5 tips for a great photo

While sorting and choosing the photographs of my recent trip to Botswana, I quickly remembered a list of criteria I like to use to objectively (more or less) decide which pictures are worth extracting from the huge bunch of files in the memory cards of my photo camera.

pigeon-guillemot-montana-de-oro-20july2008 (1 of 2)
Creative Commons License photo credit: mikebaird

As a matter of fact, I count 1 point for each of the following criteria:

  • AAttitude, Activity, Action
  • L – Light and Exposure
  • CComposition of the image
  • IInteraction of the subject with its environment, model placement
  • D – Crisp Details, no blur

After all, if you want a top photo, you could do much worse than try and fill all these conditions. A good photographer will remember these criteria at shooting time; An excellent photographer will apply them without even thinking about it; For my part, I still need to remember them while sorting RAW files under Adobe Bridge.