These emails come with the intent of helping you be a better photographer. But if you're tired of hearing from me, unsubscribe.

And if you want more photography stuff to read, there's a place on the interwebs where past emails I wrote are stored. You'll find 'em in the "Newsletter Hub."

Remember, I'd like to know what you want to know about photography. So, if you have any questions, email me at sam@samdamico.com. And for what it's worth. When you send me an email, unless someone's lookin' over my shoulder, I'm the only one that sees it.

Hello, .

We look to have our work critiqued for different reasons.

Some photographers look for validation, and some look to improve their work.

A critique based on improving our work is the best kind of critique.

But be careful because some comments are useless to us.

Especially those that offer nothing more than an opinion.

At its base, a photography critique is a deconstruction of a photograph. We can divide this into two types: factual and opinionated. 

On one hand, a factual photography critique is nothing more than describing the elements of composition.

A factual critique is simply an objective deconstruction of the picture and defining the photograph's composition elements and their effective or ineffective use.

For example, do the visual effects of our choice of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and other options support our composition intent? 

We should always do this as a self-critique immediately after creating a photograph. 

Self-critiquing is always helpful because it allows us to evaluate our work and provides guidance on improving our photography. 

On the other hand, an opinionated photography critique is nothing more than an uninformed opinion of one photographer about another photographer's work.

Additionally, opinionated critiques are helpful ONLY if the person giving the analysis involves the person asking for the critique.

Specifically, the person giving the analysis/critique should ask the person requesting the critique what their intent of communication was when creating the photograph and what precisely does not communicate what we intended. 
 

I can't say enough about the importance of self-critique.

Learning this skill is transformative in terms of our process and outcome.
 

The connection is that when we deconstruct our picture into its compositional elements, we see where we visually fell short regarding our communication intent.

This process is how we see our strengths AND weaknesses as photographers regarding our camera operation and our misunderstanding of the light we photograph.

And knowing what we don't know is as important as knowing what we do know. 

You can learn to use your camera in aperture and shutter priority modes by taking the Getting To Know Your Camera class or with a private lesson.

If you'd like to work in manual exposure mode, you can register for the  Introduction to Photography class or with a series of four hours of private lessons.

Whatever you wanna do, I'll be here to help you be a better photographer.

I'll help you be a better photographer—study and practice photography with me. 

Currently scheduled classes are below.

Smaller classes mean better learning, so class sizes are limited to 5 participants plus me.

But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker, so sign up soon. 

And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group classes? Private in-person or online lessons suited to your schedule are always an option. 

And remember, we learn and improve by doing, so practice making at least one picture daily.

That's all for now; thanks for reading! 

Sam