I remember after buying my first SLR, I would walk about with a 2:3 frame marked with the intersection of thirds and held it in front of me believing this was the secret of getting the perfect composition every time. I’ve moved on from that as it soon became obvious that there is no magic formula for success in photography.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that Steve believes there is a magic formula. Instead his talk encouraged us to think carefully about what the objective of our picture is before we take it, rather than take hundreds of snapshots in a machine-gun approach trusting that we will capture one that we can do something with.

Steve pointed out that artists spend a great deal of time on preliminary sketches before committing to paint, adding picture elements, moving them about and resizing until they get the composition exactly as they want it. We photographers do not have that luxury (although I can think of one member who works a bit like that).

So to address the question of What makes a good photograph?, Steve showed us a wide selection of ‘good’ photographs and gave us his thoughts on what made them successful. Most of his selection was from national collections and those of professional photographers whose work is widely admired; in some cases, their prints have sold for eye-watering sums of money.

A recent club speaker pointed out that black and white photos rely on good composition to work but when colour is used, the picture becomes about the colour. This was the reason Steve chose mostly black and white photos to illustrate his talk.

Steve began with some general comments on the principles of picture composition and how to analyse an image in these terms. The so-called Golden Spiral and the Golden Mean (approximated by the Rule of Thirds) are both derived from the Fibonacci sequence*. This number sequence plays an important role in the growth of living systems and spacial arrangements based on it, unaccountably, are particularly appealing to the eye.

Steve has kindly let me include a few of the slides he used marked up with lines to illustrate what compositional principles have helped make the pictures work.

Try some of these on some of your own images. (Ideally our eye will instinctively tell us if we are framing our shots to get an interesting image without being aware of these compositional devices at the time. Working this way round can avoid the composition becoming overly self-conscious.)

Steve said that a good photograph should be technically successful, generate interest, tell a story, reflect a unique moment, and lastly, should ‘look like you’! Then he showed his selection of pictures giving us his thoughts on why they were successful, or not so successful. His talk was well fleshed out with quotations from the photographers themselves.

The first was from Ansel Adams ‘There are no rules for good photographs, only good photographs.’ Steve encouraged us to follow Adams’ example and use dodging and burning as a creative tool to give life and meaning to an image.

He showed us examples of portrait photography by masters of the genre like David Bailey, Cecil Beaton and Karsh. A good portrait connects the subject with the viewer in some way, whether it makes you feel it’s someone you could talk to, or wonder what they’re thinking etc, – all depending on what your story is. What matters most in a portrait is the ‘eye line’.

We were given an overview of the work and life of Sir Don McCullin**, as a war photojournalist and, for emotional relief from experiencing the traumas of human suffering, his later work in landscape and still life photography. A quote from him ‘Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.’

Finally there was a mention of AI with an example of what it can achieve. This led to a lively, and largely inconclusive, discussion with the members about its significance.

Steve’s talk was a masterclass in photographic appreciation from someone with a lifetime’s experience in the profession and we are very grateful to him for such a comprehensive and thought-provoking presentation.

* If you’re not into maths but would like a very readable account about the Fibonacci sequence, read the book by Alex Bellos ‘Alex’s Adventures in Numberland’.

** For a fascinating film on Sir Don McCullin, watch ‘Looking for England’ Don McCullin – Don McCullin – Looking for England #documentaire

Author: Diddy Dodds