Alley Gate - 10/365
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 11:27PM 
by static416
Abbey Lane in Corktown (King and Sherbourne).
I've been thinking about what makes a good photo. Broadly, I think it can be broken down to three components; aesthetics, content, and quality. Of course these are interdependent much of the time, but I think these generally cover it.
Aesthetics includes things like framing, composition, lines, angles, dramatic lighting, etc. Content relates to the subject, whether that's an apple or a car crash. And quality is the more technical details of accurate focus, accurate coloring, adequate lighting, minimal grain, etc.
Based on these three elements, it seems that 90% of the photography I see on Flickr is mostly just aesthetics and quality, with fairly simple and uninteresting content. There is more photography of water droplets, leaves, and sunsets than there really needs to be. And frankly, most of my photography falls into that category as well. I have tons of shots that only capture ordinary objects in attractive ways.
But maybe this just reflects the fact that most of our lives consist of ordinary objects in ordinary moments. Expecting to consistently capture truly interesting moments probably requires a level of excitement that you can't get while holding a 9 to 5 job.
365, Photography, alley, corktown, daily photo, ontario, toronto in Photo of the Day, Photography 
Reader Comments (2)
Perhaps you should rename "quality" as technical ability, because"aesthetics" and "quality" sound similar.
A good photograph doesn't just record. It creates an experience. Think of those photographers that can take a simple picture of a pebble and make it mean much more than just a pebble.
Oh I agree. I'm all for the artistic merit of photography. I'm just saying that there is also the content side of things. Photographing events and generating emotion that way, rather than 10 billion rain pictures.
And I'm saying I'm part of the problem too. I've taken leaf pictures as much as the next guy. I just wish I could produce and see more stuff like this: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/03/on_the_spot_with_kim_jong-il.html