The tutorial below was originally written by Nicolas Marino in a forum thread about how to critique photos effectively. It has been widely praised, so we have copied it into this thread: 

There are several tips I can give you. I will start with the most important one which is spending the right time observing and evaluating and image. The more you concentrate on an image, even on those which in the beginning you might think you have nothing to say about, the more you will start finding things you could say about it. 

Bear in mind that nobody demands you to be a professional giving critique. Start from where you are and base yourself on the things you think you are confident enough to say. Also, you don't need to pinpoint everything, just simply point out the things that you think are the important things to say about the image. For example, maybe you see a photo with focus and coloring problems, and in your opinion you might think you can provide better judgment about either of those, then just focus your critique on those. 

Now, with all this in mind, then the rest is easy. I will give you a basic and common structure for a good critique. (this is how it was for me in architecture school where each of us had to do this exercise three times a week ,criticizing our classmates' projects) 

First you start pointing out the good things you see about a photo, you tell the things you think that are working fine, and also it is important that you express what is it about those things that make you like that image, the things that attract and appeal to you. Starting with the pluses is a very important thing to do, it creates good predisposition in the author you are critiquing so he can bear the minuses part better. There might be cases where you think everything is wrong about a photo and you don't like absolutely anything, in that case you could express why you feel that (in a polite and gentle way) 

Second, you begin with the flaws. These can be compositional, technical, problems with the message, the story, the post processing and things that are making the photograph or the photographer's intention to fail. Here it is crucial that you explain why you think this or that is not working.  So once again, for every thing you find, for every WHAT, you have to follow it with a WHY. Pointing out flaws has to be done careful though. You have to be delicate and subtle in the way you say the negative things. Any critique on any artistic manifestation hurts deep inside the artist's soul, very easily. Not that artists are fragile creatures but they are usually more sensible. 

Third, the last part involves your active part, you are not the observer any more, now you are helping this photographer become better so you come up with your ideas for improvement. For all of the things you pointed until this stage, you can start providing suggestions to make them better, to fix them. From a photoshop tip, to a placement of a focus point, to the POV, etc. Tell the photographer how he can make those flaws that you found, better. One critical thing to consider when doing this, and this is not easy, is to put your mind in the photographer's mind-frame, because you need to help him develop and improve his own idea, not yours. Don't tell him blue is better if he is aiming to convey warmth because that will deflect him from his concept and will confuse him. This takes practice and experience but keep it in mind when providing critique. This is like teaching somebody how to fly on his own, they have to do it their way with your help, but you cannot do it for them, your way. 

And last but not least, I will tell you the most underestimated feature of critique. Most people are under the impression that receiving critique is the only way that will help them improve their photography that's why we very often see people rushing through, making short and pretty useless comments on other's photos. Well, WRONG! nothing could be further away from reality. The constant exercise of reviewing images with close attention sharpens your ability to see and understand photography better (ideally you are coupling this with reading books on photography and composition on the side), it helps you improve your own skills. Through critiquing others you will then be able to appreciate your own work in a different way, thus you'll be able to be self-critical about yourself which is one of the most important things as well, and something you should strive for to eventually develop your own vision. Apart from giving, there is also reading. Read other people's critiques. You have the luck to be able to read and see what many other pairs of eyes see and think about the same image, it will not only help you learn critique better but you will also see things that you hadn't been able to see yourself, this will broaden your horizons. 

To sum it up...for critique you always need to point at WHAT first, explain WHY after and tell HOW in the end. Bear in mind, it is not about quantity but quality. It doesn't matter how long you write, what matters is that you comply with those three basic questions and answers.
 
The critique exercise of READING, GIVING and ultimately RECEIVING are all equally important in the process of becoming a better photographer/artist. 

Hope this helps and if you ever have further doubts, don't hesitate to contact the moderator team in http://1x.com/about

Cheers!

Ralf,

this should be included in the FAQ in Critiquing, or at least on the front of the Critique page before you start....it is really good

Thanks, the moderators have updated the critique guidelines here: http://1x.com/#!/critique/guidelines

By the way, we have implemented some changes to critique.

Hello Ralf,

good to provide these guidelines for giving good critiques - for me the critique forum is one of the jewels of this website and I try to be as active as possible.

When I joined a little over a year ago, I was first imtimidated giving critiques, but I learnt a lot by just reading other people's critiques. I slowly become better and better and was very motivated by the Critique of the Week (COTW) award.
When we moved to the new 1x look this award was unfortunately dropped - can you explain why?  I am sure that if it worked to motivate me as well it would motivate others?

What I also liked was that the winning critique was linked in the forum and served as a good example in what constitutes a good critique.

Guido

COTW was discontinued because of lack of time, but the moderator team are looking for new ways to create something similar, so stay tuned!

I will make further and small tweaks in the coming days not only to update it but also to make it even more clear and useful. I will add those tweaks straight into the original text above.

Needless to say I am glad you find it useful.

 

Excellent, thanks a lot Nicolas!

Which is it to be? A bit of ambiquity perhaps.

John, in case of artists like You, no one needs any limits. You are right.
 In most other cases not unfortunatel, and so we hope to increase the quality by forcing to find words and thoughts.

Great guidelines. Helps me a lot in our monthly club competitions as well. Thanks for a splendid post

Don't take any notice of me Christoph, I was only being obstropolous......

is that your monster-of-loch-ness dialect John???  ;)  what in the world does that mean??

and You succeded John :-) we hear it :-)

Nic: to be loud and noisy (I googled, it seems to be a non dictionary form of the word obstreprous)

Its a dialectal variant of the word obstreperous, meaning making things difficult just for the sake of it. This is where the word "stroppy" comes from.

Applies to a lot of folk in 1X forums......

;-)

Personal opinion:

Good point, we will take that into special consideration!

How i can uploud my phot to Critique

> Critique (menu on top) > Upload a photo for critique.

Hi there, 

Hello Semmick

it is absolutely Yours, wether You start with a compliment, end with a compliment or do not do any compliment at all.
It is up to You how to write Your critique. What You read are ideas, explainations, guidelines.

You can only use compliments or only use critiques. Or mix them up however You like. As long as You do not offend but stay polite all is possible and usual.

What counts is, to tell the reasons, to tell w h y You think or feel  what You think or feel. To describe that in depth. To make a more detailed analysis

Christoph

one addition:


 I too belong to those, who mention the positives in the beginnign and at the end. I do that, to make it easier to accept my thoughts, and because it is important to me to convey, that I like the image (if I do) and what I like in them. To only read negatives is not easy to accept, and If I only have negatives to offer, I have to ask myself, whether I really understood the image or the author correctly, and thereby whether my critique really might be helpful for him/her at all-.

Hi Semmick,

Hi Semmik,

 Christoph and Frédéric already pointed it out but since I am the author of that "guide" I will tell you first, that there isn't a right or wrong way. If you read carefully, I specifically explain the logic behind the order I suggest but that is by no means a universal structure. If you think it is better to start with the negative then do it because it is absolutely acceptable as well. Go as you feel as long as you provide the reasons why you say waht you say.

Hi,

The number of critiques posted for a photograph depends on several things, and I personally think 3 to 4 critiques are kind of good. Imposing a lower limit of 70 words and insisting upon quality and not quantity is a pretty good strategy for maximizing the efficiency.

However, there are a lot more people who just saw the photograph and had useful thoughts, but did not really write anything because they had only one important point to make (<70 words)... or they may have had a language issue, or they did not have enough time to compose a paragraph and type it.. or they were on their mobile devices and just did not have an easy keyboard.... whatever the reason may be, their thoughts could not be recorded.

Is there any other way to take that useful information from the members of the community? These comments could be classified as "short comments" or it could just be categorical rating. And of course no credits for such short comments.

mano

mano, you can always use the member´s wall or the OEmail for short comments. Critique is only for in-depth commentaries. We want to keep the place not only professional but also to serve as a great resource for learning photography.That is only possible if we contribute in a throrough way.
Short comments might be good but do not qualify as critique, thus they are not allowed.  

Hello Mano, first of all thanks for Your thoughts. What we primarily try to achieve is indeed quality. And unfortunately we had to experience more than twice ;-) that the slogan "quantity is not quality" is not more than that. And as the (am I allowed to say) poor comments in more than 90% have been the short ones, we decided to set a limit. Yes, it is possible to give valuable help in 12 words. But if you see, that we want to read the "why", thisnis nearly impossible to achieve in less words. Therefore we decided, that it is much better to loose the may be 3 valuable but unexplained "short comments" but to moderate hundreds of poor comments. As far as language is concerned, I read that over and over again. First the more sarcastic thought one may have is, "if I am unable to articulate what I really think, can that be helpful at all?". Not my sight. Therefore I became active and organised a helping community of volunteering translators of nearly all and most important languages represented here, where everyone can address to. It is linked in top text of critique, linked in forum and in guideline. It is linked in explaination of agree before posting and it is linked in the information OEMail, everyone receives, whose comment is deleted. So there should be no problem at all. I hope, I could explain a bit, why it is the way it is Christoph