Great Photographs

Great Photographs

by William Lulow

I am often asked by my students “what makes a really good photograph?” As we go through their take on a specific assignment, they may  inquire as to whether one or more of their efforts fits the requirements of a great photo. This is what I tell them: an image has to have several factors to be considered really great. Here are some:

1. Composition: The image needs to appeal to my sense of what a good composition entails. It has to draw the viewer into the frame and have enough information to keep someone’s attention.
2. Tonal Values:  The image has to follow basic requirements of good Black&White images, (if it is a monochrome image, of course). There has to be detail in the highlights as well as in the shadows and has to have one spot of pure white and one of pure black.
3. Sharpness & Acuity: Images need to be sharp where they are supposed to be and need to have plenty of detail to look at.
4. Subject matter:  The image has to be visually interesting. Either the action or the subject matter needs to have qualities that would make people interested in viewing it.
5. Visual interest:  The image, because of all the above aspects, really needs to be interesting to look at. It needs to have sight lines that draw the viewer’s interest and hold it.
6. Lighting: It almost goes without saying that light is a major factor in the making of photographs. By definition, they are “light images,” so the lighting is of paramount importance and it should be exciting.
7. Intrinsic interest: This means that the image has to have it’s own reasons for holding our attention. There are many images that have prurient interest because they may depict death, birth, enjoyment, sadness, excitement, or be a new way of looking at something.

Any or all of these elements must be present if the image succeeds in grabbing and holding our attention. Here are a few examples from my portfolio. See if you think they contain all six elements.

I chose these ten images to see if they held all or most of the elements I consider important to overall photographic interest. Are they compelling, in some sense, to view? If the answer is “yes” then the photographer has achieved what he set out to do, to create images that tend to attract a viewer’s attention.

We need to examine more closely, why we like to make photographs. Probably the first thing in our minds is to show them to someone. “Look at this,” someone who has just taken a picture might exclaim. So, from the beginning, it is an attempt to show someone else something you have seen. Another motivation might be just in the creation process itself. “Look what I just made,” someone might say. I had a friend who loved to take pictures of his vacation experiences. He would hand me his camera and show me how to scroll through the thousands of images he took.

But what if there were just images on a wall somewhere? Which ones would capture your attention and make you want to take a closer look? This what I am concerned with when I detail the various items that make for “great photographs.” How many of the items are covered in your images? To what extent are you keeping them all in mind when you pick up the camera?

I find myself mentally trying to check off all the above points whenever I even look at a person, place or thing to photograph. My intention is always to make a compelling image, one that people will want to look at and perhaps exclaim, “now that is a great picture!”