Tips for Obtaining High Quality Images

Composition

We are looking for interesting photos that have the "Wow" factor. Photos that people will look at, which tell a story, that arouse emotion, and make people think, "I would love to have that picture hanging on my wall", "published in my book/magazine/newspaper", "made into a poster/calendar/greetings cards", "as a logo for my website" etc., and for any other purpose imaginable.

Good composition

Images that take you on a journey around the image, that make you want to explore the image more and know more about it, where it is, what it is etc. Images of things that are unusual and interesting, and things that most people don't see every day. It doesn't have to be the most amazing landscape in the world, it can be anything. Just look at your image and ask yourself, "Is this an interesting image?", "Will it excite people?"

Bad composition

Technically this image is fine. It's well exposed, it's sharp, there are no visible dust spots etc. The sky is quite interesting, but overall, there is nothing in the image that would make anybody say "Wow!"

Noise

Digital noise most commonly occurs when photos are taken as long exposures or at a high ISO setting. The levels of visible noise can vary from one camera manufacturer to another, but the highest quality images are usually taken at ISO 100 or ISO 200. Once you start taking images above these levels, then noise can become apparent in your images renderingthem unmarketable. Of course, this does vary from camera to camera, and the latest DSLRs on the market can take excellent quality images at very high ISO settings, so the best thing you can do is always check your images close up, at 100% to see the degree of visible noise in your image and then judge for yourself.

No Noise: The image looks clean and smooth with no visible signs of excessive noise.

Noise: You can clearly see digital noise in the image and the quality of the image has been severly compromised.

Out of Focus

The main subject matter of images should always be razor-sharp. Of course, there are times when blur is intentionally introduced into an image to portray a sense of movement and this can enhance images and have a positive effect on them. However, when the main subject matter of an image is unintentionally blurred, it will render the image unmarketable.

Sharp Focus: The main subject matter of this image, the monkey, is razor-sharp, right down to the tiniest hairs around its face. Only the background has been intentionally blurred to create depth of field, which enhances the overall image and makes the main subject stand out even more.

Blurred: The main subject of this image is blurred. The photographer focused the lens on the greenery between the two monkeys and has left the face of the larger monkey out of focus.

Over-exposure

Over-exposure occurs when the camera's built in light meter misjudges or miscalculates the amount of light being reflected off the main subject. Most modern DSLRs these days have very highly-sophisticated light meters built into them, which pretty much get it right every time. However, sometimes it gets confused:

Well-exposed: Taken indoors and looking outside, the camera's light meter could easily be confused by the bright light coming in from above versus the dark shadows at the sides and in the foreground. While this image is still slightly over-exposed, the Raw image could easily be corrected in Photoshop or a similar imaging manipulation software program.

Over-exposure: The camera's light meter has gotten confused here and misjudged the amount of light coming down from the sky. The shutter has stayed open too long and the top part of the picture has been over-exposed. Once an image is over-exposed to this degree, the hghlights are blown and will be unrecoverable.

Under-exposure

The opposite of over-exposure occurs for the same reason as over-exposure. This time, the camera's light meter over-estimates the amount of light being reflected off the main subject and any darker parts of the image end up being rendered black and will be lost:

Well-exposed: Shot indoors, the camera's light meter has correctly captured the detail in both the light and dark areas.

Under-exposed: In this image, the camer'as light meter has gotten confused by the amount of light coming from the hanging lamp and detail has been lost in the darker areas of the photo.

Dust spots

An unfortunate and frequent occurrence with DSLRs is that dust can quite easily get trapped on the sensitive surface of the camera's sensor. If the sensor is not cleaned and the dust removed, then it can appear all too obvious in your images, and particularly if your photos contain a lot of sky or very large expanses of light area.

No dust: Under close inspection, the sky area is clear of any dust particles created from dust being on the camera's sensor.

Dust spots: Tiny particles of dust, trapped on the camera's sensor, have appeared visible on the final photograph. Although unsightly, until the sensor is cleaned, the dust spots on images can be easily removed by using the healing brush in Photoshop or with tools in similar photo editing software.

Flash Shadow

Take care when using your camera's built-in flash with either very wide-angle lenses or zoom lenses as the barrel of the actual lens can cast a shadow over the lower portions of photographs: