What makes a "good" photo?

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I’ll be honest, and this is seriously what almost every photographer / enthusiast / professional / hobbyist will tell you: 90% of the pics we take are trash.

“Good” is obviously pretty subjective and I don’t really get into the technical aspects of photography here, but I do critique my own photos all the time. On average, I take about 50-100 shots in the same location or event, and I only post about 3-5 pictures online. You might be thinking, “you’re just being harsh to yourself, they’re probably not that bad!” But you see, to me, they are bad lol. Maybe it comes from being a designer, but sometimes I nitpick the hell out of a picture and even if it’s interesting to me, I can’t get over the little details that obstruct it.

For example, in the above two photos, compositionally speaking, they aren’t very good. There are clear focal points, but the shots are misaligned and not the best angles.

This actually happens to me very often, but some of my favorite subjects in my shots are the worst compositionally. I loved that window shot with the plant, but it was very high up and at a weird angle. The second shot of Ian walking by could’ve had a better angle / view of the church doors or windows. But, you know, I also blame Ian because he’s 6’6”…so he’s also too high up. Let’s just blame height on my bad composition skills and move on.

Shots like this are much easier to compose, which you can clearly tell compared to all of the other photos above. I have hundreds of photos of the CN tower, but this is one of my favorite shots. I love that it’s backlit and mostly shadowed, but has light reflected to the side. I think it gives the monumental tower more depth and almost makes it look 3D. I also really loved how the clouds looked that day. Gives movement to the image.

I love the contrast of the guy to the left and the girl in the front. I also just love her facial expression here. I don’t know if she into me, hates my guts, or judging me. That’s what makes it fun.

I’m pretty new to candid street photography. I’ll be honest, I always loved the idea of street photography, but I didn’t have the balls to go up to someone’s face and just snap a photo of them. I realized there are ways to be more sneaky about it so I’m trying to experiment with it a little.

The reason street photography is so popular is because you really don’t have to think too much about all of the technical aspects. Even though composition, lighting, and clarity are all important things, the main focus of candid street photography is storytelling. It’s about capturing moments and emotions. And I love that it can be a little grittier, less perfect, and still be much more interesting than a perfected photo of an object.

I think the general key points of taking a “good” photo includes:

  • composition

  • lighting / exposure

  • focus

  • subject

I think everything else is really up to whether you simply like the photo or not. I’ve had some of my favorite photos be slightly out of focus, slightly underexposed, and angled jankily. But for me, the two MOST important things are subject and lighting. There is no point if there’s no subject (or a pattern), and lighting is bad. Photography is literally all about lighting. Everything else is fair game.

In my opinion, the best photos are simply the ones you actually take. So I hope more people can be encouraged to go out there and capture moments. They are fleeting after all.