Blog
Your Best Critic
To my mind the best way to improve your photography and get better end results is to listen to your best critic – you. So how does that work if you are just starting out? Simple, ask yourself two questions every time you look at one of your images; do you like it? And regardless of the answer then ask; why? You don’t have to know all the details of the composition rules to know if it looks “right” or not. Even then, all you are evaluating is does it look right to you? You don’t have to know why it does, just that it does.
So, based on the assumption that you want to improve your shooting, here is what I suggest you do. Look at the picture and take the first impression; good or bad? Why? It could be faded colours or out of focus (or focused on the wrong point), a squint horizon that was unintentional, heads or feet cut off, someone blinked as you took the picture. There are many things that could be wrong that you will spot straight away and you can put right next time. There also things that don’t quite seem right because of more technical aspects, such as blurring which can be due to long exposure times and a camera that was not steady enough. Equally using a long focal length lens in dim conditions can result in the same thing. It could be exposure (over or under) or the sun causing deep shadows. This sort of thing does take a wee bit of technical knowledge to work out the solution, but not that much. Surprisingly, the “arty” stuff like composition and even basic subject matter, of which there have been countless books written about (and just as many rules created) can easily be distilled back to where we started; does it look “right”? If it doesn’t, you change things until it does. OK I know that is being a bit simplistic but you should not get bogged down worrying about the “rule of thirds” or the “golden spiral” etc at the expense of taking pictures. Without doubt practise makes perfect in this game – as long as you care about the end result. If you don’t it will not matter what camera you are using, all you will get are “snaps”. If you want to improve your images, ask yourself those two questions every time and you will soon see the difference.
So, based on the assumption that you want to improve your shooting, here is what I suggest you do. Look at the picture and take the first impression; good or bad? Why? It could be faded colours or out of focus (or focused on the wrong point), a squint horizon that was unintentional, heads or feet cut off, someone blinked as you took the picture. There are many things that could be wrong that you will spot straight away and you can put right next time. There also things that don’t quite seem right because of more technical aspects, such as blurring which can be due to long exposure times and a camera that was not steady enough. Equally using a long focal length lens in dim conditions can result in the same thing. It could be exposure (over or under) or the sun causing deep shadows. This sort of thing does take a wee bit of technical knowledge to work out the solution, but not that much. Surprisingly, the “arty” stuff like composition and even basic subject matter, of which there have been countless books written about (and just as many rules created) can easily be distilled back to where we started; does it look “right”? If it doesn’t, you change things until it does. OK I know that is being a bit simplistic but you should not get bogged down worrying about the “rule of thirds” or the “golden spiral” etc at the expense of taking pictures. Without doubt practise makes perfect in this game – as long as you care about the end result. If you don’t it will not matter what camera you are using, all you will get are “snaps”. If you want to improve your images, ask yourself those two questions every time and you will soon see the difference.
24/03/2013