We have decided to include some image critique sessions in the 2023/24 season. One of the best ways to develop as a photographer is to receive constructive feedback on your images. This will be done in two ways.
Dedicated Critique Evenings
On 9th November 2023 and again on 25 April 2024 we will have a dedicated critique evening. For these evenings you may submit up to five images for comment. Each image should be numbered with the image you most want to hear comments about called number 1 through to number 5. We will get through as many images as possible but may not get to them all. Any images not commented upon that evening will be added to the Critique folder on the club laptop and commented upon during normal club evenings when time allows.
We need lots of images to make these evenings work so please submit your images, if you wish you can do so them anonymously.
Normal Club Evenings
You may submit images for critique by bringing them to Abbey Row on a memory stick on any Thursday evening and having them placed in the “Critique Folder” on the club laptop. Then when time is available during a normal club evening images will be picked from this folder and all members present will be invited to make constructive comments.
You may submit images with or without your name in the file name. If your name is in the file name we will try to make sure that your images are selected when you are present to hear the comments, however we will keep your name secret so that only the organiser that evening knows whose images have been chosen. You may of course decide to make yourself known and even comment further on the suggestions made. That is up to you. So please bring images for comment from 7th September onwards.
Guidelines for Critique
Finally here are some guidelines about image critique sessions.
- Your comments must always be constructive, designed to improve the image.
- Just saying “I don’t like it” or “it’s not my sort of thing” doesn’t help the photographer or anybody else in the room to improve.
- You could indicate possible technical errors in the images. (ie too much or too little in focus)
- You could make suggestions to improve the image (ie darken a bright patch in a corner or perhaps a different crop)
- Most importantly you should say what is good about an image. After all seeing something good in somebody else’s images could tell you how you want to approach a similar subject for your own images.
