Critique your own work.
I've been doing street photography for about 3 years now and over that time, my work has gotten leaps and bounds better than it was when I started (at least I'd hope so). Now by no means do I think I'm some insanely good photographer who everyone should be taking advice from, but I wanted to share something that I attribute a lot of my growth to and if you're feeling creatively stuck and stagnant, this advice may be able to help you and that is objectively critiquing and reflecting on your own work.
(This should go without saying, but you don't need to like MY work in order for this idea to relate to you.)
Also, if you're someone who only does photography purely as a hobby to document daily life and you don't necessarily care about "getting better", that's perfectly fine. However, this advice isn’t meant for you.
Alright let's dive in.
Critiquing your own work can be hard.
I totally get it. You spend a lot of time and money to pursue this craft. We all do. But if you want to grow at it, you need to be brave enough to emotionally separate yourself from your photos.
It’s tough, but it's necessary.
When you're just starting out with photography and you inevitably start sharing your work to social media, after finding an audience or a community, you'll get feedback, and most of the time, that feedback will be positive. Now this is great. Take it from me— there's nothing I love more than being complimented on the work I share. We all love it, and rightfully so. Getting complimented gives us a push to continue pursuing whatever it is we're doing, whether that is photography or something else.
On the flip side, I also think that this can potentially be detrimental in certain ways. From my experience, Instagram is one of the biggest contributing factors that stops people from looking at their own work objectively because it can be an echo chamber of positivity. Now this is all just speculation, but I think people become comfortable in their work because of all this praise that they get on social media, and so they just continue in their ways and don't see the need for improvement or change. Why would you, right? Other people are liking your work, and that feels good. But do YOU like your own work? Or are you avoiding the effort it takes to get better because you already get positive feedback?
Obviously, it's never a good idea to be rude to someone or give unsolicited advice/criticism on their work. However, even when on the receiving end of very mild criticism, I have seen people react quite angrily. Now I think it takes a certain level of maturity to actually take the mild criticism into consideration, even though it may not have been asked for (if the criticism comes from a place of anger, you should absolutely ignore it). There's a time and place for constructive criticism, and I don't think Instagram is that place. If you, the artist, want to seek out critique from others, I would recommend privately reaching out to someone whose work you admire and asking if they could spare some time to provide honest and raw feedback to help you improve. They may say yes or they may say no, but it's worth a shot. You could also join online photography groups to seek that out.
However, very few people will do this, and that's why I think reflection and objective self-critique is that much more important for growth.
It’s a process.
A question you can start with is, “Do I like this image because it's objectively good, or because someone else told me they liked it?”
I've caught myself doing this countless times. It's a really hard thing to shake. Of course, I'm not saying you should ignore people who like your work. That's awesome and you should be proud of that, but at the end of the day, art is subjective. What one person likes, another may not. Therefore, it might be a good idea to ask yourself if YOU like it. Is it a compositionally sound image? Does it evoke an emotion from the viewer? Does it ask questions? Are the colors eye-catching?
It's easy to take something positive that people say and run with that. You should accept their compliment, but don't let that be the reason you decide to stop evolving. If someone told you they didn't like your work, are you going to let that stop you from taking photos? Probably not. But if someone tells you they DO like your work, that shouldn't stop you from wanting to get better, either.
Something important to note is that self-critique isn't exactly necessary after every photo you take or every time you come home from being out shooting. You need to give yourself time to experiment and practice and after a longer period of time, if you feel yourself getting into a bit of a lull, that's when you should take a step back and ask yourself what you can do to try and change things up. For some that might be experimenting with a new piece of gear. Others will travel to find new inspiration. These are all valid things and things that I've done.
Obviously, you won't improve solely from self-critique. You need to spend time actually taking photos, experiencing life, trying new methods and gear and editing techniques, etc. However, if you're able to look at your own work objectively, without any emotional attachment to an image or series of images, you will start to notice things you like about your work as well as things you don't like about it, and that will help you lean into the things you do well and continue to build on them, as well as acknowledge the areas you want to improve on.
In addition to that, it's also crucial to recognize the difference between being burnt out/unmotivated and feeling stagnant in your work. Sometimes, life takes over and you can't give as much attention to photography as you'd like. You may be shooting a lot less because of other things going on in your life that you have to give your attention to, but even if you're not improving because you're not shooting, you can still help yourself by looking at your work and asking yourself what areas you'd like to get better at. That way, when you are able to go out and shoot, you're a step ahead of your past self.
Critique and reflection
There’s a difference between reviewing your work and picking it apart. While criticism isn’t necessarily an inherently negative thing, it’s often seen as such. However, when it comes to reflection and reviewing, the focus is more on looking at your work as a whole, not for the purpose of finding flaws, but instead to learn/discover things you may not have noticed in the past. Are there patterns to your work? Are there certain themes/elements that you find to be present in some of your favorites photos? By looking back at the work you’ve created in the past couple months or in the past year, you open yourself up to noticing themes or photos that you might’ve overlooked because you never took the time to look at your images from a broader perspective.
One example of something that I gained through reflection was my current project, "Facades". A few months ago, I was scrolling through my Lightroom catalog trying to curate a photo set for Instagram. I looked through so many photos that didn't catch my attention because they weren't up to the standard that I had for myself back then. But during this catalog deep-dive, I noticed a repeating theme, which was a specific compositional approach that I really enjoyed shooting. After putting all these photos together onto a blank canvas in photoshop, I realized I had the basis of a long-term project that I’ve been shooting for quite some time already. Without taking time to comb through my work and look back at the images I've created over those past few months, I might've never come up with the idea for this project, or it might have come to me much later.
It’s a bumpy road.
There are always going to be peaks and valleys in your photo journey. You'll have high points where you're really happy with what you're creating, and you'll have low points where you hate every photo you've ever taken. This is completely normal. The most important thing is to remain level-headed. It takes a certain level of maturity to understand that you're not perfect, and neither are your photographs, and neither are anyone else's. Don't strive for perfection, because you'll never achieve that and you'll let yourself down. Strive for small improvements over time, because at least then, you can't be disappointed that you didn't try. At the end of the day, you’re showing your own unique way of seeing. No one can take that away from you.
Don't forget to celebrate the wins either. If your work wins an award or is recognized by one of your idols, or even just admired by a special person to you, you should absolutely be proud of that. As important as growth is, it's also equally as important to take a step back and look at your progress.
This is a repeating cycle, so you have to learn to love it.
This pack is a collection of 6 different presets that I use to edit my photos, including 5 color looks and 1 monochromatic look. If you’re looking for presets that give you rich, bold colors and deep shadows, this is the pack for you.