Thought this might be useful to have stickied at the top.
Just going to put some bare bones here, and thought it could be something we all add to to make sure that we are all happy with each other offering constructive criticism on how to make our shots better.


Constructive criticism helps everyone, getting others to look at your work and suggest things which you could have differently (either when shooting or in post) will help you look at things from a different perspective and get you to think more before you shoot the next time.
Reading CC on others shots helps you when you are in a similar situation.

When critiquing the work of others be mindful of...

• Tearing the whole image to shreds, keep the critique to one or two suggests
• Saying things to other people which you wouldn't want to hear about your own work. No rudeness, no snarkiness
• If you don't have anything constructive to say then don't say anything at all

Try to...

• Mention the positives first
• Not be put off commenting if you think the persons work is better than your own - everyones opinion and input is valid and welcome

When posting pictures for critique it might be useful if you...

• Put a little bit of a background behind the shots. The conditions you were shooting in might help others give more useful advice
• Are actually prepared for people to tell you what is wrong with your work (I know some people post pictures up for critique and aren't really prepared for it!)

I like this post. Hopefully will encourage more discussion amongst everyone. It also helps everyone by avoiding pages of single word comments like "great " or "nice".

Nothing wrong with that obviously, but it doesn't help anyone long term. I always think people think leaving obstructive criticism means how to politely tell people what you don't like about the photo. The reverse is also true, it can tell people more specifically why something works for the viewer. This is something I try to keep in mind. Although sometimes what you are thinking has already been discussed and probably doesn't need repeating again. This probably lends itself to the shorter comments maybe.

(Can tell I'm tired......I save a bit of forum verbal diorhoaea going on here!)