Template for a good critique...

I saw this form on a site that sells stock photos and thought it was an

effective guide to critiquing shots-even if you just gave each point it's own

3-7 rating...on that thought, since 1s & 2s aren't allowed, why don't they just

make it 1 through 4?

Composition:

Creativity / Originality:

Depth of Field / Focus

Color or Tonal Range:

Noise or Grain:

Exposure / Lighting:

Tells a Story:

Dramatic Effect:

Interesting idea, although I think I read that Philip plans to phase out the rating system, so it may not prove necessary.

Why not make it 1 through 4 - well, we'd just end up with countless posts asking "why was this photo rated 1"? - kinda like people do now with 3s, but probably worse, due to the psychological difference between 1 and 3, even if they represent the same thing.

I wonder if an opt-in type system could be applied, where the user can choose to take part in rating in a system such as yours that requires a little more time and (hopefully) thought. Photo's rated in such a way would be the ones in all the default top photo galleries. Perhaps even require comments to be made relevant to each rating field. Users have to give a certain number of useful critiques before they are allowed to submit photo's to this pool - say 100 critiques, too high for the "wow" commentators, but a useful enough size to determine those that are serious are joining in the advanced rating game.

And for those who don't want to spend so much time, keep the current system, but make the resulting galleries less prominent.