People with experience. A lot of people on subreddits tnat are for critiquing photographs typically have a bit of experience that they can pass on. Even if they aren’t experienced, they can give another perspective on how the photo could be improved or how they would have taken it.

If you think Google is more reliable than people in regards to photography, I would find your qualifications to be questionable. It’s a useful tool but it isn’t better than real critique from real people.

You never said it outright but saying novice photographers posting instead of googling some answers insinuates that they at least annoy you and can go as far as they shouldn’t, especially when you propose the alternative is a Google search.

Google can’t look at the photograph and tell you what’s wrong. It can tell you about the rule of thirds, the golden spiral and what composition is but it can’t give proper critique like we as a community can

Having the outlook that newer photographers shouldn’t or don’t deserve to share their photography to get some advice is really snotty, and not a good look.

They can be so mean sometimes.

Several times on some subreddits, a beginner asks for critique on a photo and people act as if they had acid poured on their eyes. It’s cruel.

Is the photo stunning? Most of the time, not really. Does that mean they shouldn’t get some advice? No!

Telling them to delete the post, or not being constrictive with their criticism is just unfair.

With beginners, I always try and be positive. If they ask for my advice, I’ll tell them what’s good about their photograph as well as the not so good, in a constructive way.

“The use of shallow depth of field is lovely, but maybe next time try a few different angles as I think some of them could maybe make the photo really good. Don’t be afraid to experiment with moving closer or further away.”

They’re new, so we shouldn’t hold them to the standards of more experienced photographers. It takes guts to even show your photography to the world.

I have 2.

The first is people thinking their photograph is good because they took it. Now of course if you like your photograph, you like it and that’s fine. But if you ask for my opinion and don’t like my answer, that’s on you. I’m critiquing the photograph, not you as an individual. Also advice or opinions, especially unwanted ones, are

I always try and be positive in my critique and not point out solely what I might not like about the photograph. It is amazing that you went out and took the photograph in the first place, not everyone does that so it’s great that you’re trying to improve. But take in what people have to say if you asked for advice.

The second is people acting as if beginner photographers should be expected to produce stunning photographs. Some absolutely have taken amazing photos but most will produce photographs that might not look the best. I saw on some other subreddits how mean some more experienced photographers can be to newer ones.

Someone put up a photograph for people to critique. That takes balls and instead of people critiquing it, they just bullied the person. By no means should you not give valid critique, especially if they’re new and want to improve but I find some people are really mean with their “critique”.

Always point out what’s good about the photo as well as what’s wrong, so they can better understand what they’re doing right and wrong. Some people forget they were a beginner at some point, don’t think just because you got good doesn’t mean that you get to be cruel to beginners.