Hey -

I'm just curious...  does anyone here post on different critique sites like photosig, shuttercity, photocritique etc.?

I've been posting on sites like that since I started photography and I have to say that I did learn a lot thanks to some people who really gave great advice and honest critiques...

sometimes now though, I'll post an image and I think people just don't get it...does that make sense?  I'm hoping it's because I'm getting maybe a bit more specialized and not that I'm getting too stupid to accept a decent critique...  does anyone else feel like this?


thanks,

Julia

I think as you develop your own style and start moving away from the mainstream, people don't quite "get it" anymore. After all, a critique is little more than an opinion anyway. Maybe it's the opinion of someone with a lot of experience and maybe it's not.

I don't post on other sites. There are far too many for me to try to keep up with. Here and omp are my main sites. I do check out Pbase every once in a while because I see some awsome, non-model related work there occasionally.

By the way, I looked at your profile and you have some excellent work, in my opinion. Your shots are warm, imaginative and artistic. Caitlin is a perfect shot. The light, the mood, everything about it is superb.

Aren't the sites you mentioned more for general photography rather than for model pics?  I used to belong to Zuga but the "glamour" section was barely used and I got booted off for posting a picture of a model in swimwear (a thong) believe it or not. 

I think Garage Glamour is okay but it's strictly nudes and swimwear.  OMP is okay.  Musecube is dead.

Paul

I've been posting on PhotoSig for years. Its a great place to get a wide variety of opinions from photographers of all levels. Sometimes even the most green of beginners will make a really great observation about a photo that the longtime pros have ignored...

You have some very nicely executed, interesting photographs.  So don't worry about photographers' comments.  I find comments from fellow photographers to be almost always beside the point.  Photographers can offer some technical advice.  It was always fun to get little darkroom tricks and to argue about response functions of different films.  These days technical advice is typically which Photoshop button to push.  But you clearly have technique under control.  So then the question is, why should we think that photographers, even technically skilled photographers, should know much about esthetics?  I can find you tons of technically flawless boring photographs.  Not to say that photographers as a group should be ignored, but I don't think that there is any reason to assume that a photographer is more likely to "get it" than any other person with a visual esthetic.  Ask a painter.  I do figure work and I love to get comments from artists, especially if they work in charcoal because that is most like photography in its visual effect.  One of my best critics is an art historian.  And what, even in theory, could photographers say?  "Some of your faceshots are a bit white, shouldn't you print darker?"  Clearly that was your intent.  Maybe the best advice would come from a psychologist, because ultimately we want to imprint a certain mental state in the viewer.  What makes an image romantic, or creepy, or happy?  If someone could tell us that, then we could try to craft such images.  If I were you, I would ask advice from philosophers, novelist, beekeepers, maybe some photographers, but don't give the photographers any special heed.

Yeah, photosig's a good site for critiques. As Nathan said, you get all sorts right.
I dont use any other sites.... just not focused enough.
I'm pretty sure I recognize a couple of your photos from the site
Photosig is what held my atention for the first six months of my photographic story... I was posting and learning alot. After that period, it became a little academic... and now... I only critique.

Thanks for the really great replies!   and you're all right  : )

I know that photosig has it's place and really you have to take some things with a grain of salt - it's part popularity contest, part group mentality (if you get one positive critique people pick up on it, one negative, people pick up on it), part actual cc....  I think a big thing also is to take in that not every one's monitor is the same etc....

and you really can't expect a stranger to know where you're going with an image - they might not know the 'inspiration' of the work, or they just might not be familiar with different lighting styles or different looks/techniques

I don't know..it just gets frustrating some times...

Julia

you know it baby  ; )  it's all about stroking the ego....  lol...

Julia

I used to post on PhotoSig, but the critiques didn't help me one bit.

And I lost patience with sites that are filled with pictures of pets, ducks and boring landscapes.