{"id":849,"date":"2021-07-19T18:10:22","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T01:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/?p=849"},"modified":"2021-07-19T19:02:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T02:02:34","slug":"on-what-makes-a-photograph-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/19\/on-what-makes-a-photograph-good\/","title":{"rendered":"On what makes a photograph good"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It took me a long time, probably too long, to figure this simple rule out, but here\u2019s the conclusion I\u2019ve come to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>A photograph is good if it elicits an emotional reaction in the viewer.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And, as a close corollary: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>The best way to know if a photograph will elicit an emotional reaction in others is if it elicits an emotional reaction in you.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s really it. There\u2019s a lot more that can be said about the technical aspects of what makes a photo good, and trust me, the Internet is <em>teeming<\/em> with that type of advice, but if it\u2019s technically perfect and doesn\u2019t elicit any type of emotional reaction, it\u2019s still not a good photograph.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m still working on trusting my own feelings when I look at my photography. It\u2019s strangely difficult to differentiate between something that I really <em>want<\/em> to elicit an emotion and something that actually <em>does<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"414\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=580%2C414&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-852\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=1030%2C736&amp;ssl=1 1030w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=530%2C379&amp;ssl=1 530w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=768%2C549&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1097&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=1200%2C857&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?resize=1980%2C1414&amp;ssl=1 1980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/10A32ED9-4C2C-4170-A16B-348E809C8535.jpeg?w=1740&amp;ssl=1 1740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When I first wrote this, I wanted to say for a photo to be good it should be a <em>positive<\/em> emotion, and generally I think that\u2019s a good guideline, especially for me personally. A positive emotion is a good indication that the photograph is beautiful, which is usually my goal. That said, I think there are many instances where a photo can elicit emotions like nostalgia, melancholy, or even sadness and that\u2019s good in its own way too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>* This is specifically about photography as an art form, not as documentation etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It took me a long time, probably too long, to figure this simple rule out, but here\u2019s the conclusion I\u2019ve come to: A photograph is good if it elicits an emotional reaction in the viewer. And, as a close corollary: The best way to know if a photograph will elicit an emotional reaction in others [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etc","tag-photography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppj2P-dH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}