I have seen many people use the subjectiveness of art, in all forms, as an excuse for dismissing allegedly bad criticism, touting phrases like “they don’t really know what they’re looking at…”. Usually, this is followed by some sort of claim that the person has been doing said art for many years, or they studied under a certain person. At least the more modest will state that their work isn’t for everyone. But even then, you are still making excuses.

Criticism is a difficult thing for us humans to accept. It is our goal as artists to please the general public, so it is very difficult to accept that someone doesn’t like our work. Especially considering the amount of time we all know we spend on our art, and photography is no exception. But all criticism, regardless of how skilled the source, should be taken into consideration. We can separate our sources into two types: Skilled and Unskilled. Below I will discuss why each is important and how you can utilize it.

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There’s a great article titled 9 Lighting Types to Harness & Improve Your Photography. Here’s an excert from the article:

In my previous article “Make the Best of Bad Weather - 6 Challenges for Photographers” I noted how photography is all about the light. Sounds easy enough on the surface but as photographers we tend to be subject focused rather than light focused. What I mean by that is we’ll see something unique or different and focus on that rather than the lighting and resulting exposure needed to transform your subject. The right lighting can make or break an image setting the stage for others to see it as a snapshot or a photograph.

It’s a great read offering a lot of lighting tips and reiterating some thing that you may already know, but perhaps have neglected. The article is written by Jim Goldstein (of JMG Galleries), a regular contributor to my favorite photography site, The Digital Photography School.

Read the full article: 9 Lighting Types to Harness & Improve Your Photography

Inexperienced photographers are easily overwhelmed by the volume of information and experience that must be attained before they can consider themselves a good photographer. Hungry to learn as much as possible, many new photographers read a lot of books and articles. Sometimes, I feel that they read too much. Faced with all the information about your camera and the features new users should avoid, knowledge about ISO, Aperture, Shutter, White Balancing and the like, information overload is quick to be realized. The result is a massive army of photographers with a lot of technical know-how but not an impressive portfolio. The problem is that all of this information without a great deal of experience confuses new photographers, and their priorities aren’t in order. For that reason, I have created this list of what I will call The Skill Priority Tree.

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