I have touched on this in some of my previous posts. It is cropping up a little bit more, at this point in time. The phrase, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” is another way to state the phenomenon of critiquing a photograph.
I am looking back at the thousands of photos I have stored on my computer and drives. There are plenty of bad photos along with the few goods ones. My mind is really looking at the photos in a more critical manor. I am seeing things in photos that I like and I dislike. I am also remembering the moments that created the photos.
Here is what I find very intriguing. It is not really a new concept or epiphany of some sort. Photography is a very subjective subject. What I find good in a photo may be criticized by someone else. There are certain rules that photographers live by, and sometimes break.
As I have been looking more critically at my own photographs, I find I have my own biased opinion of what makes it good or bad. This biased is created from a number of things. How well did I do with the technical aspects of photography? If there is a technical aspect that is off, why is it off? Then, does the photograph make a good composition (is it artistic)?
Those are not the only things biasing my opinion about a photograph. Some pictures were stumbled upon (happened unexpectedly). Other photos were a concept that I thought of and created by taking time to setup for the photo. I am probably going to defend photos that I took more time to create than ones that I stumbled upon. That is not always the case. Sometimes I really dislike photos that I took time to setup for.
Sometimes, a photo is not technically correct. It becomes a great photo, because of the emotion it invokes of that moment. Other times, a photo is technically correct, and it does not invoke any emotion. Each person connects to a photo in different ways.
What I see in a photo, whether it is technically correct or not, is influenced by being in the moment. There are moments that other people shared. There are moments I spent by myself. Yet, the moment in and of itself creates an emotional attachment to any photo. What I see in a photo that makes it good may be completely disregarded by someone else, because I was there in the moment. I am biased, and I critique my photos based on my overall experience of being the photographer.
JUST PhotographIN' 