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You study free photography lessons or go to a photography school, study additional literature on photography, try to apply the acquired knowledge in practice - in general, you want to learn how to photograph ...

Do you know the difference between an experienced photographer and a beginner? The most important difference between an experienced photographer and a beginner is that an experienced photographer knows that photography is something more than what we see in it. An experienced photographer knows how to analyze a flat image and can easily evaluate any photo.

Knowing how to evaluate photos, it is not difficult to guess how photos can be improved. Do you want to learn how to rate your photos? How long does it take to study photography in order to develop the ability to analyze and evaluate photographs?

Be honest, what percentage of your photography training time do you spend reviewing, analyzing and evaluating your photos and those of established photographers? How much time do you spend listening to your feelings and "drowning" in the wonderful world of artistic photography? How often do you take a look at the photo you like and, evaluating the photo, break it down into its components in order to analyze and better understand and realize what you found so attractive in it?

If you want to improve your photos, then
you definitely need to learn to objectively evaluate your own and other people's photos

To learn how to objectively evaluate your photos, you need to take the first step - spend at least an hour a day analyzing your own and other people's photos. A few tips and questions below will help you through this ambiguous and rather complicated process....

How to analyze and evaluate photos

First impression of the photo

What do you feel when looking at the photo? Try to look at the photo without thinking, all its elements separately and together. Try not to look at the details.

After that, take your eyes off the photo (or just close your eyes) and remember what you saw in the photo? What objects and objects do you remember? Sometimes, you will be surprised because you remember objects and objects that you did not pay any attention to or that are not related to the subject of the photo. Now think about what will change in the plot if these objects and objects are removed from the frame? Are they related to the subject of the photo or was it the photographer's mistake? What event did the photographer or artist want to tell about?

If a picture without these details loses its power of attraction and the story told by the photographer or artist falls apart, it means that they were an integral part of the picture, creating

At what time was the photo taken? Try to evaluate not only the time of day, but also time in a broader sense - a century, a decade, an epoch. Allow yourself to consider all the elements of the photo carefully. Try to understand where the event depicted in the photograph takes place - on a larger and more precise scale. What details of the picture or photograph allow you to judge this?

When analyzing small and seemingly unimportant details, you can get additional information about the plot. It was these details that helped you determine the time and place of the event. Often, when photographing, small, seemingly insignificant details can improve the photograph as a whole, giving it a certain cultural value.

Object-to-object and/or object-to-viewer relationships

What can you say about the people in the photo? How close are they - literally and figuratively? How do they treat each other? How the characters depicted in the photograph convey emotions to the viewer - pay attention, do you have as a viewer?

Symbols and concepts in photography

Sometimes, at first glance, the abstract details of a photograph, which do not carry any meaning or content, can say more than the main objects. Haughty look? Specially crossed fingers or hands? Barely earthy badge on the lapel of a jacket? A hardly recognizable detail in the background... What do these little things tell about the plot of the photo? What does the crossed fingers or haughty look symbolize?

Direction: grabs and doesn't let go or runs away

Where is your 3Γ eye heading to? What is its trajectory? On which object does the eye linger, and on which does it slide, without the desire to stop? Try to understand why this is happening and how it relates to the subject of the photo.

Spectator: an outside observer or participant in the events

A real work of fine art not only attracts the viewer's eye, but also makes him a participant in the plot, subconsciously forcing him to take the place of the subject. The viewer, based on his memories and dreams, as if trying on the events captured in the photograph.

The last question is perhaps the most difficult for a photographer of any level, since any photographer is in one way or another a participant in the event being filmed. For obvious reasons, it will be especially difficult for an amateur family photographer ... Why a family photographer will never photograph a masterpiece, you

However, if you put your pictures aside for a while and return to them after your emotions have cooled and the memories have faded, you will be able to evaluate your photograph from this point of view more objectively.

You need to be able to evaluate your own photos.

Professionals are different for professionals. In photography, there are no universal objective evaluation criteria, so it is not so much the evaluation itself that matters, but who evaluates it. The same picture is judged differently by different audiences. So, the famous picture of Andreas Gursky "Rhein II" () was most likely met with restraint on and not only there, which does not prevent this photo from being the most expensive in the world. I saw some famous (and certainly good) Cartier-Bresson shots being criticized on some photography forum. Should we trust such estimates?

A photograph cannot be adequately assessed without knowing why it was taken and why it was taken the way it was. There are two nuances.

The first is that photography always gravitates towards some kind of aesthetics, in each of which the image is built and perceived according to its own principles. Roughly speaking, this is the aesthetics of the Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism and contemporary art. At the heart of the aesthetics of the Renaissance is a figurative cipher (“white rose is the emblem of sadness”), a literary component, photography in such aesthetics says something. The Baroque aesthetics is based on movement, blurring of contours, fog, perspective, dynamics - everything that we usually love in pictures. The aesthetics of impressionism is based on chromatic contrast. In the aesthetics of modern art, the basis of everything is the idea that the viewer reads himself, while the artist and the image are generally secondary.

The second nuance - if the photo is applied (wedding, advertising, reportage, etc.), then it is important how the task is solved. Aesthetics is secondary here. For example, according to this link (), two out of three photos are rather bad, although they look cool. And this is how () a cool and very professional wedding shoot looks like. At first glance, it looks ordinary, but take a closer look: all the pictures are good and to the point, there are no technical jambs anywhere, everything is sustained in a single pictorial key, one gets a solid impression of what is happening, the photographer does not show off in anything, 127 pictures do not have time to get bored.

So how do you rate your photos? The easiest way to friend on Facebook is two dozen reputable image professionals for you personally - whether they are photographers, art historians, filmmakers, artists, etc.: if at least one likes or comments on something, then the picture should be postponed and review it after six months. The second criterion is if dozens of familiar people reacted to the picture in a few days.

The second way is to register for . The first resource is more poppy, but if the picture got into the Editor's choice, that's good. If it just became popular there, that's not bad.

In this article, I want to write about three criteria for quality photography. After all, if you bought a SLR, and even more so visited, then you want learn to photograph, and your photos should, of course, be of high quality, right?

So, let's get down to business.

Sharpness above all else

But, this does not mean at all that the entire photo should be sharp, no, it is not. But what about everyone's favorite bokeh then? The semantic center of the picture should be sharp!

For example, in a portrait it is the eyes. Everything else can be blurry.

Disastrous overexposure

I have a very valuable piece of advice for you: it's better to make a photo darker than lighter. In a dark photo, you can still stretch the shadows, and a photo with overexposure is very difficult to fix. Especially if you "killed" the sky. Also, try not to make "sun spots" on your model. Since a great contrast with the shadows is obtained.

Composition

You must foresee EVERYTHING, everything that will be in your picture. After all, even a small detail, and the picture is spoiled. For example, they often "like" to spoil photos - power lines. Or the second gross mistake is the circumcision of the limbs. You are a photographer, not a surgeon.

But, if it is difficult to deal with overexposure, then here still photos can be saved.

Analysis - from the Greek. analysis - decomposition, dismemberment, a procedure for mental, and often also real dismemberment of an object (phenomenon, process), properties of an object or relations between objects into parts; Analytical methods are so common in science that the term "Analysis" is often synonymous with research in general, both in the natural and social sciences.

In the lecture “Good and bad photography”, we have already touched upon the issue of criteria for evaluating a photographic image. Now it's time to talk about this in more detail. The ability to analyze and impartially evaluate your own and other people's photographs is one of the most important professional qualities of a photographer. Being the first and, ideally, the most severe critic of his own work, the photographer must present to the viewer's judgment photographs that are not only technically perfect, but also emotionally vivid, most appropriate for a particular situation. It is quite obvious that certain knowledge, skills and abilities are needed for the high-quality performance of such a difficult job. Moreover, the analysis of photography develops photographic thinking and contributes to the growth of skill, since analysis and synthesis are "two sides of the same coin." And of course, it is important to understand that the whole is, almost always, not just the sum of the parts, but a certain number of interconnected elements that together give rise to a new quality. It is this quality that distinguishes a real photograph from a simple photograph. While analyzing a photographic image, we will consider different parts and sides of the image, but especially carefully - evaluate the very quality that is inherent in the whole - a real photograph.

Now about the main thing - preliminary analysis. It makes no sense to analyze a photograph just like that, that is, in isolation from the purpose of its creation and purpose! Try to answer the question - which is better - a bus, a truck, a car or a motorcycle? Here the question arises - for what? It must be said that it arises quite correctly. The situation is similar with a musical or literary work - you can compare a song with a violin concerto, or an essay with a detective story, but trying to determine which is better, out of context and, sorry, from a specific consumer, is completely pointless. This fully applies to photography - it is stupid and wild to talk about the advantages or disadvantages without first deciding on the positioning. A simple conclusion follows from this: in order for the analysis of a photograph to make sense, it is necessary to correlate the result with the purpose of obtaining it.

We will use the simplest, most intuitive, classification according to the traditional market scheme - we will answer the questions:

For whom,

For whom?

The answer to this question determines a lot. To begin with, let's separate the general from the particular, that is, photographs taken for a narrow circle of friends or relatives from photographs for a wide audience. In a general sense, this is the division of viewers into those who are “in the know” and those who are not familiar with the context of what is depicted in the photograph. Agree, a photograph of a grandson, for grandparents, is much more interesting than the highest quality, abstract photo masterpieces. Photo as a documentary means, in the narrow family sense, has every right to life. Moreover, the vast majority of photographs are taken precisely as a “memory photo”. Of course, it's good when in a family album or on the wall of a dwelling there are professional pictures taken with high quality, compositionally verified and interesting in content. However, something else is more important - the very fact of reflection, known to a narrow circle of characters, in important life situations and, of course, how much these characters like "your loved ones" is of decisive importance. Being carried away by highly artistic, creative research, do not forget about your loved ones so that you don’t get a “shoemaker without boots”. Close people are the most grateful audience.

With photographs "to order" the situation is somewhat different, they can be intended for both a narrow circle and a wide audience. As a rule, when performing such work, it is useful to clarify - for whom are the photographs taken? The main task, in this case, is to ensure maximum compliance with the requirements and expectations of the customer, and always with the highest technical quality. Often, it takes more time and effort to understand what the client wants than to do the work itself, but there is no other way.

We turn to the most interesting - creativity and self-expression. Often amateur photographers say that they shoot exclusively for themselves - this is self-deception or cunning. Every creator needs an audience and the recognition of this audience! It means that, being engaged in creativity, the photographer works for an unfamiliar audience, which he seeks to “win”, to interest with his thoughts and photographic images. Hence the main requirement - photographs must be attractive, interesting and meaningfully understandable to a wide range of strangers. Such photographs should "cling" with their form and content to people divorced from the context of the image.

About what?

We have already spoken on this topic several times, so we will not go into much depth. However, please note that the idea and content of the photograph must be appropriate for the audience, place and time. To analyze photography according to this criterion, oddly enough, it is convenient to use a genre classification: reportage, landscape, macro, monocle, still life, erotica, portrait ... If it so happened that the form sets a very specific framework for the content, we will use this. Having defined the genre, we largely give an answer to the question of what the photo is about. It is clear that genres can be mixed, for example, a photo of a naked girl swimming against the backdrop of a seascape, in sunset rays, will refer to both erotica and landscape. Similarly, the answer to the question “about what?” will be mixed - about the beauty of the female body and the greatness of nature, about the harmony and transience of being ...

What for?

Where and how photos will be shown? Two more additional questions that are important at the stage of preliminary analysis, but they are more related to the stage of processing and preparing the photo for printing. Let the supporters of the so-called “clean photography” forgive us, but pre-press processing, preparation for printing and the printing itself are of great importance. We all know that very different photographs can be printed from the same negative. It is no coincidence that vintages are of the greatest value - photo prints made personally by the author, that is, fully consistent with the author's vision. Digitalization has made its contribution, and now from the same digital negative, on different, well-calibrated photo printers, you can get completely identical prints. Moreover, the process has become controlled - on the monitor screen you can see almost the same thing that will turn out on the print. We will be devoted to the issue of preparing an image for printing, so for now, we will limit ourselves to a simple remark - the correct processing of a photo can dramatically improve its perception by the viewer. Equally important is the format and display method. There are photos that are good in any format without changes, but in most cases, you have to slightly change the contrast and saturation of the image. Some photos look only in large format, while others, such as panoramas, are completely non-printing. With some degree of conventionality, formats and placement can be classified as follows:

1. photo prints of small format (10x15 cm or less) - in a photo album
2. screen resolution photos - for display in electronic form
3. magazine format (A3-A4) - for printing
4. gallery format (A2-A3) - for exhibition exposition or in the interior
5. high-resolution large-format printing - for exhibition exposition or in the interior
6. low resolution banner printing (outdoor advertising)

In addition to size, the substrate also matters, that is, what the final result is printed on. Galleries, for example, are still not very willing to take digital prints, so most of the black-and-white photographs in the galleries are printed in the traditional way: with a photo enlarger on silver halide photographic paper. Photos intended for printing require special preparation, taking into account the specifics of the process of printing color separation and raster printing. The electronic representation imposes on the photo additional requirements for compatibility and clarity - the image should look equally good on any monitor (better, of course, on a properly calibrated one).

Let us finally proceed directly to the analysis of the photograph. We distinguish four types:

Technical analysis,

emotional analysis,

semantic analysis,

compositional analysis.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

This type of analysis is the most objective. No matter how emotionally attached you are to the portrait you took, if the eyes on it are not sharp, you will not be able to convince yourself and others of the opposite. There is a fairly stable set of technical quality criteria that an image must satisfy: sharpness / blur, exposure (brightness, contrast, dips, overexposure), color balance, saturation, detail.

sharpness- the first criterion of technical quality, or rather, the balance of sharpness and blur in the frame. Consider the main causes of blur.

1. Accuracy of focus: there are always elements of particular importance in a photograph. They usually need to be sharp. If you see that the sharpness is not where it should be, but nearby, you have a marriage in front of you.
2. Choosing the Right Depth of Field: A shallow depth of field is a beautiful artistic technique, but it must be handled with care. For example, if in a double portrait one face is sharp and the other is slightly blurry, this is a marriage.
3. “Shake” or “lubrication” - these fervent words have become so firmly established in the vocabulary of photographers that they have long passed into the category of terms. Shaking is blurring as a result of movement at the time of exposure. The objects being photographed, the camera, or both can move at the same time. Of course, the longer the shutter speed, the more likely it is to get a blurry photo. Blur, like a shallow depth of field, can be an effective artistic technique, but more often than not, its presence is bad news for the photographer.
4. Image scale: it happens that a 9x12 cm control print looks quite tolerable, but once you enlarge the photo to the size of a magazine sheet, it turns out that there is clearly not enough sharpness. The larger the image scale, the stricter the requirements for the sharpness of the original negative, slide, or digital file, because sharpness is determined by the clarity of separation of tones of different densities. On a small image, the line may appear quite sharp, but when zoomed in, it becomes clear that this is not a sharp border between black and white, but a gray band in which the tone changes in a gradient from black to white.

Photo 1.

Consider the following example (Photo 1):

Before you is a technically complex and professionally executed photo. By most technical criteria, it's almost flawless, with the exception of sharpness. Look closely at the dial: the eight to four o'clock segment is perfectly sharp, but the numbers V, VI and VII are slightly blurry. In principle, the sharpness there is quite enough for a quarter-page print, but this photo is unsuitable for full-page advertising. In this case, the problem arose due to insufficient depth of field, which is not uncommon at this magnification.

Photo 2. "Good old sports car." NIKON D70s, 1/60s, f/18, 138mm"

In this Good Old Sports Car example, you see lubrication that is not only acceptable, but also beneficial. As a result of the “wiring” shooting, the moving car turned out to be sharp, and the stationary part of the image was blurred. This technique creates the illusion of movement, speed.

exposition- the second criterion of technical quality. A perfectly exposed frame conveys the maximum tonal range, that is, details are recorded in both shadows and highlights. In addition, the tonal content of recognizable objects looks natural, that is, white looks white, black looks black, tanned skin looks tanned, and brown hair is neither lighter nor darker than in life. In traditional photography, determining the correct exposure of a print was a rather subjective matter, since the ability to distinguish details in shadows and highlights depends on visual acuity. Digital photography, on the other hand, makes it possible to objectively assess exposure using a histogram representing the distribution of tones in an image. We have already touched on this issue in the introductory materials and we know that understanding the basic characteristics of the histogram is necessary to assess the correct exposure.

It happens that the lighting conditions do not allow capturing all the details. This happens if the lighting is too contrasty and there is no way to modify it. In this case, the frame is exposed in the shadows or in the highlights, depending on which part of the tonal spectrum can be sacrificed. In this case, the lack of detail in one of the parts of the histogram will not be a technical defect. It is necessary to distinguish the contrast of lighting from the contrast of photography. The contrast of a print depends not only on lighting conditions, but also on the method of prepress preparation, the choice of photographic materials, and the development mode. If the photo is too contrasty, it is poor in detail (which can sometimes be done intentionally), and if the contrast is low, then the print appears “sluggish”, inexpressive.

Even if the sharpness and exposure are unmistakable, there are two reasons why a photograph may be technically untenable: the nature of the light and shadow pattern and the composition. The theme of composition is so voluminous that a separate course will be devoted to it, and we will discuss the elements of the analysis of a light-shadow pattern.

The nature of the light-shadow pattern this is the depth and volume of the image, in other words, the ability to create the illusion of three-dimensionality. Let's go back to the clock in Fig. 1. Pay attention to how the upper left eyelet of the frame is lit. Unlike the other three, it seems completely flat, devoid of volume. This happened because the light was reflected from the plane exactly into the lens - almost a flare turned out.

In addition, you should pay attention to how appropriate the degree of lighting hardness implemented in this image. Hard light, by itself, cannot be a technical defect, but its use is more likely to lead to errors than in the case of soft light, because it is much more difficult to handle. For example, in Photo 3, the wrong setting of the hard imaging source led to two serious problems: the left eye was in shadow, and the shadow from the nose crossed the lips.

In principle, it cannot be said that this is absolutely unacceptable, but in this situation, the result would be much better if the light source were located much lower. In addition, due to too high contrast, the skin on the hands, on the forehead and under the eyes is almost whitened. As you can see, the photo lacks sharpness, but at this image size, it's only noticeable on close inspection, while lighting errors are noticeable, regardless of format.

Color balance and saturation These are color characteristics that affect the perception of a photograph. In film photography, you had to carefully use daylight and artificial light films, but even so, color correction was applied during the printing process to ensure natural shades. Different film manufacturers had their own characteristics - Kodak turned yellow, Fuji made green, and Konika gave a bluish tint. This is probably why Kodak was the most popular in the portrait. Digital photography made it possible to change the white balance during shooting, adjusting to the spectral component of the light flux of specific conditions. Moreover, any photo editor allows you to change the color balance and color saturation in a photo. This must be used correctly. Compare the photos - "Rainy sunset" (Photo 4) and "Baloon Fiesta" (Photo 5) - it is quite obvious that the color balance and saturation are justifiably different here.

Photo 4. "Rainy sunset." Canon EOS 5D, Canon EF 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 L IS USM

Photo 5. "Baloon Fiesta". Canon EOS 5D, Canon EF 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 L IS USM

Finally, the last point - detailing- she is micro-sharpness and graininess, and in digital photography - noise. There is an opinion that high detail and the absence of grain or noise are indispensable criteria for image quality. In fact, not everything is so simple. For example, in classical landscape photography, in architecture photography, or in forensic photography, detail is extremely important, and in a female portrait it is usually undesirable. Therefore, portrait photographers often resort to various tricks and tricks to get rid of such troubles as pores, age spots and small scars. In some types of artistic photography, they generally try to get away from a clear image in order to transfer the main emotional load to the tonality and light-shadow pattern. Therefore, when evaluating detail and “cleanliness” (no noise), you need to take into account what task the photographer set for himself. At the same time, it is important to remember that everyone’s visual acuity is different, but you need to focus on the “islanders”, which means that if the photographer’s vision is not one hundred percent, you should wear glasses.

SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

"Life imitates Art much more than Art imitates Life."
Oscar Wilde

When analyzing the semantic content of the picture, ask yourself the question - “What did the author want to say?” - and then, - “did it work out?” I want to remind you that a good photograph necessarily operates with general concepts: a portrait painter does not depict eyes, but a look, a landscape painter does not depict a sunrise, but the freshness of an early morning, etc. It is important that the ambiguity or ambiguity of the plot is not a disadvantage. Offering various interpretations, the author gives each viewer the opportunity to think out the plot in their own way. At the same time, the content should be so obvious that the viewer does not lose interest in the process of “unraveling” the hidden meaning, but not so straightforward that it does not look like the author is condescendingly simplifying the narrative, because the viewer is not able to master the more intellectual form of presentation. . The same can be said about the presentation of the material: excessive simplicity threatens with primitiveness, and pretentiousness - with absurdity. Photo in Fig. 5 is an example of the effective use of a concise presentation in the disclosure of a rather complex topic that allows for several different interpretations.

Semantic analysis is most closely related to preliminary analysis, since we are talking about content, we need to return to the question again - to whom this very content is oriented. It is important to understand how much the image appeals to generally understood, universal values. Sometimes it is useful to show a photo to different people and ask what they see, what associations are born, what feelings the photo awakens. Ask specific questions: what is the photo about, what is the main thing in the frame, what are the relationships between the elements of the image, how balanced and stable is it. If out of ten viewers, at least five answered the same way, then the photo will be understandable to a wide audience.

EMOTIONAL ANALYSIS

"In fact, art does not reflect life, but the viewer."
Oscar Wilde

Of all types of analysis, emotional analysis is perhaps the most important. At the same time, it is the least formalized and the most subjective. Emotional perception is almost instantaneous, so often, without even looking at the image, we already form an initial opinion about it. The criteria are very simple: like, dislike, leave indifferent. The last one is perhaps the most unfavorable. If the photo does not touch, then it is not remembered, the viewer does not have a desire to return to it. On the other hand, if the photo is actively disliked, it is worth investigating whether it is bad. Here it makes sense to use the criterion of relevance. When the negative emotional coloring of the image contributes to the correct interpretation of the semantic (semantic) component, it can be considered quite acceptable. At this stage, it makes no sense to think about why the image evokes certain emotions. The main thing is to listen to your feelings, try to understand whether the photo has changed your mood and whether this change is appropriate for the content and the author's intention. The subconscious feeling that everything “has come together” in photography indicates that there is harmony between the emotional and semantic components in it. Often, visual harmony makes an image so pleasing to the eye that even obvious technical problems cannot prevent it.

When analyzing a photograph from an emotional point of view, one should try to separate the true subconscious emotions evoked only by the image from personal experiences, especially when it comes to your own work. For example, a portrait of a former lover who left you is unlikely to please, although, objectively, it can be very good. Or vice versa, an unremarkable photograph of a park bench can cause a storm of feelings if you kissed for the first time on this bench. At the same time, note that only one person can truly share these feelings with you. The reaction of the rest depends solely on objective criteria.

It is important to understand that quite often a certain emotional mood of a photograph is created by a violation of certain technical norms: incorrect exposure, framing, frame composition. Therefore, at the stage of emotional analysis, any technical solutions should be considered only in the context of the appropriateness of their emotional impact. In addition, it must be remembered that due to the immediacy of emotional perception, the viewer begins to perceive the semantic content, already under the influence of the emotions caused by photography. Thus, the perception of the emotional and semantic components occur in a complex, and it is quite difficult to analyze them separately. Generally speaking, to obtain the correct result, the analysis of the photo must be carried out simultaneously for all criteria. At the same time, one should try to remain as impartial as possible, not allowing a personal attitude to the events in the photograph, or to its author, to influence the assessment.

Compositional analysis has not been considered, but, firstly, a separate course will be devoted to composition, and secondly, we are and will be constantly engaged in the analysis of composition and compositional construction. Therefore, in this lecture, we do not consider it separately.

PHOTOGRAPHER ERRORS

Let's now repeat ourselves a little, and at the same time connect theory with practice. The mistakes of the photographer and, as a result, the shortcomings of photography can be divided into three groups:

Technical

Composite

- technical errors: clarity, sharpness, saturation, contrast ... The main reason for such errors is a lack of professionalism or elementary inaccuracy - an incorrectly selected depth of field (DOF), incorrect exposure, lack of sharpness where it is needed (poor focus, movement), disturbed color balance ... such errors are immediately visible and, generally speaking, are easily eliminated. With the exception of cases where it is impossible to choose a place and time, and, consequently, lighting conditions ... objectively unsuitable (extremely difficult) lighting conditions for shooting. For example, the excessive dynamic range that exists in certain parts of the frame, or vice versa - extremely subtle tonal transitions that the camera is unable to adequately capture;

- compositional errors: imbalance, inexpressiveness, lack of dynamics and (or) perspective, "litteriness", loss of diversity ... This group is more difficult - not all errors are visible, not always, sometimes not immediately, and the reasons for this are varied. Firstly, it is an objective impossibility to choose the right time of day, shooting point and angle, making it possible to “build a frame”. Secondly, the subjective inability (sometimes, simple laziness) of the photographer to correctly compose the frame (crop) due to an insufficiently developed sense of composition and inability to use the elements and means of composition for expressive construction of the frame. Thirdly - elementary inattention - the photographer may not notice some detail, the presence of which destroys the composition, or gives the image an undesirable ambiguity. The viewer may be more inattentive, but will definitely notice this “unpleasant” detail. Fourthly, the most difficult thing is the lack of experience and imagination in order to understand how the four-dimensional reality is transformed when it passes to the photographic plane and how the image, so clearly “read” at the moment of shooting, will change;

- meaningful- the most important thing is the lack of thoughts and subjectivism - there is a proverb among painters: "We write what we see, and we see what we know." Personal life experience makes us pay more attention to things that are the closest and most understandable or subjectively interesting. Therefore, some structural and semantic details in a photograph may go unnoticed or “underestimated”, while others, on the contrary, will be exaggerated. In addition, in the process of creating a photograph, the author inevitably becomes a witness or participant in events that cause an emotional reaction - this is a part of personal experience directly related to a part of the content that could not get into the photo, but is perceived by the author associatively. Thus, as we have already said more than once, the photographer and the viewer look at the photo differently and see different things in it.

Any beginner, having snapped off a certain number of frames, asks himself the question: Are the photos taken by me good or not ?!

In search of an answer, the teapot turns to sites and Vkontakte groups, asking them to criticize the photo and point out shortcomings. It is not necessary to talk about the fact that our hero firmly believes in the masterpiece of his creations at all.

And when critics fall upon him, then the world of our beginner begins to burst at the seams and spread before our eyes.

I am a member of several publics and I am a rather vicious critic who regularly distributes rather harsh reviews of other people's photographs, which is why the novice photographer begins to be frustrated and run to complain about me to the local administration.

However, any beginner can avoid such frustration if he is honest with himself and independently evaluates his photo by looking at it with an unbiased look. So, let's talk about how you can and should evaluate your photos yourself.

In general, after several years of photography, I can see that if you don’t know how to independently and self-critically evaluate your photos, you won’t be able to become a good photographer in principle.

How to evaluate your photos yourself and subject them to your own criticism?!

Somehow I already pointed out that the quality of any photograph can be considered in two planes: technical and artistic.

It is most easy and convenient to evaluate your own photographs in a technical plane. It is enough to check the photo on:

• Highlights / overexposure / glare / "hares"
• Falls in the shadows
• exposure in general
• Horizontal line / horizontal and vertical lines in the frame
• The amount of digital noise
• Too little / too much contrast
• Proper framing/composition

In artistic terms, everything is much more complicated. You need to honestly answer a few basic questions:

• What feelings does this photo evoke!?
• Does it evoke any emotion in me?
• Is there a balance between objects, objects and plans in the photo?!
• Are there any foreign objects or objects that are so unnecessary in this photo?!

And when you are sure that technically everything is in order with your photo, as well as artistically, then you can safely post it "for criticism" already on social networks or on specialized sites.

True, I must immediately warn you, there will not be many comments, because from the technical side you can’t find fault, but from the artistic side, this is probably your vision of our harsh reality. The number of likes will strongly depend on the popularity and traffic of a particular public, which leads to the idea that their number cannot serve as any determining factor.

I advise you not to pay attention to the number of likes, because one full-fledged detailed comment, no matter positive or negative, will have a much greater impact on your development in photography than a bunch of nameless likes from I don’t understand who, with I don’t understand what taste.

It is enough just to listen to this comment and soberly assess what exactly the person wanted to tell you. Ultimately, this is exactly the viewer of your photos for which you photographed in general.

Yes, and I know you haven't thought about it.