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| Apparently, if you photograph rain with a high enough shutter speed, it can look like snow. Cool! |
What do you need to make a good photograph? Honestly, I think this is one of the hardest questions of all time. In their most basic form, photographs have three main elements:
1. Subject
2. Light
3. Composition
Often, if you have a really kick-ass subject, people will like your photographs. Go travel somewhere cool and everyone loves your shots. Use the same technique at home, and you might not get the same adulation.
Lighting, on the other hand, is my personal favorite, and many of my favorite photos would be nothing without the light in them. Cool light can make a photograph, and some photos are really only pictures of the light - the subject is almost nothing.
Composition, while arguably the most important of the three, is also the hardest to quantify and also the most difficult to truly master. Real control of composition can take a lifetime.
The photo above, for example? I'd say it definitely has cool light, passable composition and a fairly average subject. That still makes it a shot I'd post on the blog (clearly) but probably not one I'd put in my portfolio.
What about you? What other layers are there in a photograph? I can think of a few more that are quite important. Maybe we'll talk about those another day.
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