What makes people react to a good image or, what should a winning image really look like? One could also say, please give me the guidelines which photographers use to take winning category images. I guess these and more are typical questions almost every photographer or would be photographers think off, especially when sitting back with a good glass of wine. Does experienced photographers ask these questions or does it happen all by itself after years of doing photography? Are these the only questions that will define a winning image?

How many people go read reviews, web articles or visit a forum after buying a new camera? Personally I think the percentage people getting a magazine or reading web based reviews are high. Nothing wrong doing that, the question is, what would you think the perfect image should look like after reading web reviews? When consulting the web one will read things like dynamic range, noise and many more. My experience is web articles cover more technically type aspects related to photography. How important are these technical type questions in helping you take winning images. Surely they are important, I do not think incorrect exposed images will be price winners……

Lets consider one of the most basic rules on our journey becoming real photographers. The first image I see when thinking of composition is the so-called "Rule of Thirds" I think this is the most fundamental and probably the most important guideline in terms of image composition. When I started many years back with my first small 35mm film camera I remember my farther telling me about the rule of thirds. Later somebody told me that the rule of thirds are really an image or copy of how the brain see the world through our human eyes. The human brain does not direct the eyes to the middle of a scene on first contact, no the brain has a pattern it follows when scanning a scene or image. By developing a good understanding of how the brain see an image, we as photographers will increase our winning image hit rate I believe. You can easily test this by developing a habit of showing your best 2 or 3 images after each day out with your camera to your wife or ladies, your best friend. Look at the reactions and listen to the comments, you will learn a lot about both the emotional side of photography plus about your own images.

Thinking about the "Rule of Thirds" the questions is, does the little ship sail away in the above image or is it sinking? The rule of thirds has been talked about and written about much on the web, no need for me to add anything. My advice is, search the web and list the 5 or 6 most important points related to the rule of thirds. Keep them with you and you will quickly get a feel for it. Without going into any in-depth discussion, the following general points will also help you to discover your own set of rules taking that winning image:-

• On landscape images, always build in something interesting into the foreground, this helps create a feel for depth

• Practice to select the right focus point in your images - set your camera to focus on the first half press and to capture exposure when pressing the shutter all the way

• Use leading lines to guide the eye into the image, great example is using a road to lead the eye into the image

• Keep in mind that photography is a form of art, you the artist. Technically correct images are in most cases completely boring

• When shooting a close-up portrait, ask the model to let the head turn a little forward and to the side, this creates a warm intimate or friendly look.

• For portrait work keep a pocket book to note each "working" position so that you can plan the next shoot better

• Plan when going out for a serious job, no planning equals sub standard results

• Take your time, do more than one picture of the same subject

• On portraits its important to wait for the right moment, take care to never wait more than 3 seconds, flirt with your model

• When shooting architecture or buildings avoid taking right from the front - work the image until best view corner views often works best

• Make use of natural framing. Some of the most interesting images use this technique

Each of the above images includes elements of what I discussed. The final point I like to briefly discuss is the term, "Working an Image" Its something I personally only learned more about much later in my photographic hobby career. On a day's outing, I enjoy to return with anything from 300 to 500 images. With digital one can do that and when home I find it fun to sort the images and to keep those I really like. On the other hand if I want to get a specific image then I will really "work the image" until I get what I look for.

Working an image is nothing else than deciding on a subject and then to work that image by considering different angles, heights, focal lengths until you get the best angle, view, background and impact. Buildings are great examples of working an image, landscape images are also great examples and finally I found product images often requires this technique to help create great images. Take a simple example of taking an image of a camera or a motorcar. The most common example is of the photographer standing two or three meters away from the motorcar and to then "snap" the image. Next time force yourself to take at least 50 images of the motorcar before you go, go in deep down, use reflections, zoom in on the badge on the hood, use the sides of the motorcar to get an interesting effect, zoom in on the wheel and many more….. Keep on "working that image" until you find results that make people say wow. Do we really need to shoot wedding images in the local botanical gardens? Have you ever considered doing it in the local supermarket? My son recently did a wedding shoot in water. The results were absolutely amazing. You can see more of his creative work on www.picturebrothers.ch

I hope this article made you think a little. We are often so fixed on the technical aspects of digital photography that we completely neglect the artistic side of things. I often use over exposed areas in an image to create effects or I will purposely alter the composition to express my own artistic views. In a previous article I talked about photo editing. On important projects I find that the photo editing percentage of my work can be as high as 60%.

I like to wish you all the best for 2012 and much joy working that image.

Siegfried