I was given a helping hand at the beginning of my photographic journey.  I was taught the value of critique and more importantly, how to use it to advance my skills.  It is my compass.  My own journey would be less rich without it.  And much less successful.

Critique – it means to criticize right?  Actually, no.  It means to analyze and when done properly, the emphasis is on the positive.  It’s a surprising way to grow photography skills.

Every once in a while, we see a photograph that commands us to stop and look and perhaps even see.  You know, that photograph that make us look again.  Perhaps it causes us to gasp in wonder; cringe in horror; be dazzled by beauty; makes us smile, or even laugh out loud.  What is there about these photographs that prompt such diverse feelings?  Do they have a common denominator?  And if so, can we bottle it and become the exceptional photographer that we want to be?  

Luckily for us the answer is yes!

Most photographers never to do a critique of their own work.  I’ve been told that I can’t critique my own work - it isn’t right.  The people who tell me that really don’t understand what critique is or how to use it.

How can we expect to improve if we don’t know why we like something?  Even in our own work, when we are happy with what we have, doesn’t it make sense to understand why?  If we critique often, we will find patterns of what appeals to us personally and that information plants seeds in our brains.  Those seeds grow and incorporate the things we like into how we shoot.

It’s really pretty simple.   You may not know all of the accepted parameters of how to present a critique but you can certainly tell whether you like a photograph or not.  You are used to determining whether you like an image every time you look at one.  When you see a photograph you either look at it and maybe smile or you pass by to look at something else.

That’s a critique.  Short and simple.  It’s your first impression.  Most people don’t get any further than that in their review of a photograph.  They look and then move on - either thinking that it was pretty cool or pretty boring or pretty awful.  They are missing the whispers.

When pass by, we don’t learn anything.  Sitting and paging through a photography book, or scrolling through photographs on a computer screen is a passive activity.  We aren’t exercising much but the hands and fingers we use.  We aren’t engaging our brain.  A simple reaction - nice, or wow, or yuck, doesn’t teach us a thing.

We are passing up a great learning opportunity.  In fact, we are passing up valuable information by the best teacher you could ever wish for to develop your own inner photographic vision.  Yourself.

Let’s get practical and take a look at some photographs. Here are three.  What do they have in common?