Why is it that some photos strike a chord with our audience and why do some images transcend the reach of our usual audience and go viral? Many years of practical experience as a photography teacher and purveyor of fine art photography has contributed to the formation of my own viewpoint on this topic.

To judge the success of a good photo it’s necessary to consider the story, its concept and the theme or topic being explored; the underlying composition; a range of technical considerations such as exposure, sharpness, color and contrast; and how well the photo conveys mood and emotion.

The above photo features a beautiful tree I photographed on a high, windy pass while crossing the range of peaks known as Mt. Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in Eastern China.

I found the trek, undertaken in the middle of winter, to be really tough going, but the three days I spent hiking across Mt. Huangshan remain one of my most treasured travel photography experiences.

There was virtually no color in the scene, nor in the light that illuminated it. Due to the lines, shapes and textures that dominant the composition, a black and white rendering was appropriate.

Take a look at the circular and semi-circular shapes created by the fences. Notice also the diamond shapes, created by the criss-cross pattern of the snow covered, mid tone fence on the left hand side of the picture, and how they contrast with the black fence and the straight vertical lines that support it.

Then there’s the texture in the tree, surrounded by the roughly circular fence, and the subtle separation of tones in the sky and snow covered ground.

As you can see there’s quite a lot going on in what, at first, seems like a very simple photo. It’s a good example of the importance of strong composition, particularly in the case of a black and white photo.

It’s Essential To Be Able To Articulate Why And How A Photo Works

The image that appeals most to a particular individual is, by definition, subjective.

Needless to say photography tutors are supposed to be somewhat more objective in their valuation, particularly when they’re assessing photos made by students or, for that matter, when they’re judging a photo competition.

But, at the end of the day, we are all biased.

Perhaps the fact that you either like or dislike a particular image is less important than your ability to explain why you feel the way you do about that particular image.

Feedback, after all, can be largely meaningless unless it is thoughtful and delivered in a clear and coherent manner.

And this advice isn’t isolated to expressing opinions on other peoples photos. It’s also of critical importance when you’re trying to objectively judge the success of your own photos.

It’s simply not enough to say you like them. You need to be able to articulate how they work on technical, aesthetic and emotive levels.

What Are The Factors That Contribute To The Success Of A Photo?

Often people respond to photos particularly positively based upon a range of criteria which include the following:

• The kind of subject matter or genre in which they’re particularly interested

• A connection, based upon familiarity or aspirational goals, with the subject matter or scene in question

• The visual appeal and emotive power underpinning the image

• An image that successfully tells a story or explores a topic

• An image that’s topical, of the moment and trending in social media

• A photo of a celebrity, whether shown in a positive or negative light

• The physicality and/or related challenges such as cost, effort, patience and timing involved in capturing the photo

• The camera techniques, mastery of light and post processing skills that underpin the creation of the image

• The attractiveness of the subject portrayed

• The grandeur or historic nature of the subject or the event associated with it 

• The exotic nature inherent to the subject or scene

• The iconic nature of the subject or scene depicted

• The communicative power of the image to explore notions such as humanity, kindness, war, hunger, motherhood, childhood, lust, anger, power, greed, compassion and empathy

• The ability of the photographer to transcend the subject matter and create an image that explores larger issues such as the human condition, spirituality and our place in the cosmos.

Keeping Technique in Perspective When Judging Photos

There’s a place for pixel peeking and close attention to the separation of tones; correct exposure; accuracy of color hue, saturation and luminance; and the relative sharpness of certain images, particularly in the case of many wildlife, landscape and architectural photos.

However, it’s important to note that, at the end of the day, technique is only one component of image making. Frankly, technique needs to be put into perspective, because the success of certain images (e.g., a seascape emerging from the mist) are simply not dependant upon overall, edge to edge sharpness.

Take a look at this photo of tree branches protruding above the surface of Harcourt Reservoir near the Central Victorian town of Bendigo in Australia.

About the only value in that description is that it reveals the subject matter in what is a pretty mysterious image. While the subject matter within the image does contain tree branches and water, that’s really not what the photo is about. And it’s certainly not what makes it a successful photo.

What’s the photo actually about? Well, in this sort of image I think it’s best to leave that up to the viewer. Given limited attention spans and the current fashion of scrolling through images on Instagram, the longer folks engage with this image, as a way of assigning meaning to it, the more successful it becomes.

As this photo illustrates, feelings are often much more important than form. And photographers driven by technique would do well to learn this lesson from consumers who, more often than not, will respond positively to images on purely emotive grounds.

I’m happy to tell you that the original color image was created by means of a long exposure, prior to being rendered into black and white in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop where, incidentally, I added a very warm sepia effect and a glow to the image.

That’s good to know if you’re an enthusiastic amateur photographer, not yet able to discern that sort of information by actually looking at the image and figuring it out for yourself. (And I mean no disrespect when I say that).

But, for most folks, that sort of information is incidental and, most likely, irrelevant to their appreciation of such an beautiful photo.

So many photographers place far too much importance on what lens, shutter speed, aperture or ISO was used to make particular images?

Likewise, does it matter if there’s a little bit of noise or if the image is ever so slightly soft. In some cases it might, but it’s just not often the case as is evidenced in many great photos published in National Geographic magazine over the years.

Please, don’t allow a lack of confidence based upon a perceived need for technical mastery to affect your judgement when assessing a photo.

You have to be able to determine the relative importance of technique in the making of your best photos, and also those made by other people that you’ll form an opinion on. If you fail to do so you may end up assigning to the trash what many people might consider to be very successful photos.

It’s the danger of, sometimes, placing too much reliance on the feedback we receive from other aspiring photographers. And I think it’s good for us photographers, no matter how experienced we are, to appreciate and accept that fact.

Just remember that we make images for ourselves, but we also make them for other people. The more communicative your images the more people will see and respond to them, on an emotional level.  

As a photography tutor it’s part of my role to draw attention to issues of technique. However, that should never be at the expense of recognizing or rewarding the visual or emotive power within an image. At the end of the day, that’s what matters most.

More and more I hope the feedback you provide to your peers and to yourself will reflect and support this point of view. You’ll be amazed at how opening yourself up to view and respond to images in this way will, in time, positively effect the quality of your own photography.

Your Best Photos And How I Might Judge Them

For a number of years I managed a number of online photography communities at the Arcanum. It was great fun and really successful. Unfortunately, these communities were all on the now defunct Google Plus platform. Once that platform was discontinued the Arcanum ceased to exist.

One of the things I did for my communities was to host a regular, and non-compulsory, Photo of the Week competition.

The above video features a winning image from a specific Photo of the Week competition, together with the feedback I provided to one the winner, Mr. Torben Kühle. You can watch the video or, if you prefer, simply read what I had to say directly below.

Torben’s photo of a large wooden building illuminated with warm, artificial light and placed against a night sky painted with the surreal color of the Aurora Borealis is spectacular.

While I’m impressed with the technique underpinning this photo it is the surreal and exotic nature of the scene and its cinematic qualities that I feel are most important to its success.

What’s more I’ve long wanted to photograph the aurora and a travel adventure to Norway to do so is now right at the top of my travel photography bucket list. And the motivation to do so is largely thanks to Torben and the success of his outstanding picture.

Concepts, Stories And Interesting Topics in Successful Photos

I’m very interested in the notion of duality. The quietness and solidity of the building contrasts markedly against the dynamic and transitory nature of the illuminated sky.

Torben’s photo seems, on the one hand, to record a moment in time, but it also seems to explore a moment between events. I found that duality to be a very compelling concept worth thinking about.

From a compositional point of view I like the way the building runs up into the top right hand corner of the frame.

To enhance visual appeal photos need to be, on one hand, stripped down to their most basic components. Including too much information (which, incidentally, can be the death of a HDR image) can result in unnecessary distraction.

There’s certainly an advantage in not revealing absolutely every detail in an image. Quite the contrary. In fact a sense of mystery can really add to the sense of wonder and the emotive power of an image.

With this in mind I feel Torben’s photo would be better with a silhouetted hillside in the background. That would mean getting rid of the trees protruding above the horizon and retouching out the structures that are partly visible in the foreground.

Conversely, I’d like to see a little more of the illuminated grass in the very front of the picture, including the bottom right corner. The shape created would provide an opposite (light verses dark, and right to left versus left to right) shape compared to that of the hill in the immediate background.

I’m not saying I’d necessarily do it, but I do believe doing so would produce an even more dynamic image.

It’s just good to remember that it’s for each of us to decide just how much post processing we want to apply to our images. There’s a time when enough really is enough and, sometimes, feedback can be more of a suggestion, without any promise of reward.

Ultimately, it’s up to the photographer in question to determine what next to do and what level of action is most appropriate to their own skillset and workflow.

After all, for most folks the joy of travel photography is all about being outside in the fresh air, experiencing sites, faces and places different to what they’re likely to encounter in their normal, everyday life. And you’re less likely to be doing that if you’re stuck behind a computer in your mum’s basement.

If making the image in camera is what photography is for you, then all power to you. Now get out into the world and enjoying making more photos, more often.

Whether your photos are created completely in camera or you derive great joy from taking your images to the next level on the desktop is completely up to you.

However, when it comes to composition, it’s important to remember that beauty resides in simplicity of design as much as it does in the choice of subject matter.

And that’s a simple lesson from which we can all benefit.

Final Piece of Advice When Judging The Success Of a Photo

My advice, when offering image feedback to other photographers, is for your feedback to be constructive and from the heart. Your advice should be in alignment with your own photography and worldview, which I hope is, ultimately, life affirming.

It’s usually okay for your feedback to touch on areas of improvement, particularly if you’re able to suggest how that improvement can be achieved. This is relatively easy to do when talking about technique or composition.

Let’s take a look at this picture I made after climbing up the hill, through knee deep snow, overlooking Paradise Harbour in Antarctica. It was a really tough slog up that step hill, but a great thrill to slide down, in a fraction of the time.

It’s a simple enough image, but there are elements of composition that contribute to the success of the photo.

• An interesting and engaging subject in the near foreground.

• Splashes of color (i.e., red) in an image that features a color palette that’s mostly low in saturation.

• Snow laden landscape that’s been used to separate the sky and water, thereby emphasizing the three dimensionality of the image.

• The snow covered landscape, both in front and behind the water, that acts to frame the water and emphasize the shape of that end of Paradise Harbour.

• The use of scale, through the inclusion of people and buildings throughout the foreground and mid ground, to showcase the expansive nature of the environment.

So you can see that even a simple image can be underpinned by a range of elements that, when combined, can largely determine the success of the photo.

It just proves the point that your best images are worth studying. Doing so will allow you to work out what it is you do well so that, in time, those very same techniques and elements of composition will begin to appear in more of your photos. The result will be more successful photos, more often.

When it comes to assessing the success of your own images, or providing feedback to other photographers, please be sure to do so in a positive manner and, where ever possible, to speak from the heart about any message, meaning or theme you feel has been successfully explored.

If an image touches your heart, or triggers any kind of feeling or emotion within you, be sure to speak directly to that. It’s likely going to be the best, most useful and most appreciated feedback you can provide.

Glenn Guy, Travel Photography Guru