Having recently registered here, and just getting back into photography, I have started to think more critically of my own work. I have put together a list of questions that I keep near my computer when I am editting my images. They are in no particular order, just when they came to me; either through my own thoughts or suggestions of other DPCers.
1. How is the composition?
a) Is there an important element, ie. a subject.
b) Is your subject lost in the shot?
c) Rule of Thirds.
2. Are the colors right?
3. How is the contrast?
4. Have you reduced or increased the noise as needed?
5. Is the background appropriate for the subject?
a) Is it or should it be noticeable?
b) Is the subject too close/far away?
c) Should I fill the frame with the subject or show some of the background?
6. Will cropping help or hurt the shot?
7. Does it need a border?
please feel free to add to this list any questions you ask yourself in order to make your photos the best they can be, they might be helpful to others. Namely ME! ;)
1. How is the composition?
a) Is there an important element, ie. a subject.
b) Is your subject lost in the shot?
c) Rule of Thirds.
2. Are the colors right?
3. How is the contrast?
4. Have you reduced or increased the noise as needed?
5. Is the background appropriate for the subject?
a) Is it or should it be noticeable?
b) Is the subject too close/far away?
c) Should I fill the frame with the subject or show some of the background?
6. Will cropping help or hurt the shot?
You might ask yourself these questions before you take the shot?
Niten, jmsetzler... Naturally I try to nail the composition and exposure in the camera, however, most if not all of the things I listed can be manipulated in post processing. Being new to digital photography (I've had my camera for slightly more than a month now.) I posted this in the hopes of getting a few ideas from people with more experience than I.
Niten, jmsetzler... Naturally I try to nail the composition and exposure in the camera, however, most if not all of the things I listed can be manipulated in post processing. Being new to digital photography (I've had my camera for slightly more than a month now.) I posted this in the hopes of getting a few ideas from people with more experience than I.
They definitely CAN be manipulated in post processing. However, these issues are some of the ones you don't want to have to manipulate after the fact. Your overall image quality will improve if you get these items right on your original exposure.
Niten, jmsetzler... Naturally I try to nail the composition and exposure in the camera, however, most if not all of the things I listed can be manipulated in post processing. Being new to digital photography (I've had my camera for slightly more than a month now.) I posted this in the hopes of getting a few ideas from people with more experience than I.
What better way to examine your photos than looking at them on a big computer monitor than through the viewfinder or a tiny LCD! This is where most of the learning takes place, for me as well.
What better way to examine your photos than looking at them on a big computer monitor than through the viewfinder or a tiny LCD! This is where most of the learning takes place, for me as well.
No argument there. You learn what your mistakes were.
What better way to examine your photos than looking at them on a big computer monitor than through the viewfinder or a tiny LCD! This is where most of the learning takes place, for me as well.
You should look at your picture with your own two eyes and figure out the shot before you put your camera in front of your face and press the button. Once it's on your monitor it's to late, and if you're walking around looking at everything through your camera you're going to trip and hurt yourself. :)
I like the list, I tend to try to think of everything before I process or edit it cause I hate learning photoshop, Ok I dont hate it, I just aaaaa......have trouble using it! And I usually will take more then 20 pictures of the same subject when I aim fro a good picture....thankgod for digital, dont know what I do if i was spending money on film.
and saying there are no guidlines is certainly poetic but doesn't really help the beginner that doesn't know where to start. once you get an eye for photography (after perhaps 20 years or longer) you don't have listen to any 'rule', but to learn with... rules are not bad.
As a quote from the one person who has probably written the most on guidelines and recipes for good photography may I posit that you aren't fully grasping the significance or context of the remark ? What you seem to be saying is akin to the idea that there is nothing worth teaching in photography. The only way to get better is to take pictures. a warm, fuzzy romantic view of the world perhaps, but not really getting to the real truth.
There are well established conventions that have been studied in great detail that give guides towards what are successful in an image. Those have been distilled into a handful of 'rules' or maxims of a good image. Once you understand those, and then further, understand the underlying concepts, then you can usefully throw away the 'rules' and do something interesting.
Reinventing wheels is tiring and kinda boring too.
In defense of Tom's list (though maybe not with the same intent in mind), I like the idea and may adopt it for this purpose: not as a rule for what to do in post process, but as a tool for self-analysis. John and Niten are right, these are things are better if fixed in the original shot. But it seems just as useful in learning to have things in mind (or on a list) to check when reviewing your pictures to see what worked, what didn't, what you missed or forgot, etc. It seems to me this has the same benefit to your growth as critiquing others, but with the added bonus of knowing what the photographer had in mind. :)
As far as using the LCD goes, I find the things to be big liars! I use it all the time, but beyond evaluating composition and maybe a general sense of exposure, it becomes hit-and-miss. Even my bad pictures, slightly off focus or exposure, might look fantastic on the LCD. When I view it full size - not so good. :(
I posted this list, not as a set of rules, but as questions to ask myself about my work while I am reviewing it. As both Niten and jmsetztler said, it is a good idea to have these questions in mind when taking the shot. As I have been too long away from photography, these things are not quite second nature anymore. I was simply fishing for some other things that I may have missed, something else to squeeze into my tiny little mind. ;)
and saying there are no guidlines is certainly poetic but doesn't really help the beginner that doesn't know where to start. once you get an eye for photography (after perhaps 20 years or longer) you don't have listen to any 'rule', but to learn with... rules are not bad.
20 years? Crap.....rules aren't bad, but limiting. Why tell a newbie to do this that and the other thing when it's what holds most people back from really experiencing life, not just photography?
As a quote from the one person who has probably written the most on guidelines and recipes for good photography may I posit that you aren't fully grasping the significance or context of the remark ? What you seem to be saying is akin to the idea that there is nothing worth teaching in photography. The only way to get better is to take pictures. a warm, fuzzy romantic view of the world perhaps, but not really getting to the real truth.
There are well established conventions that have been studied in great detail that give guides towards what are successful in an image. Those have been distilled into a handful of 'rules' or maxims of a good image. Once you understand those, and then further, understand the underlying concepts, then you can usefully throw away the 'rules' and do something interesting.
Reinventing wheels is tiring and kinda boring too.
What we have here folks is a classic case of The pot calling the kettle black. Your interpretation is not what Ansel Adams [or I] meant at all. Learning about photography and composition doesn't equate learning RULES at all. Having a good eye and knowing your camera isn't the same as "use your rule of thirds".
Having a good eye, and rules/guidelines may be one and the same. As a photographer who oftens photographs using the "braile" system, I crave the rules. Not as a limiting factor in what I can and can't do, but knowing them informs me of when I can use them, and when it's ok to step out of their boundaries. They are just tools to be used by choice of the photographer/artist.
What we have here folks is a classic case of The pot calling the kettle black. Your interpretation is not what Ansel Adams [or I] meant at all. Learning about photography and composition doesn't equate learning RULES at all. Having a good eye and knowing your camera isn't the same as "use your rule of thirds".
I've at least read his books on the subject, so I feel I have a basic understanding of what he was trying to say. The list at the top that you dismissed with a nod to your signature isn't a list of 'thou shalt' its just a sensible list of things to consider before tripping the shutter. As someone who worked with maybe half a dozen exposure per outing, I'm sure Ansel gave more than a passing thought to composition of each shot...
