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Is it something that have been changed in photoshop once the photo is taken? is it when you change the background of the people to make the people stand out?
I guess I thought I was on the right track and now I am unsure of that ... should I be editing my photos in photoshop till I get a perfect image? or do we let the camera do the work and correct minor flaws of the photo ...
I have been told by many people I have great photos on my website www.andrew-white.ca - and recently I have been told my photos such ... now I am lost on what I should be focusing on here ... doing more average photos like I have been doing or editing the ones I have to make them look better and stand out more ...
The "Perfect Photo" is the one YOU LIKE
Personally I prefer Good photos straight out of the camera, ok a few tweaks here and there sometimes.
Others prefer a photo that has taken hours on hundreds if not thousands of pounds worth of programmes etc to produce something they never tryed to capture properly in the first place.
Even photos entered in competion win simply because the judge likes it, the same photo different competion different judge not even placed, its all down to personal choice
It's such a subjective thing - as Ikky says, it's often down to personal choice and sometimes there seems no rhyme or reason why one shot should stand out.
The photo of the Rhine which recently sold for a record $4.3M was in my opinion not worth the paper it was printed on, but obviously the buyer didn't think so! 
Steve
Andrew,
There is really no answer to your question, "What is classed as a great photo?" It is all in the eyes of the beholder. For me it is an image that immediately makes me say "Wow!!" and then holds my attention for several more minutes while I continue to see more and more in it.
But, in relation to the photos on your website, they were not only fairly mediocre in any artistic sense but also relatively poor technically. In that context, capturing a "great" photograph starts before you press the shutter release. Have you got all the components of composition, exposure, subject selection, lighting, background, etc., etc. carefully determined. Then there is the actual taking of the image - have you avoided camera shake and so forth. Finally, there is the presentation of your image.
Your "potentially great" photo, that meets all of those criteria, may or may not benefit from further attention in post-processing.
Some folk almost intuitively take good photographs; others of us have to work at it over many, many years. How many courses have you attended? How many books have you read and re-read? How many portfolios of acknowledged masters have you studied and analysed?
From your many posts on the Forum in recent months, I suspect that you are still quite young (under 30?) and have a hankering to follow some sort of photographic career. If I am right about your age, then you have loads of time available to gain the experience which, ultimately, might help you down the route you want to take.
Good Luck.
I think that as a photographer I may appreciate the skill of someone to capture an image using photographic skills more than touch-up editing skills because I enjoy photography more than graphic design so naturally I have more of an appreciation for good photography .... the everyday viewer may not be bothered or have the ability to even know if something is edited, even if, to a photographer it may be obvious. So I guess it depends who is looking as to whether an amount of editing detracts from the appreciaton or whether it doesnt matter at all - after all it is the pleasure gained from looking at a wonderful image rather than the technicalities behind it for most people and I wouldnt appreciate any less a Vermeer oil painting just because he may have used a camera obscura to be able to produce accurate perspective. One thing for sure, imo the photographer creating a magical image from editing uses an amount of real skill that I can guarantee many dont possess and has a talent and artistic skill every bit as much as a photogrpaher who uses their skill to spot a scene usually already in existence and be able to capture it well. They are just different artistic/technical abilities.
Well - I am 36 years old - looking to Photography as a second career choice ... i know i have lots to learn - i guess now it is trying to find a starting point to work from ...
I have tried to do this with trial and error and asking people what they think and what I have been doing wrong ... that is not working ...
I have about 8GB of photography text books ranging from lighting to photoshop to careers as a photographer to lightroom and loads others.
I know I need more experience and such at this point - just need to find a place to start.
I guess I just need to start going through the thousands of photos I have taken and start pulling out some photos that do stand out and add them to my portfolio ... and maybe edit a few of them to give it a different look ...
I have one model who was dressed nice - but the photos were taken down by the water - that the background wasn't very nice to show the outfit she was wearing ...
I knew a guy, some years back now, that experimented with the effects of different presentation ... he took a large number of the worst images in his portfolio and uploaded them as cropped, edited and white square framed contemporary offerings and he quickly developed a large following, who loved almost each and every image. I did question his images privately and he came clean that he had been doing it for a long time and was amazed at how his new presentations were widely appreciated - so I guess as long as it is done well, some editing can breathe life into old images - although purists may say you cant make a great image out of a bad one in PS.
The one thing that strikes me is that you don't pay enough attention to distracting elements when framing your images. The wedding photo where the couple is pretty much swamped by the vegetation around them - you even had the bouquet partially obscured by weeds! This is not clever. The model shots, too, suffer from a busy background which takes my attention away from the sitter and that's quite something given how attractive your models are!
One other thing. Some shots are either badly exposed or are clearly snapshots. Get rid of them. They don't belong in a portfolio of what should be your very best images.
Quote: Well - I am 36 years old - looking to Photography as a second career choice ... i know i have lots to learn - i guess now it is trying to find a starting point to work from ...
I have tried to do this with trial and error and asking people what they think and what I have been doing wrong ... that is not working ...
I have about 8GB of photography text books ranging from lighting to photoshop to careers as a photographer to lightroom and loads others.
I know I need more experience and such at this point - just need to find a place to start.
Andy,
I don't think in the other thread you mention that anyone said your pics SUCK... but we were certainly quick to point out that they were less than perfect and could be improved.
The only people to ask re the quality of your pics are other photographers - don't ask family, they wouldn't know a good pic if it jumped up and bit them - so decide for yourself what you regard as a great photo and work toward producing some of your own. Start in the gallery of Ephotozine - there are thousands of examples - select your twenty favourites in a style you like and try and understand WHY you like them. If you don't understand why you like them, come back on here and ask the question and put links to them.
Then try and understand how they were produced - if you don't know send a private message to the photographer and ask - and then see what techniques you need to work on to be able to reproduce pics in that style.
That's the way I'd tackle it anyway... and one last thing - a GREAT photo appeals to the viewer on an emotional level, thats why family pics are so popular!
Andy
Right Andrew, I was a wee bit out with your age - but not much. So here is a remedial plan for you.
You mentioned that you had thousands of images. Whoa! Stop!
For the next three months never take a photograph unless you have spent at least 20 minutes considering it before you press the shutter release. And don't take more than three in an hour before going back to yout PC and critically analysing them.
During that 20 minutes, carefully think about the following:
Subject - how do you want to present it?
Background - does it complement the subject or distract from it?
Lighting - angle and direction.
Position of subject.
Position of camera
Framing of Subject
"Rule of Thirds" (such "rules" are not immutable - but you must have thought about them and have a very good reason for not following them).
Time of day
By this stage you should have a picture, in your mind's eye, of how you want the final image to look in terms of composition, lighting, etc.
Then think about your camera setting:
Exposure - think separately and carefully about the ISO, shutter speed and aperture you need to achieve the exact effect you want. (For this 3 months forget about any of the auto exposure modes. Do it in Manual)
Lens focal length (whether zoom or prime) to get exactly the camera to subject distance and perspective you want.
Focussing (again maybe forget about AF for this 3 months and focus everything manually.)
Check your depth of field preview.
Finally, having got all of that exactly as you think you want it, take an exposure and check the histogram. Re-take with adjustments as necessary.
What you will find, I am sure, is that after a year or two some of those parameters will become almost second-nature and you will develop an "eye" for some of them and an intuition for others. It is well worth spending the time now to develop those qualities as they will pay dividends in future.
Stick with it.
.
....and this discussion really started on the Freelance section where your website was being criticised. Remembering that your website is your principal marketing tool and must "showcase" the very best of your work, have a look at this one: http://www.alanhutchison.co.uk/portfolio/site/#/galleries/fashion-and-portrait-s...
Alan is a friend of mine and I don't think he looks in on this Forum, but his website does illustrate what I mean. Ignore the fact that a lot of them are of a specific genre - the same principles apply to many other kinds of photography.
I have just replied to your other thread about studios but I think the qdvice given by Left Forum two above is spot on in terms of getting your actual photograhy on to the right lines.
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