{"id":1790,"date":"2011-01-24T18:41:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T00:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=1790"},"modified":"2025-09-17T05:08:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T10:08:03","slug":"the-importance-of-honest-self-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/24\/the-importance-of-honest-self-critique\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Honest Self Critique in Bird Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>\"FourFour year old Bald Eagle<\/span> portrait –\u00a0<\/span><\/span>D200, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 200, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited, a wild bird<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve enjoyed photography for a long time but for awhile I didn’t understand the value or importance of honest self critique. If the image was sharp enough I was pleased. If I was able to get the entire subject in the frame I was happy. If I had good light I was thrilled.<\/p>\n

During that period of my growth as a photographer I started looking for a place to post my images to be critiqued by others hoping that it would improve my skills and image quality. I’ve only actively posted on two of those nature critique forums, the first one went belly down after about 6 months so I searched for another one. I’ve been posting my images at the second\u00a0forum I found\u00a0since 2005 for critique, comments and evaluations. I also peruse several other nature photography sites.<\/p>\n

I have learned a great deal from the members who take the time to honestly evaluate, critique, and offer suggestions for future improvement of not just my images but other members too.<\/p>\n

I have gained skills and knowledge by reciprocating and giving thoughtful critiques for the other members too. By critiquing other people’s work I found myself able to be emotionally distanced from the image, something that can be a challenge to do with our own work.<\/p>\n

There are real benefits to having multiple people critiquing my images, some may go more in depth and another person may offer a suggestion that hasn’t been mentioned. It helps with finding the best camera settings, composition, and learning to work with the habitat present and the light.<\/p>\n

What being a participant on a nature photography critique forum<\/span><\/a> taught me was invaluable, it is\u00a0the ability to look at my own images objectively and to critique them honestly. The keywords are objectively and honestly.<\/p>\n

Some days I take hundreds of images because with birds\u00a0I want to be shooting when they are doing something interesting either on the land, water or in the air. I often take my images in bursts hoping to get several in focus, sharp files.<\/p>\n

When I am away on camping trips the number of images can go up drastically because although I can load the images onto my laptop, I don’t like using its screen to make critical decisions about sharpness.<\/p>\n

However, that means when I upload the files to my hard drive I have a ton of culling to do.\u00a0 It is time consuming to cull that many images, keeping the best so I can delete the rest.<\/p>\n

I look at every image I delete and ask myself \u201cWhat could I have done to make this image better?\u201d.<\/p>\n