Critiquing photographs

Most of us like to receive feedback when we show our pictures to friends and family members. Often that feedback can provide useful tips about which of your photos works, what makes it engaging or how you could have made it better. But feedback isn’t always that helpful.

When somebody says “It’s nice” or makes an unintelligible response, you’re left feeling shortchanged. What did they actually like? Why was their response indifferent?

You can learn a lot from other people’s reactions – as long as you can define the reasons for them. But you also need an open mind and the ability to identify useful comments rather than taking potentially negative remarks as hostile criticism. Sometimes we can be just too touchy when our own precious pictures