Critique: The Criteria

We should create a guideline to use and distribute for critiquing. This posting should help us begin to articulate a critique so that it is useful and productive.

Here is a starting point...please add/change as needed!
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PURPOSE: critique is for helping the photographer/artist improve their craft. All comments should be given and received with that intent. If an artist submits a piece for critique, they are expected to give honest consideration to the suggestions.

LIKE/DISLIKE: Everyone has personal likes/dislikes when it comes to art. When reviewing, assume that if someone has gone through the effort of presenting a piece, they have an investment of time and emotion. They feel that something about it is worth sharing with their peers. Lone comments like "I love it" have good intent, but do nothing to help the artist if it isn't followed with a "Why I love it." This is also true of negative impressions. Disliking a piece can also be a desired response of the artist, but it is important for the critiquer to express exactly and succinctly why.

Try to be objective whenever possible. If the content is objectionable (but within accepted social norms), put aside bias.

Always offer suggestions for improvement and reinforce areas of success.

The following are areas for consideration in the critique process:

TECHNICAL: Was the focus and exposure executed well. Is the saturation or contrast appropriate? If obvious digital filters/enhancements are applied, are they improvements to the piece? Some pieces are intentionally "flawed," is it appropriate?

COMPOSITION: Content and cropping are the most obvious features for composition. Did the artist best frame the piece? Is there content that should be excluded? Are there distracting/clashing elements that could have been avoided? Could the piece be improved with color or B&W?

IMPACT/MESSAGE: Does the piece tell a story, capture an emotion, create an emotional response? Do all the technical and compositional pieces build into a good artistic piece?

MEDIA: (this is not usually a factor for critique, but perhaps it should be) How large is the picture and is it appropriate for the composition? Is the output appropriate for the intended audience (i.e. a Web image would have a different audience than a gallery image). Is it matted/framed appropriately?

VOICE: (again, not usually a factor, but might be interesting to consider). Does the piece reflect the voice of the artist. Is it consistent with previous works? Does it enhance or detract from their overall body of work?

November 6th Critique

Jim has asked that there be some critiques be done during the November 6th meeting for pieces submitted to the CPA judged show. Bobbi has suggested that we ask the same judge to attend and comment on the pieces. We'll need to move pretty quickly for a decision, if we decide to ask him, we should do so at the reception on Friday the 31st.

What do you think we should do?

What activities should we have?

List out some ideas as to what activities can we do or host for critiques. Lets brainstorm on some activities and then we'll follow up on other posts as to the details and whether or not we want to pursue it further.

Discussion: Print or Digital (or both)

When doing a presentation of a piece, we should define the appropriate display method. The two options are overhead display and printed (hardcopy). The club is looking into a new projector, but I'm not sure when that will be available. Overhead projectors offer the largest display and can make for a better presentation, but often lose detail and color. They also size all images equally. Printouts give the true impact of the artwork with the highest detail and colors as the artist intended. The downside is that there is a cost for the artist and an 8x10 piece is hard to show to an audience. Also, we'll need to build a lighted display box (which is not difficult or expensive) for this type of display.

Discussion: What is a Photograph?

There seems to be two growing fields of photography due to the use of Photoshop. Should we differentiate? If so, how?

Discussion: Critique Philosophy

At the core of the critique process, we need to decide what methodology and goals we should pursue. There are two general philosophical avenues that we can take: Competitive or Cooperative.

Competitive
Most clubs in the area use a competitive model. On a semi-regular basis, they hold competitions and each member submits one or more pieces based upon a theme. The club asks an expert to attend and grade the pictures, picking the best of the lot.

Pros:

• This challenges the members to put forth their best work and give some real-world experience to the nature of competitions.
• Pictures and participants are put upon a level playing field and given a critical analysis of their work.
• Competitions tend to be more exciting and "fun."

Cons:

• Can be VERY intimidating for new users.
• More experienced users may consistently do well and which can dishearten beginners/intermediate artists.
  

Cooperative

A cooperative philosophy would look more towards the individual's improvements. Critiques would be based upon presentations by the artist and reviewed/commented by a group.

Pros:

• Critiques can be more insightful and useful to the artist. Can be most beneficial to beginner/intermediate artists.
• Encourages the individual to challenge themselves to do better.

Cons:

• More thoughtful, less exciting.

Please put in your comments on which direction we should pursue (feel free to offer alternatives).

How this works...

This site is a blog posting. Feel free to post new topics of discussion or reply to existing comments. As the comments are made, we should eventually come to a consensus. Once finalized, we'll create a document to present to the CPA Board for approval.

Everything is wide open right now so all suggestions should be put forth. We should plan to make a presentation before the end of the year.

Welcome

Thanks for volunteering for the CPA Critique Committee. We have a great opportunity not only determine activities but philosophy as well that the club will take on this topic.

What I propose is that we post ideas on this discussion board and each member can respond within a certain amount of time. Once the comment time window has expired, we can vote and finalize the the proposal.

Please feel free to create new threads or respond to existing ones. All opinions are important, so please keep the discourse civil (this can be a passionate topic).

I look forward to working with everyone and I thank you ahead of time for your participation and efforts.