For many who are relatively inexperienced in the world of photography and many who have a bit more experience, we need a way to gauge how good our pictures truly are and how far along are we in the learning curve. Many time when we are editing our own photos we realize right away that the photo is not a good one and it is quickly thrown in the trash bin.
However, there are times when we are not sure how great of a picture it is. Other times, we are certain it is an amazing picture and would like corroboration that it is. Basically, we want someone to review out photos and provide an honest critique of your photo and make suggestions for improvement. Unless you have personal access to a successful, professional photographer that specializes in your area(s) of interested this can become a very difficult task.
There are many websites out there that allow you to upload an image and have other users comment on them. In most of these sites anyone can comment. Therefore some sites are more “brutal” than others. While some sites are not very “educational” because the user’s comments are more general.
In this series of blogs I will attempt to review some that I have used. This by no means an exhaustive review of each site but just a quick take on them. The first site I have reviewed is:
In their About page they describe themselves as follows:
photoSIG is a community of photographers and photography
enthusiasts, ranging from amateurs to working professionals. photoSIG
members who submit photographs are expected to write critiques for
others .
photoSIG is designed to be self-maintaining. The
worthiness, or unworthiness, of photos and critiques submitted by users
is determined by the user community. Users have the opportunity to
comment and critique, favorably or unfavorably, on photos and on
critiques submitted by other users. In addition to the editorial control
exerted by the community via the rating system, photoSIG itself also
attempts to encourage high-quality critiques by only allowing critiques
that conform to photoSIG's quality standard to affect a photographer's
rating.
Features:
Once per hour as photographer is seletected and featured in the home page. The system totals up the photo points that each user has received during the past 7 days.
This one is selected the same way as the Featured Photographer but the system usses critique points rather than photo points.
Periodically they issue a sort of challenge to users who are given a subject and are asked to submit photos that features the subject given. There is no actual "price" except to have a focus to your next pictures and encourage you to experiment.
There are 2 membership types available. One is the "Basic Membership" which is free. With this membership type you can upload one photo every 72 hours or more often depending how many points you earn by critiquing other photos.
The other membership type is a "Premium Membership" which at the time of this writing is $25/year. With this membership type you can upload images more often, avoid seeing ads in the site and receive email notifications.
In photoSig your personal area is called "mySig". In this area you will find quick access to all the photos you have uploaded, all the critiques you have given to other users and a listing of the discussions you have participated in. You have the ability to create "portfolios" (folders) for you images and upload images to each different one so you can remain organized. Other users can view the photos you have in your portfolios at any time. Indeed, even if you remove a photo you had submitted, a thumbnail still remains visible. At least this is the case when a photo has been reviewed.
There is a forum area for users to discuss a variety of subjects related to photography.
The actual photo critique process:
You are able to upload images as allowed in your membership type. They all go into a pool of photos in order that they were uploaded. Users can organize the photos by a variety of options such as camera type, category, lens, etc, or view the default option which is "all". Photos need to be jpeg or gif and smaller than 360k.
When you upload your image other users can view them and critique them. Each critique needs to be at least 15 words in length. You also have to select a rating in the form of thumbs up/down from three thumbs up to three thumbs down. Other than that, there are no other qualifications required to submit critiques. If you have a membership, you can critique photos right away. This means that the comments seen on your photo can come from people completely new to photography all the way to professional photographers. You have to take the good with the bad.
My experience:
I have uploaded 5 images so far as a test. All of them I personally like and think they came out pretty good which is why I uploaded them. Here are the images and the critiques I have received on each one.I am respectfully including their comments on this blog with the knowledge that it is their own personal opinion of my photos. My intention is that you view the image and their critique and make your own judgement of it's validity. I personally, accept all of these are as a good effort of the reviewer to be objective and offer suggestions on how the photo could be made better next time. Any spelling and/or grammatical errors are those of the reviewer. Also keep in mind that these are people from all over the world and for many English is not their native language.
Image # 1: "Didn't make it south"
Critiques:
"nice cute subjects, but really needs to be pin sharp on both birds if they are both in the shot. Maybe a lower angle without the front rock would be nice."
"Ducks usaully will not move on unless the ice is completely frozen. I would have like to see the object in front bottom taken out. I really wrecks this pic"
Image #2: "Grass"
"Nice grass close up photo, but background is a bit distracting aspecially white road on the right side. There is also a tree branch in the foreground that is distracting. IMO a different composition would be better."
Image #3: "Firework"
Critiques:
"Good exposure, Gisel. I would crop it square, centered and rotated upside down. Just my opinion, regards"
"Indeed, this work looks like an abstract, I mean this shape, which created this firework. Balck color of background gives a good color contrast here. However due to the fact that some parts of this firework are cutted in down part of photo and on the right side of photo, I would prefer to see a little bit more space in down and on the right side of photo. Regards"
"Fantastic exposure, what a great capture! I would wish for a full image of the explosion, but that is just a small nit to pick. Very nice."
Image #4: "Lion"
Critiques:
"nice portrait of jungle king Gisal good details nice colors but i saw a shadow on forehead of lion and for me cropping is bite tight from down side Regards"
"Good picture portrait of this Lion, well done. However I would prefer to see a little bit more space in don and on the right side of photo. In my opinion it is a pity that Lion's feet are cutted on the right side of photo. Beside I would prefer to try with reduce intensivity of brightness from Lion's feet. Regards,"
"This would appear to be a zoo shot. There is a straight line shadow on his head caused by something not in the image. The image is quite grainy (noisy) and looks a tad over sharpened. The contrast is very high which makes the picture look almost posterized. I would crop off the bottom bit to eliminate the over exposed feet."
Image #5: "Green Bird"
Critiques:
"Beautiful and so colorful bird you captured Gisel good contrast nice colors good use of light and angle but i am agree with Michal a little more space in down part of photo good pose of little bird attractive good work Regards"
"Nice capture of this little and colorful bird and his pose. Bird is situated in a good place in this frame not central. However and due to the fact that a part of bird's "foot" is cutted in down part of photo, maybe it is intentionally here, I would prefer to see a little more space in down part of photo. Regards"
"What an amazing bird! If only the rock behind the beak weren't over exposed. They kind of blend together. It's also a shame that you didn't capture the whole bird. What a beautiful bird. I hope you get a chance to photograph him again."
"Beautiful bird, but I dislike the blown out white area around it's beak. The bird also miss some sharpness (do you really have taken this photo with 1/4 sec - if yes, you should increase the iso). I also don't like the composition, you have cropped its tail and it looks like he's buckling backwards. I thought about giving 1 td but the bird itself is beautiful and maybe not too easy to catch... Regards"
Conclusion:
Visually I find this site un-appealing. Being a photography critique site and having a "visually" sensitive audience I would expect it to be a bit, well, prettier. It appears to have been designed back in 2001 and never updated. The menus tend to be convoluted and not very user friendly.
As far as the critiques themselves... what should you expect from this site? Brutal honesty when warranted and little "fluff". By fluff I mean those comments that just say: "Great photo", " I really like it", etc. While those are nice to hear, I am typically looking for more details than that. If you liked it, why? The negative comments do hurt but if you can get past the language being used you can learn a lot at this site. I have even learned a lot from viewing other reviews. All in all, I do recommend it if you have a sincere desire to learn and improve your photography.
