At 4:22 AM -0700 10/31/07, herschel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Just to play devil's advocate (As is my wont)
I find it interesting that:
"I don't like this picture" is unacceptable as it is personal subjectivity
But "There's too little depth of field" is fine because it's hiding
behind a technical term.
Surely that's also a personal opinion?
Isn't "There's a little too much space to the right" subjective?
I've heard seasoned pros arguing over such things.
Isn't ALL criticism just personal opinion?
Herschel
Thanks, Herschel. Yes all critiqueing is personal. Sure, having a
firm grip on the possibilities of the technical characteristics of
whatever you're critiqueing is important. But in no way is it
related to quality.
However, it is convenient to be able to talk about those technical
characteristics.
In my opinion there are very few technical matters which relate to
quality, since they all can be deliberately applied. An
over-sharpened image can be a study in texture, a cut-off top of the
head can be an expression of opinion about the importance of the
person to the creator or the other objects in the image. Any
arrangment of the subject can be an effort to unsettle the viewer or
say something about the importance of the subject. It is more
important, to me, to choose what one wants in focus than to let the
camera accidentally do it, but there is no implication of better or
less good in the choice.
The core question is "what are you trying to say here?". Then the
next question is "did I, as a single viewer, hear what you were
trying to say?" After that comes a consideration of whether most
viewers heard it, followed by considerations of how it might be
better said if most did not hear it.
One must be very careful not to grasp too quickly upon the easy
things - like the technical - in order to create something to say.
And as we more and more depend on very low quality reproduction - a
4x6 jpeg for instance - we confront more and more how difficult it is
to even know what we're looking at technically.
Are the leaves out of focus, or is the image insufficiently sharpened?
--
Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
http://www.landsedgephoto.com
http://e-and-s.instaproofs.com/
