Critic

What makes a great photograph?

A simple answer - one provokes strong emotional reactions from its viewers.

Reactions can be positive or negative. It's really a question of taste if you like the photo or hate it. Taste is a personal preference or liking. I dislike creative people who don't have strong feelings regarding taste. Have you ever asked someone what they think of your photographs, only to have them answer, “Oh, they are nice.”?

"Nice" is just a lame statement to mean they do not care much about your shots.

Truly creative people have strong tastes. The more they care, the more they want to make distinctions by asserting their personal tastes.

Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuse himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels.
-Henry Adams

“Exercising” your taste means making discrimination.

”Discrimination” isn’t really a bad word, really, except when it's used with the word "racial".
The lack of a discriminating taste means that anything goes. Not every image can be a great picture, obviously.

How does developing a discriminating taste help us as photographers? It certainly help us to think twice when it comes to making a picture.

Why are I taking this shot? What is good about the moment? Is this the way I like to frame it? What am I trying to say with this picture? The more questions that you ask yourself, the more depth you get with your images. Just don't let too many questions slow you down and miss the moment. As you refine your visual sense of taste more often, it will naturally become part of you.


Here is a good way to refine your taste without constantly snapping away. Pretend you are a fine art collector. Study your own photos and ask yourself, if you could only buy one, which one would it be? How much would you be willing to pay for it?

Understandably, it is difficult to be an artist and be a critic at the same time. Nevertheless, you would grow fast as an artist when you are your own toughest critic.

I'll end my blog today with another quote

Taste is, so to speak, the microscope of the judgment. - Rousseau