Recipe for great photos?????

Rick Meyer

Rick Meyer

Veteran
When it comes to great photography...one thing I always wondered...

Do great photos come from:

A)great subject matter.
B)a photographer that creates something from nothing.
C)a photographer that has to build its subject togther (aka annie leibowitz).
D) All of the above.

?????
 
I understand your replies however it doesnt quite answer the question. Sure a good photographer gets GREAT shots! However, how is he or she doing this? By creating shots? Capturing what is already there?
 
You can get great shots both ways depending on the type of work the person is doing. A photojournalist or editorial photographer captures what is already there. A commercial or fine art photographer often sets up shots. Either way, there are two basic ingredients to a great shot:

1. Technical aesthetics (focus and exposure are correct, lighting looks good, etc.)
2. Composition (framing, subject placement and focal length choice)

#1 is easy to do once you learn the techniques of photography. It's just simple technical skills. #2 is much harder because it's the unexplainable creative side where there is literally an infinite number of ways you can choose to frame or set up a shot by either including something or excluding it. There are some basic rules of composition like the rule of thirds, but the main thing I've noticed is that all great photos are very simple. Check out the news photos on the MSN Photo of the Week or magazines or other publications and you'll notice that the photos always avoid clutter and always try to focus on basic graphic forms and shapes or colors.
 
Photojournalist is a hunter, seeing, anticipating what is going to happen. There is also rhythm, movement in that line of work.

Studio photographers are more like painters, they see the picture in their mind and use photography as a tool to make that picture a reality.

Those two disciplines are so far apart that I do not know any photographers who are good (or great) at both.
 
There's one thing that remains constant with "great photograph-y and that's "vision" of some sort. Execution can be more a matter of luck.

A great photographe-er is not only a person with vision, but one who knows how achieve that vision. This applies to the whole continuum from creative to journalistic.


My 2 c
 
Personally I think that a great shot is the result of the photographer looking to say something when he snaps the shutter. Next time you go out to shoot make that image create a story for the viewer.
Achieving success usually is the result of experience, equipment and skill, but not always. I recently shot a video of a wedding and the photographer lacked all of the above....but the images from his $400 point and shoot could make you laugh or make you cry!
 
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