What Makes a Good Photo?

Group List:

• Focus
• Have a subject
• Lighting
• Meaning
• Angles
• Quality
• Emotion
• Proportionate

I learned from this photographer’s blog is that many photographers have different thoughts as to what is the most important thing about a photograph. Some people had said the same thing, but others had different ideas as to what makes a good photo. Almost all the qualities were intangible. No one had said that you need a good camera, or a special eye for this kind of thing. As Clare Absolon said, “I don’t believe that you need to be a professional to take a good photograph; as long as you have a grasp of the composition…”

Many of these artists had said that the most important quality of a photo is that it has a story to tell. The photo shows just a snapshot of life, but there is an entire story behind it. The photo needs to engage the viewer and tell half the story. Some photographers said that it needs to be emotional. Some stories are emotional, and to tell an emotional story through a photo, there needs to be emotion in the picture itself. Every story means something, and with the proper lighting, that story can be told. Many photographers said that lighting is very important because it can take just an ordinary photo, and make it extraordinary. Tanveer Badal said that being a photographer makes you pay attention to the ordinary things in life. Everything has a story, and that includes the ordinary things.

What every photographer said ties into the fact that each photo needs to tell a story, and I plan on doing that with my photography.