Three characteristics of every good photo

Three important features in a good photo are: light, subject, composition.

Photography is light itself. Without light, you can't take any photo, let alone a good one! The quality of light varies from image to image, but light is what gives the basic structure to your photo, something more basic than that. You may see photos with very beautiful lights. Images that may seem normal in general, but what is the characteristic of light that makes it the most important quality characteristic of your photo?

In the simplest definition, light is the feeling. The feel of your image is completely influenced by the lighting conditions. Harsh light, soft light, warm light, cold light and everything in between. Each of these conditions contains a specific emotional message and creates the atmosphere around the main subject and your final image. However, there are other ways to show emotion in your photo, but light is the most powerful. If you've never paid enough attention to light, get out there and start shooting. What light is considered an exciting light? There are many conditions that you can consider ideal. But which one is the best? Some lighting conditions are really special and unique. But the reality is that any type of light can be ideal. Because good light by itself does not have a special meaning. Simply put, good light is the light that transforms your image into the image you have in mind and want it to look like.

On cloudy and seemingly dull days, if the light shines well on the subject, stunning photos can be recorded. Does this sound really strange? Sometimes a forest after a storm or a cloudy day is a better subject than a dramatic sunset. Sometimes the lighting conditions are not ideal in general, but the photo is stunning, and this is because of the special lighting conditions in which the photo was taken. Of course, there are a series of optical models that are specific enough that we should look for a wide range of subjects for photography. There are golden hours of sunrise and sunset for outdoor photography. The meaning of golden hours is when the sky is filled with dazzling colors and the atmosphere shows the light in a brighter way.

It provides attractive images against foggy conditions. In fact, it makes the scene empty and simple and immerses the world in a cold and calm light. Like a storm that compresses the sky and darkens the world. The same is true for clear and clear moonlit nights where the scenery becomes magical. The time between the night blue hours and near the golden hours is where the sun is below the horizon and everything is immersed in a deep blue and purple theme.

Pay attention to the fact that the light conditions and quality are what you are facing and it is not possible for you to change it. But for important and special scenes, you can wait a little until the conditions reach your desired ideal. Every image needs light and every good photo needs good light.

Most of us take pictures when something catches our attention. That thing is the "subject" of our photo. When you describe a photo to someone, almost the first thing you talk about is the subject of the photo. For example, "This photo is a mountain covered with snow in the clouds". or "This is a picture of a whale I saw last year". "This is my friend's picture".

As a human, we imagine the world in the form of subjects. A documentary photo is distinguished by its subject and how it is shown. But most people do not understand "how". In fact, their eyes are engaged only because of the subject, and the rest of the changing factors of the photo, such as light, disappear in the background of the subject. This is where the technical aspect of photography comes into play. How do you want to portray your subject? You want to blur it in the depth of field or you want everything from the foreground and background to be in full definition. Do you want your photo to be full of details or a bit impressionistic and blurry? Every technical decision will have a creative impact on how you best portray your subject. So when you choose a specific subject for photography, you have to be a bit forward thinking. How the photo of this subject will be captured ideally and how you will reach this stage. Imagine the end result and do your best to create it.

Finally, the third very important thing in every photo is composition. Composition in photography, in its simplest definition, is the placing of different photo subjects together. This includes the location of the camera, the relationship of the subjects together and the amount of emphasis on the main subject or the complete removal of some items. Composition is how you tell your story. A good composition tells your story effectively and without ambiguity. This way, your audience doesn't have to solve a complicated puzzle to understand why you took this photo. Composition comes in at a stage in the game where you ask yourself "how". How can you convey beauty, excitement, darkness, strength and softness or other emotions in an ideal state? How can you put the subjects of your photo together to create a successful photo? A good composition emphasizes the part of the photo that is most important and neutralizes the rest of the parts that are far from the content of the photo. As we have seen, composition is a personal matter and covers many things. Much more than we can cover in one article. In the following, we will explain simple things about composition.

Your photo should convey exactly what you want. Convey your emotional message in a nutshell. If your photo has a distracting subject or a subject with a different mood or feel, learn how to improve it. Remove anything that degrades the quality of your photo. Change your composition and fade the effect. Even if you want to record a different photo, you should be able to apply the things you want, even if it is against the principles of the usual composition, to tell the same different story of the photo. The best way to improve images is to remove as much detail and unnecessary things as possible. This does not mean erasing these items only in Photoshop. Although photo processing can play an important role, this is a bit beside the point. But if you do not have enough skills in simplifying the photo during photography, it is acceptable to use the "spot healing" tool. Maybe a number of unwanted items will enter your photo, and that's not a problem. It's very rare that you have a scene without any problems. But if you are aware of what is happening in the scene, it means that you have come a long way to modify it according to your desire.

Each part of the photo will attract a certain amount of attention. Some spots more than others. Brightness, exaggerated colors and strong contrasts easily attract the attention of the audience. The same is true for attractive subjects or unwanted items in the image, exactly as they appear in the real world. This is important because balance must be maintained in the photo. When taking photos, be careful to place the most important subject in the best place. If the left third or the right third has equal weight, the composition says that you need to balance. Even for a photo that may be an unbalanced photo.

When you take photos, each subject should have their own breathing space or personal space. Unless you have a special reason not to do it. When two subjects are in front of each other or against the general atmosphere of the photo, the result may be fruitless. This is very much a matter of taste, but you'd be surprised how many photos are unacceptable for not paying attention to this. For example, photos of a mountain, if you record it too close to the top of the image or worse, cut it off completely!

A good photo is good because all the elements in the composition work together. Not that they are conflicting with each other. In some cases, this collaboration goes a little further than this and is called concatenation.