By Dr Greg McMillan GMAPS EFIAP EPSA BPSA

Photography as a Serious Hobby

Giving and receiving constructive feedback are valuable skills that benefit both the individual recipient and the person offering their thoughts. Having spent most of my professional life working with adults and adult learners, one thing I come across often is the issues of ‘how to give constructive feedback’ and ‘how to receive feedback’. While this is important in a professional context when it comes to our art (in our case, our photography) giving and receiving feedback can potentially feel more personal than constructive regardless of intent.

I do not purport to be an expert in this area, and I know I have at times given and received feedback less constructively than I could have.  However, making mistakes and learning is also part of self-reflection and personal development and in the same way we can develop our photography knowledge and skills, we can continually develop our ability to provide and receive constructive feedback. Hopefully the following provides some insights into providing and receiving constructive feedback.

Note, the key points are not a checklist requiring all elements to be undertaken, rather they are there to encourage you to consider different ways on how to give or receive feedback and the approaches that you may adopt.

Giving Constructive Feedback

• Understand the photographers’ intent: Before offering feedback, clarify what the photographer intended with their image. If unclear, ask for their purpose if this is possible. Images submitted into a genre, section or where text is provided may also help understand the intent.
• Begin with positive observations: Start feedback by highlighting strengths such as composition, colour, or emotional impact.
• Be specific and actionable: When suggesting improvements, focus on clear, detailed elements rather than vague comments. Make your suggestions actionable. For example: consider adjusting exposure to reveal more detail or increasing contrast to highlight the differences between (eg) light and dark in your image, try a (eg) 4:3 crop, check your tonal range or consider flipping your image to strengthen the focus on the key feature of the image.
• Use the ‘sandwich’ method: Surround constructive suggestions with positive remarks to keep feedback balanced and encouraging but don’t overplay the positive and underplay constructive suggestions.
• Invite dialogue: In an interactive environment encourage the recipient to share their perspective on your feedback for a more meaningful exchange.
• Respect the recipient’s vision: Offer feedback based on your knowledge, skills and experience, but avoid telling the photographer what to do or suggesting that this is the ‘best way’.
• Maintain a supportive tone: Aim to inspire growth and creativity, mixing praise with thoughtful recommendations.

Receiving Constructive Feedback

• Approach feedback openly: Avoid defensiveness and remember feedback is intended to help you improve.
• Review feedback carefully: Read feedback multiple times to ensure you understand what is actually stated. Avoid making assumptions about the feedback. Focus on the feedback that is clear and actionable.
• Reflect before responding: Take time to consider how the advice applies to your work, is the feedback relevant, is it achievable for you and does it fit within your intent for your image/s?
• Seek clarification: If possible, ask for examples or further explanation to better understand the feedback or seek multiple feedback from different people. There is a balance, too many opinions can be as confusing as one based on a limited or biased perspective.
• Implement where possible: Apply feedback to see if it improves your photography and art.  Sometimes you have to try it before you can decide on the merits of the recommendation/s.
• Acknowledge and appreciate feedback: Accept feedback with good intent but also recognise when to set aside advice if you are confident your vision is being achieved.

Unsolicited Feedback

Be cautious with giving unsolicited feedback. Consider the context that you are in and the potential impact of any feedback.

• If you have been asked for your opinion, thoughts or input, be  mindful of the context.  For example: is this a private one-on-one conversation, an informal chat amongst fellow photographers looking at another photographer’s images, a club meeting doing workshop review of images submitted by members, or a more formal context.
• Having ‘permission’ to provide feedback is easier where there is a formal framework and expectation. For example: in shared Folio activities, a judging or evaluating context where your image/s will be evaluated and assessed or in an agreed Mentoring or Coaching role.
• Unsolicited feedback, regardless of intent or value, is still unsolicited and risks being perceived as intrusive, judgmental, or condescending rather than helpful.

In summary

For feedback to be effective, it should be constructive, detailed, and given respectfully to support improvement and provided in a relevant forum.  Feedback should not be seen as a personal reflection on your worth as a photographer, rather it is an opportunity to receive independent, thoughtful suggestions on your photography work. Constructive feedback should be respected but it is not binding and the photographer has the final choice in how they present their images as an art form.