Whether you are just starting out or already have experience, it is possible that if you show your photos receive criticism that is not always sincere. In fact, they can even be harmful to someone who is inexperienced and may take them too seriously. On the Internet there is a lot troll malicious who only criticizes out of envy or hatred without judgment. The photographer has counted them Miguel Quiles (of whom we already talked about another topic) in the following video:
As you can see, the photographer talks about five concrete reasons why you can criticize our photos and that we should directly ignore. Let’s talk a little about each one of them because they are interesting:
Impossible to take a bad photo of someone very handsome
Miguel says that it is something that he has heard many times but that it seems totally wrong. Many things can happen to make this happen, for example that the photographer or the model have a bad day (or both at the same time). It can also happen that the photographer does not have the necessary knowledge of his camera or lighting and spoils a session for this reason or that the model has no idea what to do. There are many causes why it can happen and saying this to a photographer is probably an attempt to detract from it.
“X’s” job is better than yours
Something that is heard a lot on social networks, especially in Facebook groups according to Quiles, where there are people who affirm that “I don’t know who does it better than you“or”this job would have been so much better if you had done X“. A manifestation of rudeness (and an excessive ego) of those who say it that does not take into account that photography as an art form is subjective. For this reason there will always be photos that we like and others that we can come to hate for one reason or another, without this meaning that they do not have quality.
Retouching photos is cheating
It is something that has been done since the dawn of photography but, for some reason, it is still criticized by many people (especially novices, says Miguel) who think that photo retouching is something “wrong”. The author resorts again to the argument that photography, as an art form, is subjective and everyone has their own style and right to express themselves however you like in your work (unless they ask you for something specific). This should not mean that you are more or less successful in what you do, nor should it allow anyone to criticize you.
You can’t take a bad photo with a good camera
A very popular topic on the Network of Networks, the question of whether the team makes the photographer better is already very old and for us it has a fairly clear answer: not necessarily. As Quiles says, sometimes some new equipment can be a boost for our creativity but, in general, a photographer’s skill level is not improved by better equipment. You can be a bad photographer with a good camera and a good one with bad or outdated equipment.
If you shoot with natural light it is because you do not know how to use the flash
Many photographers who tend to use artificial light “attack” those who only use natural light by accusing them of doing so because they do not know how to use the flashes and suggesting that their work is worse for it. According to Quiles this may be true in some cases but also it can be a style choice or customer requirement on duty, and it certainly doesn’t mean they can’t create great photos.
These are the five toxic opinions that we can receive on our photos and that it is better that we ignore. But we would like to know your opinion and open a debate about it, what do you think? Have you ever been criticized with another argument that seemed unfair to you? Have you heard these toxic arguments many times?
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