Eyes Photography

If you’re interested in photography, and you regularly show other people your work, sooner or later you will get the compliment “oh you have a ‘good eye’”’ (don’t feel too flattered, most people have pretty low standards!). But what does this really mean?

If you ask people what having a good eye for photography means, you’ll get a range of mostly meaningless answer, ranging from ‘an ability to capture the moment’ (huh?) to ‘being able to see the unseen’ (what?) or ‘to be able to innately see the artistic qualities of the subject’ (…schwah?).

The truth is that people say that someone has a ‘good eye’ when that someone takes a photo they like. And what do people like? The answer is surprisingly simple. People tend to like photos that follow one or more of the following rules:

#1: ‘The rule of thirds’. This is the rule that says points of interest in a photo should be placed on one or more of the four intersections that dividing the frame into nine equal rectangles would create. This also means that point of interest should not be placed in the dead center of the frame.

#2: ‘No elements that distract from the main subject’. This is another way of saying ‘keep it simple’. Most good photos (not all, but most) are ambiguously ‘of’ one thing, and don’t have distracting backgrounds or other subjects that compete for attention.

#3: ‘Include leading lines coming from the bottom left of the photo’. For some reason (no-one’s really sure why), it’s pleasing when an element in a photo (it could be for example a river, road or fence line) traces a diagonal across the frame starting from towards the bottom left.

#4: ‘For wide shots, have something interesting in the foreground of the frame’. Wide angle shots dramatically emphasize the foreground, but there needs to be something there (i.e. close to the lens) or the photo will look dull.

#5: ‘For people photography, make it easy to see the eyes’. When looking at other people, both in real life and in photos, we are drawn to their eyes.

#6: ‘Keep horizons level’. Hopefully this is self-explanatory! Note that you can correct wonky horizons after the fact using photo editing software.

#7: ‘Include contrast’. Strong contrast (i.e. a full range of tones from white to black) always look good in a photo.

#8: ‘Include symmetry and patterns where possible’. This especially holds for black and white photos.

#9: ‘Use the best light’. In photography, very little substitutes for great light. For natural light (i.e. light from the sun) that usually means the light you get for the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset.