What makes a good photographer?

~ Alok Singhal

I often get the question – Which camera do you use? Seems people think it is only the camera that matters, not the ‘eye’ that one has in finding beauty around!

I am not a professional photographer, but based on the positive feedback I normally get, I can say it is more of how you look at the scene that matters; device comes later. Even if you talk about the device, some pics from my iPhone (I am a huge Apple fan) are equally good as compared to the ones from Sony Alpha 7 that acts as my travel companion.

Now the ‘eye’ I am talking about is looking at the scene holistically and then the details. Are objects complementing each other?, is there something which is not required in the frame?, is it too bright or dull in the background?, is it all symmetric? etc. I like to give my audience more than just one object to please them…even if it just a selfie.

Consider this shot from the base of Mount Washington in New Hampshire when I was chasing fall colors last month. Look at the overall picture – do you see any aspect which should not have been there? Then see the details – how the tree in the front enraptures you; the mountain emerging slightly from behind; the intermingling of clouds and blue sky; the stream of water adding further to the beauty; and, of course, the lovely fall colors! Finally, the picture is symmetric in the sense that the imaginary line where the grass meets the trees in the background is horizontal across the frame.

One could have just focused on any one or two of these aspects, but then would it have been this pleasing? The idea is to also learn to shoot better than buying an expensive product and just relying on it.

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P.S. I never do post-processing of any sort on my pictures, they are just a snapshot of raw nature!

112 thoughts on “What makes a good photographer?”

  3. Lovely picture and I agree with you what you say. While the camera is important, the frame is equally important. I use my phone all the time and some shots I can’t click cos I can’t manage the aperture. But yes, frame is important and so is the skill to get it right 🙂

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      2. Yes, but I think they prefer a bit of post-processing, which can make a pic look totally unbelievable – something I don’t want to do.

        Having said that, this is only the beginning, hope someday I can earn those millions 😍

        Liked by 2 people

  5. I love the picture that you posted – so lovely – and autumn/fall is my favourite season 🙂 Apart from what you said about the “eye” when taking photos, I would like to add is, are you connecting with the place? Based on my personal experience, I had found that when I don’t connect with the place, my photos turned out to be just..meh. Conversely, when I had connected with the place emotionally, regardless a smartphone or a camera, the photos turned out absolutely amazing. People asked me oh what settings did you use? My response was, hmm no settings, just Auto 🙂

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  7. Agree…
    “I never do post-processing of any sort on my pictures, they are just a snapshot of raw nature”- somehow I feel, basic editing methods comprising cropping, aligning, resizing and brightness/saturation adjustments do not steal the naturalness of a frame, rather they synergies to present a more focused part of raw nature :-/

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