Objectivity in Photography
objective |əbˈjektiv|
adjective
1 (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts
I’ve thought for a long time that improving my photography depended upon me being objective in my critiquing my work.
When I was doing a lot of magazine and book work, I showed my portfolio around to a lot of photo editors: editors at places like Time/Life, Newsweek, Harper and Row, Harcourt Brace and the like.
Those sessions helped me a lot since I often received valuable feedback.
But if I hadn’t combined that feedback with my own objective evaluations of my work, I wouldn’t have gained much.
But one of the most important things I learned from the photo editors' feedback was I really needed to learn to judge my own photos. I learned I could get a very positive response from one editor and a less-warm response from another; while showing the same portfolio.
It became apparent to me that I needed to become very objective in judging my own work and depend much less upon the opinions of others.
When I look at the body of work I’ve accumulated over the years I’ve been photographing, I realize I’ve taken many more unsuccessful images than ones I consider successful.
But learning from the unsuccessful images, at least in my opinion, is the way I capture a successful one every once-in-a-while.
The unsuccessful images help me learn more about lighting, composition, emotion and timing in a photograph. They tell me when my intention might have been on the mark but the image just didn't live up to the intention.
Some of the images I consider successful can be found on my Portfolio of Ten page.
A few are on this page below.
adjective
1 (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts
I’ve thought for a long time that improving my photography depended upon me being objective in my critiquing my work.
When I was doing a lot of magazine and book work, I showed my portfolio around to a lot of photo editors: editors at places like Time/Life, Newsweek, Harper and Row, Harcourt Brace and the like.
Those sessions helped me a lot since I often received valuable feedback.
But if I hadn’t combined that feedback with my own objective evaluations of my work, I wouldn’t have gained much.
But one of the most important things I learned from the photo editors' feedback was I really needed to learn to judge my own photos. I learned I could get a very positive response from one editor and a less-warm response from another; while showing the same portfolio.
It became apparent to me that I needed to become very objective in judging my own work and depend much less upon the opinions of others.
When I look at the body of work I’ve accumulated over the years I’ve been photographing, I realize I’ve taken many more unsuccessful images than ones I consider successful.
But learning from the unsuccessful images, at least in my opinion, is the way I capture a successful one every once-in-a-while.
The unsuccessful images help me learn more about lighting, composition, emotion and timing in a photograph. They tell me when my intention might have been on the mark but the image just didn't live up to the intention.
Some of the images I consider successful can be found on my Portfolio of Ten page.
A few are on this page below.
To contact Bob Eckert for assignments, consultations or workshops, please email [email protected]
or use the contact form on the About page
or use the contact form on the About page