How To Get Good Feedback On Your Photography

Receiving good feedback on your photography can be invaluable. It can give you insight in to how others see your photography. Because of our emotional attachment to our images, we can become “blind” to issues with our photography.  I’ve seen numerous instances where once the photographer was made aware of issues they become immediately obvious and the photographer wonders “How did I not see that?”

Additionally, good feedback can guide us along a path to achieve our goals. The person providing the feedback knows us and what our goals are along with our strengths and weaknesses.  This knowledge provides context specific to us.  Feedback in this scenario has credibility.

Can There Be Meaningless Feedback?

Conversely, bad feedback, e.g. “Great shot!”, really doesn’t have much benefit.  While it may boost our ego, it provides no guidance on how to improve or how to achieve our goals.  Often our feedback comes from uploading photos to a website and strangers provide feedback.  These strangers don’t know us or anything about us.  We don’t know anything about them; what their experience and expertise is (or is not).  Simply, there is no context nor credibility.

Think back to an earlier post on the typical insult photographers get, “These are beautiful photos. You must have a really good camera.”  Both the positive and negative aspects of those comments lack context and credibility. What you receive on most websites is just the digital equivalent.  It’s meaningless feedback.

How To Get Good Feedback

This is why I was intrigued when I saw that Sean Tucker, who I follow on Instagram (seantuck), had posted about a new video on his YouTube channel.  The video’s title is “How To Get Good Feedback On Your Photography” [emphasis added].  There is a lot of information on the internet about giving good critique (usually in reference to a single photo and not a portfolio) but not a lot on how to get good feedback.

In this video Tucker explains the importance of good feedback, what to look for in regard to selecting a person to give feedback and some suggestions on how to actually get good feedback. Early on, he talks about paying for someone to review your work.  Don’t be put off by this; keep watching. He does recognize paying is not an option for everyone and offers some alternatives.  It’s a great video; take a look.

Video: Getting Good Feedback On Your Photos

A couple of suggestion I have for options to receive feedback are:

• Look into your local camera clubs.  Sometimes critique is offered.  Usually this is only on a photo, not a portfolio. However, there may be some clubs or organizations that offer portfolio review.
• 1X.com offers in-depth critique where a group of volunteers will review your photo (not a portfolio review) and offer feedback and suggestions. Full disclosure: I am one of those volunteers and do not receive any money or other financial incentive to make this recommendation.

What ways have you figured out to get good feedback on your photography?  Please leave a comment in the comment box below.