4 components of crafting a good image?
As an Artist, Graphic Designer, and Art Director I create a lot of original images and use many created by others. Visuals tell stories and help create the environments and ambience that surround those stories. There is a balance of the narrative itself, with the technique, composition, color, and a variety of other properties that make or break an image.
I have spent a lot of time pondering the properties that make strong images—both when creating original work as well as incorporating images made by others. Sometimes it is the story, sometimes the emotional impact, always the strength of the composition.
I entered many competitions and shows in my early days as an artist, and benefited from critiques of jurors and more experienced artists. I was naturally disappointed when I did not get accepted to a show or did not win the prize I felt I deserved. As a composer of music, negative reviews were tough to read, but I learned from many of them and worked to improve where I could.
There is a natural tendency to bend to what I think critics will like so I don’t get criticized, but we can also learn to take criticism with a grain of salt, knowing it is opinion but it does reflect how some others might see what I do, recognize the weaknesses, and allow myself to make my story or atmosphere stronger.
Eventually galleries and curators invited me to expand from creator to critic.
One of my favorite activities is judging and critiquing art and photography. It’s a way to share my knowledge to help others refine their craft and create more engaging work. Watching artists improve over time inspires me, and talking about what makes a good image pushes me to evaluate my own work at a higher level too.
I have juried over 20 exhibitions, been on numerous judges panels, and have mentored artists, photographers, and designers. It does not make me an expert, but I still hope
The job of an Artist is to find inspiration in our own experiences and transform that into new experiences for others. This is true whether a painter, photographer, actor, dancer, musician or any other person who creates things to be viewed by others.
The scope and depth of our work and the way it resonates in the world is shaped by our awareness and mastery of four arenas. Each piece of work has a different balance of these, but weakness and strength of any one of them can make all the difference in impact.
- Target – The subject of our interest, times and places we put ourselves, and attitudes and curiosity we bring for inspiration, or intention to moment. Where do we put ourselves, and how do we prepare?
- Tools – how we capture the idea.
- Processing – how we enhance and clarify the idea
- Presentation – how we put it into the world
Creative processes may begin with or without purpose, but as we move closer to putting it into the world, it moves from our self-satisfaction, to considering the impact on others.
- How do we get inspiration? Target
- What media do we use? Tools
- How do we embrace, shape, individualize our method? Process
- How will our work be experienced? Presentation
What differentiates a Snapshot from a Photograph or an award-winning piece of Fine Art?
At a basic level, pointing a camera at something and clicking the shutter is little more than a recording of a moment. A snapshot.
Now that so many of us have a recording device in our pocket, capturing a moment is less unique. Without consideration of intention, purpose, technique, imagination, self-revelation, perspective and a sense of emotion, an image is easy to completely ignore. To get attention, you have to build an experience for people, story or narrative, atmosphere or ambience,
its like taking a tape recording of sound
, what we record is simply a snapshot, to recall a feeling or situation at a later time.
Art is an Engaging Experience inspired by a moment, composed with interest in a story and atmosphere, and selected for its potential effect on others.
I don’t consider myself a professional photographer—though I do a lot of photography, and use it in my art and design projects. Some of my photos are decent, though I am not as good as I would like to be. I have have won numerous awards with my photo-manipulations and digital art, and have given presentations and written for publications on digital art and design.
I have gained some level of expertise—or at least experience—having used a lot of photography in both Design and Art projects throughout my career.
This has gotten me invited to jury, critique, and sit on panel discussions for numerous photo and fine art exhibitions throughout my career. I love to mentor, and enjoy giving feedback and learning from other artists and photographers—from pro to beginners—who reveal a wide array of creative ideas and techniques. I become more aware of my own work, while helping others improve their craft.
If we are to share or display images, and want to create an engaging experience for our viewers. Like any mode of communication, a good photo must have impact—an immediate one to draw attention, and an enduring one to keep attention, and must convey a story and an atmosphere. This is achieved through a combination of artistic creativity and technical mastery.
I came up with a model to describe Four Phases of a Photograph to help myself and others note where to pay attention, to learn how to control in order to master. Most any image has a different balance of these components, . It starts with a photographer’s initial inspiration to inspiring others through mastery of these four phases—and, perhaps win an award. Being aware of capturing, creating, and maintaining the highest quality at each phase increases our chance of the most compelling images.
The Four Phases of a Photograph
Target
A subject, time, place, and conditions—and an idea or experience—which inspires us to record it with a camera.
We begin to develop a relationship with an image as we choose which camera to pick up and to point at something, as we choose places and times, and where and how we focus our attention, and move through that space and time, and click.
Maybe simply for memories or reference, or to share with others, to tell the truth of a moment, or expand upon it.
Areas of Mastery:
Location, Preparedness, Planning, Equipment.
Awareness, seeing, feeling, purpose, to remember or share? What is the story?
Tools
The technology – camera, lens, tripod, props, lighting and other equipment involved in the capture, and the darkroom, hardware and software for processing. The computer and software, or darkroom we use to capture, alter, and share the image.
Process
What we do with the image. Our story, perspective, atmosphere imposed upon the capture. Embellishing and expanding upon our experience of the moment through technique, creative interpretation.
Presentation
Display parameters including materials, mounting, framing, substrates or screens. Influenced by color management, image quality, display conditions, and how we print, mount, and frame an image to let others experience our idea most fully.
Appropriate audience, conditions, relevance, importance, uniqueness, focus of attention.
What differentiates a snapshot from a good photograph or an award winning piece of art?
It all has to do with how we become involved as participants in creating story and atmosphere.
Photography, at its most basic, is little more than a visual recording of a time and place. We have an inspiration we want to revisit or share with others. Sometimes we just want to capture beauty so others can experience it. Sometimes we want to show off.
With no thought, we get a snapshot. The recording, with nothing unique, little consideration of composition or where the eye should go. We add our individual voice into it through processing and printing. What turns a recording into something worthy of framing and hanging on the wall?
The presumed goal of photography is to take a picture and show it to someone, or remember it for later. An idea forms, we capture what we can, add our viewpoint, and print or post it so someone else can see it.
Whether we want our image to be art, to touch others, to make the world beautiful, to tell a story, or to preserve a feeling, we should consider these four phases in our process.
- Target
- Tools
- Processing
- Presentation
Something inspires us and becomes the TARGET and the environment around it which might influence the scene. We pick up our TOOLS to record it, the camera, the right lens for the situation, the tripod, lights, etc. We take our recording of the moment, then PROCESS it to add our creative touches and perspectives, fix mistakes, crop to a story that has more clarity or meaning or impact, cleaning, enhancing, even modifications. Then we prep for display. Just a print, or on a matte, or with a frame?
“Mastery” is a complex and evolving ideal, takes time and effort, and is always elusive, no matter how much we master any skill. I devised the following model to help creatives think about the phases of moving a moment we experience into one we can share with others, with the most impact. My hope is this might help aspiring photographers evolve simple snapshots toward becoming good photograph or a piece of fine art.