3 Decisions That Separate Good Photos from Great Ones

In this video, I'm going to show you the three decisions that I make before I take a photograph. They're not going to be compositional rules and they're not going to be camera settings. They're the decisions that change what a photo is actually trying to say and how it feels. And if you learn these three things, they will take your work up to a higher and better level. Let me show you with real photographs. Drop me a comment as well about anything that you look for when you're taking a photograph. Be interested to see what you guys think as well. This photo is about compensation. This is not meant to be comfortable and it's not meant to feel easy to look at. It's meant to feel tense and unresolved. Everything exists because of that decision. So my subject's expression is supporting that tension and the location, her being in the middle of the street, only amplifies that. It gives it pressure. It makes it feel like she's exposed. It makes it feel awkward and more difficult. Everything in this photograph exists because of that decision. Once I decided what the picture was about, the lighting is then obvious. If I had lit her properly with a flash, this wouldn't work. It would feel too polished. It wouldn't feel as raw. I have to let the ambient lighting do its thing and create that chaotic kind of lighting that fits the mood here. So most photos that fail, don't fail because the aperture was wrong or the ISO or some sort of exposure setting was wrong. They fail because the mood and intention of the picture was not clear from the start. They fail because nobody decided what the picture was actually about. So if I hadn't made these decisions about what the picture was about, it would have just felt wrong. Okay, so decision number two is give everything a role. If you look at this picture, what you'll see is that everything in the picture goes together. All elements from the background to the clothing, to the color, to the hair, it all seems to tie together properly. Nothing is standing out. There is no one thing that's trying to be the hero of the picture. And also there's nothing that's neutral. There isn't an element in the picture that's contributing nothing or doing nothing. And if one element here started competing, it's likely that the whole picture would start to fall apart. This picture has harmony because everything is working together in the photo. So what I'm doing is I'm making sure that everything goes together from the background to the clothing, to the hair, to the color and the lighting. Everything has to tie together as one. So the lesson is that if anything in the picture is pointless and not adding something or is overstating its presence, those things need to go. Everything in the image needs to tie together in a way that supports decision one. So now we have the idea of a mood and atmosphere for the picture and everything that's going to be in the picture is there for a reason and has earned its place. And the third decision is where I place the viewer. We don't often think about the camera position as being where we place the viewer, but that is exactly what we're doing with where we place our camera. So if you look at this picture here, it's quite a dramatic scene. And if you notice, we as the viewer, when we're looking at this, we are not part of the scene. At this angle and at this camera height, this camera position, we are not being included. We are in an observer position. And also, you notice that my subject is not looking at the camera. That also maintains that narrative. So you see, if there were eye contact, this would be a completely different photograph. So this photo only works because of where we are placing the viewer. So for me, these decisions always link together. And it's really important that you understand this. We are thinking, what is the picture about? What's the mood? What's the intention? The atmosphere and the expression. Then we have to think about what helps that idea. What are we including in the scene? What are we getting rid of? Does everything that's in the picture contribute in some way to help emphasize the idea and motivation of the picture? And then where do we position the viewer? You could wrap this up as framing, but we're not really talking about just framing. Positioning the viewer is the right way to think about this, because this has an emotional impact on the picture. We wanna be thinking as expressive and creative photographers, not just someone who's passing by and taking a snapshot. And I usually find if these three elements don't really line up together, then often it's not worth taking the photograph. And that's okay as well. That's how I stop my photos feeling accidental and they feel more deliberate. But when you do this, people react much more strongly to your photography. They feel like it has purpose and it has meaning and they can identify with it better. That makes them have a stronger connection to you as a photographer. And it means that your work is a little bit more expressive and more important to the viewer to look at. If you like the way my pictures looked in this video, I suggest you check out these two eBooks. They are free. One of them is on studio lighting and the other one is on lighting outdoors for outdoor portrait photography. The studio lighting eBook talks through some of the common lighting setups that I use and the outdoor photography eBook looks at how I find and look for lighting in environments outdoor using natural ambient lighting, not flash in this instance. So if they sound interesting, check them out. They're free and the links are in the description down below. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up. Subscribe if you're new here or if you've been watching me for a long time and you haven't yet subscribed, please subscribe because it really helps me out as a channel. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you guys in the next video. Take care. Bye bye.