Negative Feedback????????

Question

Seems like people can't stand negative feedback on here... if you ask for an opinion, don't you expect people to answer with an honest opinion? Should I lie to make you happy just so you'll give me a thumbs up? How will you ever learn if all I tell you is lies?

Answer 1

Is there a question in there somewhere?  Yes, people ask for opinions and expect there ego to be stroked.  I agree, if you don't want to know what I think, then why did you ask?!?

Answer 2

The problem is most people in here aren't mature enough to take the heat.

Answer 3

Hear! Hear!

Answer 4

Basically, if you cannot be cool with the honest answer, don't ask the question.

Too many people are looking to be stroked for their new "hobby", but cannot accept constructive criticism

This is perhaps one of the most important parts of taking classes at a community college .. each assignment is not only critiqued by the instructor, but by fellow students.

Answer 5

Most people here are completely clueless about photography.  They don't want a true, honest critique.  Also, they have no attention span.  They post their blurry MySpace pictures taken with a cell phone and want a short, 1 or 2 line answer saying "oh, kewl pics!  I think ur pics are awsom."  (They can't spell either).    

If you DARE to tell them that they need to actually learn more about real photography, and learn how to use better lighting and work on their composition...or at least learn how to hold the freaking camera steady, they get mad and give a thumbs-down vote.  And then they'll just report you.  Yahoo Answers doesn't check reports, so all it takes is one or two morons clicking on the "report" link and your answer will be deleted and you'll get points off for a bogus violation.  I had this happen to me, and I know of at least two other people who are Top Contributors and who had their answers "reported."  

So now I'm a lot more picky about which questions I answer.  I never answer the selective color questions, because I'm sick and tired of seeing them.  Every single day, there are at least 50 questions from people asking "how do you make a picture in black and white with one thing in color?"  They never bother to search the questions and answers...otherwise they would know that stupid question is asked here EVERY freaking day!  It's become a cliche and there is nothing original or creative about it anymore.   Also, in my opinion, it completely ruins a black and white photo.

I try to help and answer a question with constructive criticism IF I really think that person wants to learn more about photography.  But if all they're asking is "how do u photoshop ur pics" and just want someone to compliment their lame, blurry, underexposed MySpace snapshots from a cell phone or their over-edited Photshopped pictures then I'm just going to be completely and brutally honest with them and tell them to get a real camera and learn more about photography instead of doctoring their pictures on a computer.  If they REALLY wanted to learn about photography and wanted an honest critique, then yeah I would try my best to help them.  But a lot of people here don't...they just want someone to tell them how nice their pictures are.  They want attention.

So you get reported.  Or the worst answer will get picked Best Answer because that person just tells them what they want to hear.  I don't care about getting a thumbs down anymore.  I've made some enemies here, but I think I have also helped a lot of people and I've made new friends...because I post an honest, DETAILED opinion about their pictures.  The best way to help someone improve is to tell them what they're doing well...and what they might need to work on.      

Constructive criticism is worth a lot more than hollow praise.

Answer 6

BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!.. True enough for you?

Answer 7

"In my best Valley Girl accent:

"OK... whatever! It's beautiful! Don't change a thing."

LOL

These people are not looking for a helpful critique, they are fishing for fawning praise and then get quite offended when they are told that they are not Ansel Adams after all........ at least not yet.

Answer 8

Most people who linger around this forum looking for a critique of their work are looking for the "mother critique", "everything you do is wonderful, you are my special little artist".  Mother critiques are fine if you consider the refrigerator door (and a Garfield magnet) to be the apex and alter of all fine art photography.  However, I personally have not satiated anyone desire for a mother critique but then again I will not give negative non-constructive criticism i.e, "this work is cr@p, go hang yourself with your shutter release cable and stop wasting my time".  If you post photos of sunsets, flowers, puppies, kittens, selective color portraits of children in adult clothing, and anything else Hallmark would find marketable, I will tell the person to expand beyond so called "safe" cliche, non-cerebral subject matter which is fine for the refrigerator door or perhaps hung on the wall of your grandmothers bathroom.  However with today's mall culture the amount of exposure young people receive to the arts is summed up at the Thomas Kinkade gallery, or the mall poster shop whose only prints of fine art photography are that of Ansel Adams, who although I admire is part of a bygone era in photography, and honestly should not be followed as inevitably your work will be compared to him, as he is the standard to which others will judge you.  So to all those posters who want a critique of their work before you do, go to an art museum, or at least buy a copy of art forum.