What makes a great photo?

[zcar21]

I searched the answer to this question but got too many answers. Some people say it's all about the structure, composition. Others say it's about the moment, the subject. Others say that great photos have some kind of effect, an emotion, or feeling. And there were a lot more opinions. It's to be expected since there are many types of photography.

This was my favorite:
“I follow Garry Winogrand’s thinking: a good photograph has a balance between aesthetics and information.”

I was looking at the work of some famous photographers, and it seems that there is no right answer. For instance, take a look at this picture.
loverofbeauty: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tyrrhenian Sea, Priano, 1994
I can't tell what's great about it.

What's your opinion?

 

[SCraig]

The reason you can't find an answer is that there are too many. Everyone's idea of what makes a great photo is different.

In my opinion and photograph that makes you stop and say "Wow!" is a great one.

 

[KenC]

There is no answer. Or there are as many answers as there are great photographs. The generalities and rules are just attempts to impose some kind of order after the fact on the chaos we create. Now go out and be chaotic!

 

[lovemygsd5]

Hi, I'm new here. It can be many things, especially linked to emotions. Depending on the subject matter, with people it's certainly emotions, beauty, lighting, etc. With other subjects it is the wow factor of color, contrast, and uniqueness.

 

[pgriz]

If an image doesn't excite some emotion, it's not a great image. It's like good writing, or poetry, or music. It's like good cooking. The best images grab your heart and squeeze hard. If they don't, they are (maybe) nice decorations. Just my opinion. You are free to disagree.

 

[Jeremy Z]

I think it depends on the photo.

My favorite people pictures are usually inferior in some technical way, but excellent in bringing me back to that moment and it's emotion. Family candids and street scenes are good examples.

For landscape and architecture, they need to be composed better and the lighting needs to be better.

Vacation snapshots don't need much at all to do their job, but I try anyway!

 

[pgriz]

That image is Zen.
Balance between the halfs. Smooth on top, textured on bottom. Nothing visible but air and water and the wind upon the water. There is an implicit line running from the lower left corner to the middle right, following the direction of the wind. There is the mystery of the horizon being marked by a different line in that the water brightens towards the horizon and the brightening stops at the horizon line. The upper rectangle of sky also has a gradient of light, brightening towards the horizon. In that there is symmetry. And that symmetry is not broken by any objects created by the hand of man. You can imagine it to be primordial.

 

[zcar21]

Thanks for the explanation pgriz. I see what I like about Hiroshi's picture now.

 

[sdrphotography]

As with art. what makes a good photograph is in the eye of the beholder. Certain things do make a differance i.e exposure, composition and subject but if you like it you're on the right tracks.

 

[Mo.]

It's sort of a common sense question and it can be based on opinions as well.

But the important things are the CONCEPT and the EXECUTION of the concept really. Something that you and viewer can relate to and at the same time is attached to your eye.

 

[greybeard]

I searched the answer to this question but got too many answers. Some people say it's all about the structure, composition. Others say it's about the moment, the subject. Others say that great photos have some kind of effect, an emotion, or feeling. And there were a lot more opinions. It's to be expected since there are many types of photography.

This was my favorite:
“I follow Garry Winogrand’s thinking: a good photograph has a balance between aesthetics and information.”

I was looking at the work of some famous photographers, and it seems that there is no right answer. For instance, take a look at this picture.
loverofbeauty: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tyrrhenian Sea, Priano, 1994
I can't tell what's great about it.

What's your opinion?

I'm with you on this one, I don't see anything great about it either. If a beginner had posted this picture on this forum for CC, would anybody have liked it? Would anybody have found "Zen" in it?

 

[KmH]

What makes a great photo?

No mystery.
The light.

 

[Vtec44]

That's a bad image, didn't even follow the ROT and it's too symmetrical.

 

[KmH]

For instance, take a look at this picture.
loverofbeauty: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tyrrhenian Sea, Priano, 1994
I can't tell what's great about it.

And who says it's a great photo?

 

[Derrel]

Great photo?
1)Start with a camera
2)Put a lens on it
3)Get a photographer
4)have a hot, nude, world-class model pose in front of the lens at the appropriate focusing distance the lens is set to
5)light the model with light from the heavens above (or from electronic flash power packs and heads!)
6)capture reflected photons that for micro-seconds touched the skin of the hot,nude,world-class model, then bounced into the lens, and were captured by the camera's light-sensitive film or sensor
7)-secret step
8)-even more secret step
9)-TOP-Top-Top secret, "would-have-to-kill-ya-if-I-told-ya-step"
10) Voilà!---a great photo!