Engaging with critique and feedback from peers

February 25, 2023  •  Leave a Comment

One Tree HillOne Tree HillMaleny, Glasshouse Mountains. High in the hills, a large expanse of countryside, and only one tree; this beauty sits overlooking the Glasshouse Mountains.

It's very hard to continually see your own work and expect to improve without constructive feedback. So it IS needed! There is so much truth in an unbiased voice, then, such a great idea to review and reflect on our images. Our friends and family will usually always tell us our creations are wonderful. So getting feedback from esteemed peers, (to me), is important. And one of the main reasons why I belong to photography groups.
I'm a huge fan of technical criticism; constructive critique. I like hearing things that could help my process of editing or finessing an image, things that help me improve.
Not a fan of artistic criticism though. The reason being is you can receive varying opinions and are so very open to another's personal bias or viewpoints, which takes away from your own style.
So as creatives, we need to be open to others critique if we ask, yet secure enough to hold that feedback to the light of our own vision and take from it what value there is.

In artwork, I am never satisfied. I am not sure many creatives are - we tend to strive for the impossible 'perfection'. I work over and over a piece manyatime. Some of history’s greatest painters would often paint over their original work before the final ‘masterpiece’ was presented, so this is nothing new. One day, one day. :)
In this same way, photographers also revisit their images. The images we shoot are a reflection of how we felt about the scene and later when we work on the edit of it, of that particular day.
Down the track, and here I am talking even years, I go back and look at old archived images and see things differently.
This image - is one of them. Taken at One Tree Hill in Maleny, originally I didn't like it at all. And now, I see it for the absolute raw realism it is, adding such a subjective value to my photography for me. AI is so prevalent right now (a trend I think will lessen once the noise has died down) so maybe that feeds to my likening of it, but I find it so rewarding to have captured a spectacular thing that exists rather than manufacture it.
I guess, we should be open to, and crave improvement in most areas of our lives. Not just our creative persona.
Constructive criticism, and being open to review and reflect on the feedback, then the ability to revisit our artworks or edits with a new eye, reworking images and seeing past 'perfection', allows us to continue that refinement.
Happy creating, whatever medium you use! :)

 


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