it on a board over-looking my work-space. It could be any place where you won’t and can’t miss seeing it. (The idea is to see it as often as possible during your waking hours.) If it still remains there after the third or the fourth day (again you can choose your own time-frame) i.e. you have not removed it, then it has passed muster.
Again, as you have said, it is subjective but so far it has worked well for me.
Hi Spencer. Thoughtful article. I struggle with critiques. I shoot for my own enjoyment and for family. I post many photos but sell none and tend not to enter photo contests.
Many of my best shots are “best” to me because they captured a place, time or something else that was special to me. When I look at the shot, that moment comes back to me and I feel it again. Someone else might look at the shot and say it is nothing special but they weren’t there with me at that moment with the people I was with so they are not seeing/feeling what I saw/felt when the shutter snapped. The photo evokes a moment or a memory that is special to me. Unless you know my purpose, you cannot critique whether I achieved it.
Now, if I am offering my work for contest or sale, then critique is necessary to hit what others will appreciate and buy. When in a class seeking to improve your skills, the instructor’s critique helps you learn which is what you paid your hard earned money for.
I guess what I am saying is that the value of critique is situational.
Yes! This is something that I often have to explain to people who ask me why I tend to ‘sit’ on my work. I can also relate to going back over my photos and realizing a shot was much stronger than I initially assessed. One of my very first successful shots that caused me to fall in love with landscape photography was shot on the humble D3200 and a 50mm 1.8 lens. As I learn more and improve, I go back to that picture and realize that I was lucky in getting it ‘right’ in terms of composition, technical aspects, conveying a feeling, etc… I won’t claim it’s a masterpiece, but i would consider it a success as I go back over it year after year.
I would also add that one pitfall in the quest for accurately critiquing your photos is to ask your spouse/significant other and/or family members. Unless maybe they all hate you, then if they all like your photo – you know it must be good!
“on the humble D3200 and a 50mm 1.8 lens” Don’t underestimate that combo :)
In my opinion, family and friends are simply not reliable when it comes to photo critique. They are biased, don’t have eye for compositional nuances, and are too easy to please. Example: I posted a portrait recently – my first time taking a shot of a professional model, I was very impressed with his skills and did my best in my first attempt of editing the portrait. Being a model, he had a very photogenic face and bright blue eyes, so the shot turned out OK, as expected. General reception? “Wow what a hottie” -.- Can’t argue with that, obviously, but that’s so not the point… So, long story short, I always try to seek a photographer friend’s opinion when I want “expert” comments on my work. :)
Hi Spencer. nice article like always. The trick to flip a photograph is a good one! I am a professional visual artist and I always teach my students to watch their clay sculptures in a mirror because you get used to the thing you create. It is funny I never thought about this trick in my photography. Thanks for “reminding” me. Maybe an other trick: I tell always to watch every sculpture from time to time from a big distance to forget the details. This is the equivalent of watching thumbnails in a computer: you see very quick which photo is “catchy”. Especially for photo’s that are watched only quickly (like in Facebook) this works.
Many photographers are instructed to have other photographers critique their photos. Great idea. But where can I go to get these honest critiques? My photos have never been viewed by another photographer. I would welcome the opportunity. Thank you -30-
Hey Michael may I volunteer. If you take me up on it do send 5 of your photos (small size of course) with the usual copy right precautions etc. (in case I am tempted to pass them as my own), and I promise to give my honest opinion about them.
Similarly, I will be privileged if you would do the same for me.
My email address: [email protected]
There’s a photo critique section here in the forums for this purpose :)
Good article – I find it very difficult to assess my photos especially if I receive an opinion the polar opposite of my own.
I know what you mean about your waterfall shot – I really like it but it just falls short on something I just cannot quantify. I’m not knocking it – it’s still a lovely photo.