Whats Important in a Photograph, and What

Isnt
MAY 6, 2016 BY JOHN SHERMAN39 COMMENTS

You know the drill. You pick up a magazine or browse a website and flip through the
photos. Most you look at for less than a second, but a select few grab your attention and
demand a longer look. Whats different about these select photos? What makes some
photos great and others mediocre?

Ive bounced this question off of several distinguished photographers and the answers are
always quite similar. They may disagree on some of the ordering, but the list of qualities
goes something like this:

1.

Emotion

2.

Light

3.

Composition

4.

Creativity

5.

Timing

6.

Context

7.

Layers

Well break these down in a bit, but first lets list some things that arent important to a
photos success. These are in no particular order and constitute what I call The Box of
Technical BS. Behold the contents of The Box: megapixels, noise, corner performance,
RAW headroom, coma, xenon afterglow, diffraction, OLPFs, missing midtones, 14 bit files,
MTF charts, dynamic range, monitor calibration, reciprocity failure, 1:1 sharpness, ETTR,
chromatic aberration, ART lenses and lets not forget the aptly named Circle of Confusion. I
could go on and on adding to the contents list of the Box of Technical BS, but the one thing
all these technical attributes share is that no matter how much you possess of any of these,
they wont increase the emotional impact of a photo one iota. The only technical aspects
one really needs a handle on is the exposure triangle and focus and most cameras will do
these tasks for you. Which brings us back to the important stuff.

1) Emotion
Hands down the most important aspect of any photograph is its ability to invoke an
emotional response. This response is what gets you to look longer at some photos than
others, maybe even decide to buy a print and hang that photo on your wall. The response
can be anything from happiness to the blues, warmth to chill, serenity to horror. It could
inspire curiosity or a call to action. It could simply be a cat video saying cute or a food
photo that makes your mouth water. If you can pin an adjective/s to a photo other than
boring, then the photo is succeeding on some level. The stronger the emotions invoked,
the more successful the photo and the longer youll remember it.

Add clouds to any landscape and pump up the emotional value.

The intensity in this adolescent condors eye demands attention.

Ive got to say this shot is pretty average technically, but because it shows a mom and her
chicks,

it

evokes

Yes, babies are adorable

response

and

this

shot

will

sell.

Well maybe not the cutest kid, but did you have a response when you saw this? If so, it
worked.

2) Light
The word photography, literally means painting with light. The quality of the light directly
impacts the quality of the photograph. Theres soft light, harsh light, warm light, cool light,
Rembrandt light, beauty light and so forth. Your cameras light meter can measure intensity
of light, but only you can judge quality of light. There are no equations to evaluate light
quality its purely an aesthetic judgement. How does one learn to make this judgement?
By studying good photography and painting, watching how movies are lit to invoke emotion,
hanging out with photographers and other artists who have an eye for it Good
photographers key into good light. When they see good light, they find a subject to shoot.
When they see a good subject, they wait for the good light (or create it themselves with
studio

lighting,

modifiers,

etc).

Warm rich light from a low angle quick find a subject. This Reddish Egret will do nicely.

Got a classic subject you want to shoot, like Sedonas Cathedral Spires?

Exposure is right on and its razor sharp. But because the light sucks its boring, boring,
boring. But come back for sunset and you get yummy results like this.

Often the good light is very fleeting. Below is the Organ Mountains in New Mexico a
rugged strong landscape. I had my subject, now wait for the light wait, wait, wait.

Boom. The light only lasted a few seconds.

Here I had very diffuse light from overcast skies pretty blah unless I find the right subject.
In

this

case

this

Great

Egret

made

Backlighting can give striking silhouettes

or fun fringe lighting.

for

splendid

high

key

rendition.

And of course theres the tried and true north-facing window light perfect for nude studies
like the one below oops, my bad, this is a family site. Trust me, the shots are awesome.
As a consolation heres a window-lit still life.

3) Composition
Composition is the arrangement of subjects within a photo. A good composition gets the
viewers eye to travel throughout a photo. A weak composition leads the eye to one spot
where it subsequently gets stuck. There are scads of articles and books written about
composition and the various rules and concepts are beyond the scope of this article. The

point I want to make is that a photo with strong composition combined with good light has
more emotional impact than one of the same subject with lousy composition and/or poor
light.

Here we have a nice shot of an eagle its properly exposed and focused, very sharp at
1:1, and terrifically boring. (So boring I didnt bother to clone out that sensor dust.) Its just
another bird on a stick shot nothing original or compelling about it.

Heres the same eagle on the same tree but with a composition that complements the
shot. The eyes are invited to wander back and forth on the sweeping branch and as the
eagle tears off a chunk of fish, his stooped shoulders add a complementary curve to the
composition.
Which would you rather look at? Oh by the way, the first shot was taken with an $18,000
lens, the second with a $1000 lens toss those in The Box.

4) Creativity
Creativity is all about seeing a subject in a way others dont. Its about being original.
Photographers whose work stands out does so because its original. With the most
creative ones you can tell who shot the photo without reading the byline, because their
style is so unique. Avedon and Salgado come to mind.

Other than the models stunning good looks (the baby gator that is), theres not a whole lot
going for this shot.

Here were getting a bit more creative, framing through the jaws of a dinosaur. A smidge of
creativity makes this a lot more fun to look at than the first shot. How about a bucket of
creativity?

Selfie, meet Bizarre Atmospheric Phenomena. Bizarre Atmospheric Phenomena, meet

Selfie. The subject of this is a tad ambiguous until you realized that is a human figure, in
this case the photographer, casting his shadow into a fogbow in the rainforest (technically
this is called a Glory [the circle rainbow] and Brocken Spectre [my shadow]).
Some scenes you just dont want to put yourself into.

Heres a nice captive adult gator all plumped up on the turkey dogs the tourists at
Gatorland toss him (and maybe an egret or two). Now for a more creative look at an egret
with one of Gatorlands finest.

5) Timing
Capturing the peak of action or human emotion or even just waiting for some clouds to
move into position can make or break a photo. After all a photograph is a minuscule slice
of time captured and preserved for the ages. Not all slices of time are as visually
compelling as others.

A second before these ducks were calmly loafing in the water. Now they explode.

The peak of action is one thing, but sometimes more powerful is the moment of emotional
dread immediately preceding the peak. Hard to look at this and not be relieved that you
arent in that raft going through Lava Falls.

6) Context
Context is fundamental in storytelling showing the subject relating to other subjects
(animate or inanimate) or the environment gives the viewer more to chew on than just a
straight portrait.

Two

Laughing

Gulls

smooching

prior

to

getting

Then theres the classic little subject in the large landscape.

their

groove

on.

Here the vastness of the landscape gives a sense of isolation to the subject which can
invoke feelings of isolation, loneliness, independence or even confidence depending on
how

one

looks

at

it.

Great

Blue

Heron

Lets go with another tiny figure in big landscape shot.

on

Floridas

Gulf

Coast.

Here the tiny figure puts the surrounding landscape into perspective creating a sense of
vastness we dont get if we clone out the person as below.

Here we still have a nice landscape but the sense of scale has diminished, giving a more
abstract feel to the scene.

7) Layers
Layering in a photo is a broad and somewhat ambiguous concept. Different photographers
define it differently. Heres my take. A photo with layers does more than one thing at a
time, giving the viewer more to muse over. Layers can be visual elements, the obvious
example being a strong foreground with a strong background.

Heres classic near/far layering, with the well-traveled guitar case in the foreground, the
guitar-toting rock star (John Stirratt of Wilco) strolling out into the desert in the mid-ground
and lastly the sandstone buttes in the background.

More near to far with the rock formations in Antelope Canyon. In this case the layering is
more subtle as there is a steady progression from near to far. Nevertheless there are
several more definitive points that establish foreground, mid-ground and background
layers.

Did

you

really

think

Id

forget

bird

Note that single layer photos can succeed just fine if the subject is strong enough.

photo?

Heres the same cormorant we saw before, but this time its gesturing (in this case yawning

when

will

that

photographer

stop

shooting?)

carries

the

photo.

Layers can also be story telling layers where two or more elements of the photo inspire
the viewer to consider multiple story lines.

Here we return to Antelope Canyon and the same vantage point the black and white study
was done from. Only now were not just looking at visual layers but the added story-telling
layer of the crazy crowds is included yes this is what to expect if you visit Antelope
Canyon, though you might not see the trendy wedding photo shoot going on.
These are the more obvious examples but there can be layers of meaning or feeling and on
and on basically anything that causes the viewer to come up with multiple interpretations
of whats going on.

8) Wrapping up
When you view a good photo you get lost in the subject, the story and the feelings evoked.
You dont wonder about the metadata. Lets revisit the opening shot of the condor landing
at sunset.

Here we have exquisite light, strong composition and spot on timing. The foreground and
background layering puts this incredibly rare bird into context within the beautiful landscape
it

lives

in.

All

this

adds

up

to

emotional

punch

and

winning

shot.

What makes a photograph work is what makes any piece of art work, whether photo,
painting, sculpture or other. Shooting with a Leica or Hasselblad wont make your photos
better. Shooting with feeling will. To take your photography to a higher level, think outside
The Box.