How to Get Past The Fear Of Sharing Your Photos
Do you feel nervous about sharing your photos with others? Do you worry that others will judge you, your skills and your creativity, and find you lacking? Do you fear that they’ll think “who does she think she is - Annie Lebowitz?!” and that somehow you’re not yet a “real” photographer, so you shouldn’t be sharing your work? 😬😬😬
If you are frantically nodding your head then you’re most definitely not alone - because I feel the same way too!
You might not know this because I share my photos every single week here on the blog, and again throughout the week on Facebook and Instagram, but that doesn’t mean that I actually enjoy doing it - it just means that I’ve gotten over the fear of sharing over the years, and feel confident that at least I love what I’m doing, even if no-one else does!
Of course, you don’t have to share your photos online if you don’t want to, and it’s perfectly fine just to create photos for your eyes only! But sharing is a wonderful way to feel part of a community too. That’s something that I think has always been important, just in terms of helping you not feel alone when learning photography, but is especially important right now as we all deal with the strain of social distancing.
It can also be very helpful to get feedback, (yes, even criticism, as long as it’s constructive!) as a second pair of eyes on your photos can be wonderfully useful, helping you see things that you missed when you took the photo, or just sparking an idea.
Plus the more you publish, the more confidence you’ll get!
So all in all, sharing is good , provided you want to do it! It will help you up your game, feel connected, and gain confidence, so let’s chat about the easiest way to get over your fear of sharing…
1) Appreciate where your lack of confidence comes from
Although we all suffer from bouts of feeling unconfident from time to time, a continued lack of confidence comes from feeling unprepared or unsure about what you are doing. If you think about it, that’s true with anything that you learn - from learning how to drive to learning a bike! You start off unsure, and the more experience you get, the more confident you feel, then the braver you get and then want to try new things!
Nobody in the history of the world has been able to pick up a camera and instantly take amazing images. And what makes it hard is that you KNOW your images are not as good as you want them to be, and there’s a gap between what you want to create and the knowledge you have.
The first thing is to make sure that you take steps to close that knowledge gap. I cannot stress enough just how much confidence you can get as a photographer, simply by knowing your craft.
So my first piece of advice is to make learning and education your number one priority, above everything else, but also just to consider where you are in your journey, and WHY that’s making you feel insecure!
If you want to make a start TODAY, be sure to grab my my FREE 90 Day Photography Learning Blueprint - it’s a complete roadmap for you to follow that shows you exactly what you need learn to get great photos, and has links to further reading in each one. This little PDF is worth its weight in gold, so go grab it now (you’ll kick yourself in about a week if you don’t!)
2) Join Facebook Groups focused on your area of photography
I think Facebook groups that are filled with like-minded souls is one of the best places to share your photos to begin with, but do make sure that it’s a group that is focused on what you photograph, and will therefore be sharing.
There are thousands of “beginner photography” groups out there, but people in there will be posting all sorts of images, and many won’t appreciate the specific struggle of getting the type of photos you take.
I know plenty of photographers who think that a “mom-tog” capturing their own families is not worthy of the term “photographer”, and that it is somehow easier than other forms of photography. Which is, quite frankly, b*llshit.
Photographing your own family means you don’t often have the luxury of time to get your settings correct or work out the best angle, you’re forced to work with the light you have, work around clutter, and I’m sure we’ve all heard the term “never work with children or animals” before and passionately realise where it came from. In short, it’s extra challenging because you really have to think on your feet!
So find yourself a group that caters for the photographer you are, and join it!
3) Look for “themed” posts to share in
Many of these groups will post prompts asking you to share your photos, which can be a gentler way to dip your toe into the water.
In our group, we often just post a prompt asking you to share any photo you’ve taken that week, and we get on average, 100 photos posted in the comments. This can be an ideal way to get over your fear of sharing, as you’re posting your photos alongside plenty of others, so you don’t feel like you’re standing out too much!
4) Ask for specific feedback
Once you feel a bit braver, you can post a photo for feedback. My advice here is not just to drop a photo and hope that people will comment, because you may not get any at all (which doesn’t feel very nice, I know!) and those you do will hardly be constructive.
So if you post a photo that you would like comments on, ASK first of all for feedback, to make sure people know you are happy to receive both positive and negative comments. Then provide specific information on what you would like feedback on.
Asking if a photo is “good” or not is subjective, and not likely to give you any great answers. So is asking “CC welcome!” It doesn’t give the person giving the critique anything to go on. To get relevant critique, do this:
Post your camera settings along with the image
Share what YOU like about it, and don’t like about it, or are not sure on
Be intentional about what you would like feedback on.
Ideally, say where you are in the stage of your photography journey
For example, a much better way to ask is something like
“What do you think about this exposure - is it too bright?” , “Is there a different angle I could have taken this from to make it more interesting?”, “Does the background detract or enhance?”, “Does this pose look awkward to you? How could I have posed them better?” “I’m working on my editing. Do the skin tones look natural to you?”
That way you won’t get a raft of negative comments on a slew of different areas of your photos, which can feel brutal, but rather they will focus more on one aspect. (And you should only be focusing on one aspect of photography at a time if you’re learning!)
Also, if you are just taking your first steps away from AUTO, mention it! If we know that this was the first photo you took on Aperture Priority Mode, then we are more likely to tailor any comments to the stage you are at.
(For example, have a private Facebook group for our Auto to Awesome students, and when they post a photo after completing the end of module two assignment for example, we don’t give critique about something that they won’t learn until Module 5!)
5) Take criticism and learn from it.
The chances are, when you post a photo, you have a fear of getting negative feedback.
The first thing to note is that if you request feedback, that feedback SHOULD point out areas that could be improved. A critique of “Nice pic!” does nobody any favours, and won’t be help in improving your photos. So never post a photo for feedback and then stress about it when people find fault - that is what they are meant to do.
It can of course be hard to hear a downside to an image that you thought was wonderful (and yes, that has happened several times to me!) but try to take the emotion out of it. Simply ask yourself - is this right? Do they have a point? Sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t, but you’ll have learnt how to appraise your own image too!
6) Realise not everyone is going to love you….and that’s OK
Not all creative work is for everyone and that’s OK. Art is subjective. Creativity is subjective. There is plenty of photographers whose work doesn’t appeal to me, even though it’s technically and creatively sound.
Now, an experienced photographer is able to look an image and not personally like it, but still be able to critique it, because they can take that emotion out of it. But for some people, they just have an instinctual reaction to it, and can’t quantify it.
So know this, just because someone doesn’t like your work doesn’t mean its not good, or not worth putting out there. If we all liked the same things the world would be a very boring place!
Over to you!
Ready to go for it?! If you are a child and family photographer, get yourself into the Live Snap Love Facebook group, and lurk for a while. Lurking is good! You can read our rules, learn that we don’t tolerate harsh words, and get used to the group before posting anything.
Then watch out for our of our posts asking you to share your photos - sometimes this is of a particular type of image (i.e share your indoor portraits) sometimes this is just whatever you took that week. Dip your toe in and see how it feels!
Once you’ve done it once, do it again, and again, and again. The more you share, the more familiar it will feel, and the more used to it you’ll get!
Let me know in the comments below how you feel about sharing your photos online. Does it scare you? Or if you are happy sharing your photos, how did you get started? We have thousands of people visit our blog each week, and your comment might just be the very thing that motivates them.
Don’t forget to download your FREE 90 Day Photography Learning Blueprint before you go too: there is so much goodness in this little PDF that you’ll definitely want this with you on your photography journey. Grab it here:
