My friend Jeff Chane-Mouye, street photographer and blogger, rescued me from an acute case of writers/photographers block with this message: How about we both write an article on the subject of “What elements make a good photograph”. My reply to Jeff, who also happens to be an Air Traffic Controller on Reunion Island: “Good idea. Though you may as well suggest I manage the airspace around Reunion for an hour.”. In fairness I should know a little more about photography than ATC, it’s certainly debatable. I foresee this blogpost being purely supposition on my part, much easier to point you in the direction of Jeff’s work, you can learn everything you need to know with strong supporting evidence. I’m going need some proof of my own. The idea of what makes a good photo is subjective and nebulous, we’ll circle back to that later. We’ll see what Jeff comes up with in his post.
The opener was taken last week, the one above from just over a year ago. To be frank, you can be Judy if you want, I should be searching my archives for better evidence, instead it’s whatever pops up that I recently looked at for inspiration to get the camera out. I’m lazy and that’s something you can’t be if you want to make a good photograph. Motivation and commitment are key, the great photographers knew this. They’d be shooting constantly, refining their style, understand their craft (hence that Venice shot, see what I did there!), an eye that is trained through continual practice to know precisely when to the release the shutter, eventually producing their outstanding photographs. Especially the case with Street or Documentary Photography. I suppose the basics towards the goal of getting a good photograph are similar whatever the subject matter is. No matter how creative and expert you might become, and I know this is disappointing, expect only a couple of exceptionally good shots a year. Goes without saying so I’ll say it, photographers need a camera. It’s totally irrelevant which camera. Let’s be absolutely clear, it’s just a tool, like a keyboard to a writer. You wouldn’t ask what type of quill Shakespeare preferred, who cares what lens Henri Cartier-Bresson used. What’s hugely relevant is that the camera becomes an extension, we know intuitively what it will render to make a good photograph. Next to zero thought as to any settings. What we see, what we feel, must be recreated in that moment and we can’t miss one of them fiddling around with exposure and focus.
The great photographers, who actually made good photographs, also knew about composition and framing. Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines and so on. In those three shots from Norway the hut is in one third of the frame, more or less. I use thirds a lot, probably too much. Those ridges of the hills left and right are thirds, actually the first shot is rule of thirds on speed. The road is a leading line to the mountain in that one, the ridge to the hut in the second. The “third” shot is my favourite, the frame is more balanced. But what makes it better in my opinion is the addition of a human and without any context (unless you read my Norway post) might ask what is it he’s doing there. Actually even if you did read that blog you might still ask that and question his hat choice! Asking a question of the viewer: what’s going on here? A vital ingredient towards making a good photograph I believe….
Some Layers in that photograph and the one below. Layers add depth. I struggle with them, it’s extremely tricky to get them right. A photographer who’s associated with layers is Alex Webb, much copied on social media and hideously overdone in my opinion by his many imitators. His photography is much more than that and his layers are often subtle in their use. Here I can offer you an example to click: Mexicans arrested at the U.S. border 1979. Yes, Wow. I know. And that light is sublime. We need light, better add that to the growing list.
Evoking a memory or emotion is yet another ingredient. I’ve got thousands of photos of my youngest children. They were taken with feeling, something stirred, a distant memory or simply love. A longing for the innocence of my own childhood perhaps. I can’t eloquently express this, I’m compelled to take the shot instead. A picture paints a thousand words apparently.
I was always looking for the same when shooting weddings. You need a photo that represents the day. The mood, joy and overall beauty of the celebration. The youngest guests inevitably provide that…
Oh yes, you can use colour if you really have to! After spending quite some time writing all this I just realised that we would’ve all saved time if I’d simply used this quote from Henri Cartier-Bresson: “To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life."
Let’s see what we’ve got towards what makes a good photograph. I understand that it’s all over the place, but I’ve touched upon:
1) Camera. 2) Absolute Commitment. 3) Framing & Composition. 4) Light. 5) Layers. 6) Mystery or a Narrative. 7) Emotion or Memory. 8) Subject. 9) Light.
Now we know just how difficult it really is to get that elusive shot. We should add gestures and action to that list by the way.
Every shot I’ve presented here is candid I just realised, nothing posed. We can add Candid to the ingredients. Time to wrap things up, it’s endless. In fact when I said Jeff rescued me, my initial thought was that this is going to be hard work. The opening photo was partly chosen because those two are how I felt at the prospect of writing this post. The truth is Jeff has reignited my passion, something suggests he might have used a bit psychology on me, I now want to go out and shoot again.
I really must mention subjectivity before signing off. Of course it’s subjective, the decision that a photo is declared “good” rests on so much that is personal. For example with our own photography and defining what is a good shot is dictated partly by how we felt when we took it. Others can’t possibly know that feeling. This is what makes photography competitions pretty much redundant, the judges have their own criteria, we see the winners and wonder how they reached their decision, meanwhile looking at the losers we are incredulous as to how they could have possibly missed them. Here’s the conclusion I’ve arrived at after studying the evidence and I’m judge on this blog; All photos are good as are the photographers who make them.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite photographs that I think is good and pretty much has most of the elements we’ve discussed from Sam Abell…
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails. Not that it matters they were made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm, 35mm or Noctilux 50mm Lens fitted. I used an Apple keyboard to type it all out!
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