So what makes a photograph “Good” and what causes it to fail? If we study visual art and photography in particular, we develop an experience that tells us what is “Good Art” to a greater or lesser degree. Sounds awfully nebulous, doesn’t it? In practice, it really is surprising how similar this assessment is among viewers who are asked to make such judgement. There are no rules or numbers that define this in any way and no doubt is often quite subjective. And yet, there seems to be a surprising consensus all over the world.

I have spoken of this before, but thought it worth mentioning again. For those who are not aware, when I talk about the ‘angle of view’ or another term, ‘camera plane’, I am referring to the angle that the camera is held in relation to the subject. This is what really affects the aperture settings or Depth of Field (DOF) and focussing points in taking images. I hope what I have put together here makes sense, but if it doesn’t, get in touch with me sometime and I will try to show you using a camera.

Camera club judges, don't we just love to hate them. They just never get things right, they don't understand our creative genius and they always miss the message in our image. Except, when the judge gives our image a high score or better still we achieve that elusive 10 out of 10. Then our views appear somewhat different and as we shuffle out of the clubroom at the end of the evening.