Share a photo in an online community, and you’ll likely receive all kinds of feedback. Some will offer praise; others will point out flaws. But there’s one skill many photographers overlook—one that could hold the key to making your work stronger.
The Critique: A Foundational Skill
As photographers, we often spend our energy chasing the next shot—planning, waiting, composing, and capturing. But there’s another essential part of creating great images that often gets overlooked: critiquing your own work. Not just scanning your images for flaws, but reviewing them in a way that leads to real growth.
Self-critique is a skill, and like photography itself, it improves with practice. It’s not about being hard on yourself—it’s about being honest, curious, and purposeful.
What a Critique Is
At its core, a critique is an analytical exercise. It’s the process of stepping back from the emotional connection you have to an image and examining it with a critical but constructive eye. When you critique, you’re asking: What’s working here? What isn’t? And most importantly—why?
This process is where growth happens. When done thoughtfully, a critique can reveal patterns in your work, habits you didn’t know you had, and specific ways to push yourself forward. By exercising this skill, you are able to build on top of your current abilities. You can empower yourself to generate stronger images. And you can get excited about trying new approaches.
What a Critique Is Not
A critique is not a checklist of errors. It’s not a litany of everything you “did wrong” and how you failed in the most epic way possible. Nor is it the time to imagine a wildly different context from the one in which you took the photo. If three steps to the left would’ve put you off the pier or cliff, then that’s just the reality of it! So you're not rewriting the photograph or dreaming up an impossible one. You’re evaluating the image that exists.
It’s also not a time to indulge in creative play—that part comes earlier, when you're out shooting or editing. During critique, your goal is clarity, not invention.
A Straightforward Approach to Critiques
So how do you critique your own work in a grounded, productive way? Here’s the step-by-step approach I’ve developed through my design and photography work. It isn’t particularly complicated, but it can take some practice to get used to. Don’t shy away if it feels a bit weird at first!
Get Into the Right Mindset
Start by acknowledging that your emotional connection to a photo—especially the memory of capturing it—can cloud your judgment. That sunrise hike or unexpected wildlife encounter might still be fresh in your mind, but it doesn’t automatically make the resulting photo effective.
That connection isn’t something to discard—it’s part of why we make images in the first place. But for the purpose of critique, you’ll need to temporarily set it aside. The same is true of the amount of effort you put into a photo, whether in the field or while editing. Once you’ve finished reviewing the image, I would strongly encourage you to revive your emotional connection with it. A critique does not take away value from your work!
Instead of approaching the photo from the connection you already have with it, open yourself up to small hypotheticals related to its content. Ask “what if” questions without needing immediate answers. Let curiosity lead.
As a quick side note, as you become more comfortable with critiques, you may choose to incorporate them as a regular part of your workflow. You don’t need to view every photo you take through this lens—although you definitely can! However, when starting out with the technique, I recommend setting aside focused time to critique photos.
Select the Photo(s)
Choose one or two images that you want to work with. It could be one from a recent photo shoot that you feel unsure about, or it could be revisiting a photo from the past to see how you feel about it now. You may even choose work from another photographer to see what you can learn from it. No matter where the material comes from, don’t limit yourself based on how successful you feel the final image is—all of them offer opportunities to learn and grow!
Follow the Three-Part Critique
Step 1: Determine the Photo’s Purpose
Why did you take this image? What caught your eye, and what were you hoping to convey? Was it mood, story, shape, light, or texture? Was there a particular feeling or experience you wanted to elicit in the viewer?
Try to define this clearly. The more specific you can be, the easier the rest of the critique becomes.
Step 2: Explore the Photo’s Elements
Immerse yourself in the image. Look at the light, the subject, and compositional aspects like patterns, leading lines, or the arrangement of the scene. For each element, ask: Does this support the purpose of the photo? If it does, how? If not, why not?
Be as honest as you can be. Avoid layering on information you remember from when you captured it, such as physical constraints of the location. This is the time to focus simply on the photo in front of you and what it shows.
Step 3: Brainstorm Fixes or Solutions
For the elements that aren’t working, ask yourself how you could transform them so that they support the photo’s purpose. Are there post-processing adjustments that could alleviate or fix an identified issue? Do some of the image’s weaknesses require a reshoot to fix the composition or to capture different conditions?
Be sure to keep your brainstorming grounded in reality. Some aspects of the scene might be determined by the location itself. You’re unlikely to be able to move a mountain, or make one appear, for example. While you may be able to apply some of the fixes directly, others might be better suited to bring to bear on future photos.
Putting the Critique to Work
Once you’ve surfaced some ideas, take a step back to evaluate them. The real value in a critique is the lessons it teaches by seeing what can be improved, and—importantly—how you might be able to make those improvements. That said, not all the ideas you generated in the step above will be worth doing.
When deciding what fixes to try out, measure the outcome of each one against the purpose of the photo you identified earlier. You want to hone the image to support that vision better. Some changes won’t be worth it. Others may negatively impact the photo by hurting one of the aspects that was already working.
Sometimes you may feel that a photo’s intent would be better communicated by different weather conditions or a different season. Maybe you see potential in a slightly different composition. If you’re able to reshoot in your desired scenarios, that’s great! But if you’re critiquing a photo from a once-in-a-lifetime trip, then this is obviously off the table. Instead of feeling like you missed out, use that understanding to look for similar opportunities in other locations during those favored conditions.
While this article focuses on self-critique, don’t underestimate the value of seeking input from others. A trusted community of photographers can see your work in ways you might not, and their perspectives can unlock new ideas or directions. Consider their feedback, and also keep in mind that, at the end of the day, this is your art, and what should change is ultimately up to you. Even if you decide that the photo is completely fine as it is, going through the critique process will help you understand why you believe that, and will give you lessons to leverage on future photo shoots.
Final Thoughts
Critiquing your own work is a quiet but powerful act. The more often you do it, the more in tune you’ll become with your creative instincts, as you’ll understand your tendencies as a photographer. You’ll begin to craft stronger images. And by helping you recognize your strengths and uncover your weaknesses, it will empower you to move forward with greater intention on your photographic journey.
Do you critique your own images? Do you find it helpful? Is it easier or harder for you than critiquing the work of others? Let’s discuss in the comments below!
I am probably my own harshest critic. Taking a picture is probably the easiest part, but during the process of editing and printing, the success or failure of the image becomes far more apparent. Going back a step, I found it incredibly helpful when beginning my journey in photography to sit down with a more accomplished photographer who I admired, and have them pick my prints apart, from details like sharpening to bigger things like lighting and composition. So many novice photographers don't even see half the things in their pictures, beyond just the main subject, that an experienced photographer will see.
And it's not so important to judge, as it is to simply point out what we see in another person's picture. In other words, one person's distractions may have been the other person's reason for making the picture. Everyone seemingly wants to crop someone else's image. So much is subjective. But a strong analytical diagnosis of a picture is a good approach to improving one's work.
One thing I often say to novice photographers (having been repeated many times by others long before me) is that if you're not happy with your pictures, get closer to your subject. And then they'll say something like they wanted to show context. To them, it's all interesting stuff; to me it just adds to the clutter. So quite often, there's no agreement on what constitutes a strong photo, but it's good to have your images critiqued in order to understand how other people see them... if you care. It can be enlightening, and humbling. Eventually you learn to live with your own decisions. And it's always good to remember that if you don't agree with someone else's critique, we don't need to lash out or get in a brawl over it. Simply say thank-you and take it for what it's worth.
Very true Ed Kunzelman! It's hard to critique your own photos when you're just starting out. I do think it's still a good skill to start practicing even early on, so that you get used to doing it. Practicing it can then also help engage with critiques from more experienced photographers, because you're able to turn those into more of a dialogue. You'll be able to say "well I hear your feedback, but I was trying to accomplish this and I'm not sure what you're saying helps," which can lead to a deeper discussion around certain aspects of your work.
I agree though, at the end of the day it is still your own work, and it's completely up to you what feedback you take on board and what you don't.
Thanks for your comment and insights!