Time-Lapse Photography Art and Techniques by Mark Higgins

progression and confidence. Photographers will react to feedback in different ways. The learning
progression often reflects how confident the image-maker feels at that time. If a photographer has lost
confidence in their work it can really slow progress down. Conversely, if a positive comment has
been made about a piece of work, it can boost the production and quality of their work. The main
thing is to be ambitious and always be positive whatever happens.
Feedback at all stages
It is good to recognize that feedback can be obtained at any stage. You might want to seek an opinion
when the idea for a project is initially conceived, or you may only want feedback at the end of the
process when it is completed. Of course not everyone seeks to gain the opinion of others; you may
simply be creating work for your own pleasure and therefore you are your own critic. If you have
chosen this route then it will be worth researching your chosen subject area online or in a library to
get inspiration in this way.
Who is your feedback from?
Feedback can be obtained from anyone you know i.e. family and friends, but also it can be obtained
from someone you do not know online. Whoever the feedback is from, for it to be useful we need to
put it into context. Whether the comments are made by a professional photographer or your nan, both
parties can provide constructive feedback, but some feedback may be useless or irrelevant.
The most appropriate feedback is from the people that your imagery is aimed at, i.e. the target
audience. If you are producing a piece of work for a business, then speak to them and get an idea of
what they deem as appropriate; get them to show you examples. If it is not aimed at any specific
audience and you are posting your work online, then the viewer demographic could be much more
varied.
Most of us will assume that we need feedback from people with a high skill-set within the
photography field. However, sometimes honest opinion from someone totally unrelated and with no
experience in the subject can be helpful and illuminating. It is easy to spend so much time learning
about a subject and then forgetting to take a step back and look at your work from other people’s
points of view.
Using feedback
Once you have received feedback, it is worth recording and reviewing it every so often to use it
effectively, otherwise some valuable information might be forgotten. There could be comments on
technical information or creative opinions. Categorize these different aspects of the feedback into
‘technical’ and ‘creative’ and use it to progress your work. Technical feedback could be aspects to do
with focusing, shutter speed or aperture settings, for example. Creative feedback would be comments
that are based more on feelings, composition or subject matter. There could well be a suggestion that
opens the door to a huge project for you, or someone may point out a button on the camera that you
have never used before.
INSPIRATION AND IDEAS