Visual Literacy 101

There are always two sides to every story as there are always two ways to look at every picture.

There is the subjective way to look at a picture.  Subjective is defined as judgment based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts.

Subjectively my father and mother love this photo of their dog because it is him with his favorite toy, but objectively it is super bad!

Then there is the objective way to look at a photo.  Objective is defined as uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices; 2.based on observable phenomena; presented factually.

Subjectively this is a great photo because it is my nephew Luke after he scored a goal in his parent vs. child hockey game this past Christmas. It is also a good photo objectively because he is in focus, the white balance is right and it is properly exposed.

In this blog series we will be discussing the objective observations of a photograph.  Things we will be discussing are:

• Is it sharp (in focus) or isn’t it (out of focus)?

• Is it underexposed or over exposed?

• Is it the right color balance?

You get the point.  These are the things that make a really good picture along with the subjective view of a photograph.  When these two things are combined, you have a great photograph!

Next weeks post is going to discuss, in my opinion, the most important aspect of a picture-is it in focus.