I really enjoy reading posts that remind me of the important things to consider when making a photograph.
Digital Photography School has a post about "5 Important Components of a Powerful Image":
(Click Here) to read it on digital-photography-school.com
As usual, I'll summarize it here, and show you what I think is most important in the article. First off, there's nothing new here. The components listed in the post are:
- Subject
- Strong composition
- Moment
- Light
- Emotional impact
Pretty obvious, right? But, we can all use the reminder. I decided to look through one of my photo sets on flickr, and see if I could identify these components. I'm not saying I nailed each of these, but I did find pictures in this small set of images of the Tozai railway, a historic railroad that takes you up the mountainside in Hakone, Japan, which at least illustrate some of the concepts. So, here we go:
Subject:
Composition:
Moment:
Light:
Emotional Impact:
I certainly struggled to find any emotional impact in this set. The image I selected makes me feel the experience of actually riding the train. I have no idea if anyone else will get that from the image.
I shot all of these images on Panasonic Lumix cameras: the DMC-GF1, DMC-G1, and DMC-LX5, all now relegated to the past in favor of newer models. Actually, my wife now uses the LX5 for her real estate business, and I still have the GF1, just don't use it much at all.
It is useful to review basic concepts and components of great photographs. I think you really get powerful images when you can combine multiple components into a single image. Of these images, I would say the closest to accomplishing that is the first - the subject and lighting are pretty good, and the moment is right to catch the driver's face in the best light.
DMC-365.blogspot.com
