009 - March 26, 2010 -- What makes a good picture?
Answering your questions: “What Makes a Good Picture- part 1)
This question comes from Bill in Elma – and what a great question! It sets up the subjects for the next several articles on aspects of digital photography. When asked what makes a good picture, I immediately started listing qualities found in good photos. My list took up about 2 pages – too long for here. However, at the top of my list was composition; I’ll discuss more of my list in later articles.
I was still listing qualities when I started to think about the really good photos I’ve seen that actually ignore one or more of my listed qualities. So I asked myself what makes the difference between an okay photo and a really good photograph. While the really good photo probably has many of my listed qualities, it will have one underlying basic quality: a good photograph grabs your attention and usually stirs the emotion. Quality is in the eye of the beholder and we would like our photos to appeal to the widest base possible. So --- here’s some of my suggestions.
In the works of master painters and sculptures, and in advertising, the goal is to provide an initial focal point and then draw the eye to other areas in the work. After the eye is drawn around in a visual tour of other spots in the work, it’s drawn back to the starting point to start all over again. In advertising, the goal is to get your eye to linger on the display for an extra 2/10ths of a second; or better yet, to get you to turn back a page to see what attracted your eye as you leafed through the magazine.
So when we take a picture, what do we want the viewer to focus on first? The initial focal point usually will be in very sharp camera focus and may seem a little bigger and brighter than other details in the photo. Avoid multiple bright areas as they tend to compete with the main focal point, pulling the viewers attention away and, as a result, weaken the impact of the photo.
Likewise, busy backgrounds can work against the quality of a photo. If something in the background is incongruous with the subject, the eye travels to that spot and stalls, and then has trouble returning to the focal point and continuing its tour. An excellent example of incongruity (which I won’t show) was a photo of a shiny object that was for sale on eBay; the person photographing the object managed to catch their own reflection – without many clothes on – in the photo. Needless to say, as the photo toured the email circuits, most viewers remembered the reflection, but couldn’t tell you much about the object (maybe it helped sell the object more quickly, though).
To enhance the subject as the focal point, keep the backgrounds uncluttered and maybe a little darker. Controlling f-stop by shooting at a lower shutter speed and ISO setting will allow the background to be slightly out of focus and also helps avoid diverting extra attention away from the primary subject. After the eye wanders across the soft focus area, it will naturally be drawn back to the sharp focus subject. Soft focus can also help generate a little mystery around the background [see Illustration 009-1linked to this article on my web site]. (If you missed it, ISO and f-stop were subjects of the 4th article and are also posted on my website.)
When photographing an individual, make the subject more important by focusing on the eyes. A catch light detail from a bright light or flash can help focus attention to the eyes [Illustration 009-2]. Make a group photo more successful by giving each person their own space or make small groupings based on relationship [Illustration 009-3]. With a nature photo, focus on the aspect that attracted you to take that photo in the first place [Illustration 009-4]. A commerce photo for marketing needs to isolate the object very clearly so there’s no mistaking what’s for sale. A photo illustrating architecture or landscaping needs to be well lighted and focused, with lines and shapes leading us through a visual tour of the photos [Illustration 009-5].
In great photos, several qualities come together to make the viewer look again and maybe linger on the photo. A great series of questions to ask yourself as you look at your pictures are: Why do I like this picture? Why do I dislike this picture? If I could, how would I change this picture?
Digital photography gives us a wonderful advantage over film; we can take a picture and see it immediately. If we don’t like it, we can recompose the picture and take it again. As we study the pictures for why we like / dislike them, we’ll gradually start to see patterns that add or detract strength from the photo.
Tips #1: Focus your camera so the subject in your photo has the sharpest focus.
Tip #2: When you review your photos, pick out for showing one or two photos of each subject that really catches your attention.
Tip#3: Watch for patterns of shapes and colors - lines that can give strong composition in your photos.
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