What makes a great photograph?

Answer 1

To me, that's the photograph that you can't stop looking at. It contains a very interesting subject - or a subject photographed in an out of the ordinary setting at a very specific moment (the right place at the right time). It generally has to be technically good - the right exposure, depth and shutter speed or blur - depending on what the photographer is trying to convey. Sometimes there is a better picture within a larger picture. Cropping out the unimportant later means sacrificing some detail. So the great photographer has an eye for the key elements in the scene and can zero in one what matters as he shoots. In the end, the picture conveys a mood or captures something we don't see often enough or from that unique perspective. So timing is a factor in many ways. Can you get everything on the equipment set up while the light is the way it is, before the scene changes and that magic moment is lost? Also, a subject which one person finds mesmerizing is boring to someone else. That other person would say it's a well done shot, but not great. So the eye of the beholder is a factor as well.

Another answer: A good or even great photograph contains certain elements, but, which ones? The above answer is totally correct, but, Books - Plural - have been written on this subject and yet still may or may not have answered the question because the question is as complex as, well, a photograph! Try taking a class. Join a club. Get on a photo sharing website. Take lots of pictures and, if you're not too thin skinned, open yourself to peer criticism. If everyone hates your photograph, it may in fact be bad, but if one person loves it and another hates it, you may have something there. Entirely the best advice I was given long ago was to spend a lot of time looking at photographs, and paintings, online, in art museums, galleries, books, magazines, or anyplace else you can find them. We build on what has gone before. If someone else thought a particular image was good enough to hang or publish, you can learn something just by looking at it. It's perhaps unwise to overanalyze. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Why? The previous answer includes this statement: "... a subject which one person finds mesmerizing is boring to someone else." Are you mesmerized? Why? Check out some of the Related Links I've added for some other opinions, advice, and pictures to look at.