Best Images Sorted: How To Easily Pick Your Winning Photos
Brightly colored canoes at the Swing Bridge Cafe, Erskine River, Lorne.
Your best images should be front and centre in your mind, easily accessible on your computer and via social media. Over the years I’ve developed an easy to follow criteria that allows me to pick my best images and identify which photos to delete.
The best images you create will feature interesting subject matter, be sharp, correctly exposed and underpinned by great composition. Photos that showcase beauty, tell a story, capture action, explore the human condition or use mood to elicit an emotive response will be loved by your audience.
Let’s explore the factors that contribute to your best images and some straightforward ways by which you can go about creating them more often than you have in the past.
Table of Contents:
Make Photos That Are Beautiful
It’s always great when photos you create display their own intrinsic artistic merit.
Sadly, the value of such concepts seems to have far less importance in our contemporary world where, if you don’t take action to protect yourself, you’ll be inundated with massive amounts of boring and meaningless images on a daily basis.
Still, I believe that there are underlying concepts of beauty that unite subject matter, creative photographers and the viewing public all over our world.
Beauty may very well lie in the eyes of the beholder. Nonetheless, I still believe in universal concepts of beauty.
After all, beautiful art, architecture and wonders of our natural world has demonstrated the power to connect and unity us, regardless of our age, gender, race or religion.
It’s the reason why pandas are still in existence, outside of zoos, and the reason why populations of fin and humpback whales are increasing.
To delve deeper into our exploration of beauty, let’s examine the photo at the top of this post.
I was attracted to the soft, gentle light and the simple structures of the bridge and cafe, together with their reflections, in the photo of the canoes at the Swing Bridge Cafe in Lorne, on Australia’s Great Ocean Road.
The reflections, together with the reduced number of objects in the frame, make for a simple but strong composition. Which is exactly what people want to see.
Truly, it’s much easier for our overly taxed brains to engage with visually simple images than it is to make sense of overly complex scenes.
I think it’s a beautiful photo, though not one of my very best images.
I suspect it’s a potentially divisive image, due to my use of restricted or local color in the photo.
Frankly, while the light was beautiful, there wasn’t a whole lot of color in the scene. However, given the dominant shapes, lines and a good spread of tones throughout the scene, this photo was a great candidate for a sepia reproduction.
Just for fun I kept the color in the canoes underneath the cafe’s verandah.
It’s a technique I’ve only used a few times in the past and, as a way of avoiding gimmicks, it’s one I generally wouldn’t recommend.
However, in this case, I think it works and I really like the final result.
Your own opinion may vary, which is perfectly okay. In fact it’s your right and I appreciate the fact that you’re here, looking at my photos and reading my post.
Ironically, there’s a hotel in Melbourne where I’ve been staying on recent trips to the big smoke. The walls are full of photos featuring this technique. Frankly, I don’t like any of them.
From my way of thinking, just because you’re able to implement a technique doesn’t mean you should. And, if you decide to, you really ought to know how to do it properly.
At the end of the day it all gets back to taste. But I also accept that there are photographers who make a good living concentrating on what sells, rather than being concerned about concepts of beauty and taste.
Remains of a boat in the waters off Grytviken, South Georgia Island.
Your Best Photos Often Tell A Story
There’s a suggestion of a story in this photo of an old boat in the waters off Grytviken on South Georgia Island.
There are many ways to tell a story though the pictures you make.
For example, you can tell an expansive and information rich story through a series of individual photos, presented in a single post or article. I wrote a post titled Powerful Photo Essay: How To Tell A Really Compelling Story which explains the recipe by which you can do this.
Needless to say, what you make of a photo based story is, for the most part, up to you.
That’s particularly the case when there’s not a lot of information provided. In that case, the less you know about the subject matter depicted the more likely you are to create a story that makes sense to you.
In the absence of an informative caption, the notion of decay might prove to be a potent metaphor which would speak to the life cycle of man made objects in a harsh and unforgiving natural environment.
However, this is where a well written caption can be helpful, particularly when it’s important for the photographer to help place the image in it’s geographical and/or historical context.
In this case it’s a story about life on the harsh and remote South Georgia Island, the very same one where Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton is buried.
I remember making the photo from the shoreline, just a few metres away from where this ageing hulk was moored. The light brought out the colors in the boat, the background mountains and sky.
While I didn’t have much control over the composition, having to accept things as they were, I do think the texture in the boat, water and the rocky outcrops on the mountain add life to the scene.
This heavily decayed old boat, in the former whaling settlement of Grytviken on South Georgia Island, speaks to the tenable existence of the working people based there, in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, all those years ago.
With the help of a more expansive caption, it would be easy for me to guide folks towards another side of the story.
For example, mention could be made in the caption that an estimated 54,000 whales were slaughter in these waters and processed at the now abandoned Grytviken Whaling Station.
So, you see, photos and captions can be combined in very effective ways.
Excitement is evident on the faces of these jet boat passengers.
Dynamic Action And Your Best Images
This action photo of a jet boat, packed with people, shows the exhilaration of a fast paced adventure experience. Fun, excitement and fear, I think it’s all here. A moment in time, recorded by my camera for posterity.
The expressions on the people aboard, together with the contrasting warm and cool color palette, contributes to what photographers refer to as the Decisive Moment and helps express the dynamic nature of this particular action photo.
Needless to say, the photo works technically because of the fast 1/5000 second shutter speed used to free the action as it unfolded in front of me.
I made the image on a Canon full frame DSLR camera. Fortunately, the jet boat was quite close to me when I made the photo. As a result I only needed a modest 160 mm focal length on my 70-200 mm f/2.8 zoom lens to grab the action.
Being close also allowed me to crop out the sky and surrounding structures as a way of concentrating attention on the action and the expressions of the people in the jet boat.
And the reason their expressions are clearly visible is because the light was low in the sky and directly behind me when I made this photo.
That’s a good tip to remember when your looking to make your own portfolio of action based photography. Who knows, it might even be the defining factor that separates your average photos from your very best images.
Row boat drifts aimlessly on placid waters on a warm, dreamy day.
Explore Mood to Elicit an Emotive Response
In stark contrast to the action photo of the people in the jet boat, this warm tone black and white photo of an old row boat has a very different mood evoking feelings of summer and the notion of days gone by.
I made the photo while exploring around the regional centre of Mildura in rural Australia.
Being able to elicit a strong emotive response from your viewing audience is a critical factor underpinning your best images. Frankly, it’s what makes winning photos.
Sometimes the stories we explore in our photos are best when they leave something to the imagination.
In this case the objects photographed are clear and obvious. There’s a boat, floating on dark water, surrounded by plants.
However, it’s how you respond to this image, much more than the objects it depicts that will determine its success.
It’s a great example of the communicative power of a photo and how mood can be successfully employed to elicit an emotive response from the viewing audience.
If you’re interested in more ways by which you can go about creating your best images I recommend you take a look at my post titled Super Photo Ideas and How to Take Really Interesting Photos.
Fishing boats, pleasure craft and a ferry fill a busy port, Iceland.
Start By Deleting Your Worst Photos
We all make photos that, truth be known, really aren’t up to snuff. Frankly, if they don’t make the cut they should be deleted.
If you fail to do so you risk surrounding yourself with a massive quantity of photos with which you’re not happy.
Not only will it be harder to find your best photos from within a much larger group of pics, you’ll end up surrounding yourself with poor quality and uninteresting images.
What’s more, you’ll fail to recognize what it is about the photos you make that’s unique or special and, as a result, you’ll create an illusion in your mind that you’re not a good photographer.
If you want a way to shatter your confidence, that’s it.
Here’s an example of an image from my photo archive that, to my mind, doesn’t make the cut. The photo shows some fishing boats, pleasure boats and a large ferry in a seaside town in North Iceland.
Most of that description is immediately evident through a cursory glance at the photo. While it’s not obvious that the photo was made in North Iceland, you’d probably accept that fact simply from the description I’ve provided.
To my way of thinking this photo is what it is, but not a whole lot more.
I just don’t think it goes beyond a straightforward documentary photo. It’s a record of me being there but, to my mind, that’s just not enough.
I could have done better but the photo was made very much on the run, during a long day on the road. It wasn’t a day for photography, more a day of driving, and the clock was ticking.
We’ve all had days like that when, no matter how important photography is to us, traveling companions, commitments and a lack of time compromise our ability to make great photos.
There’s no doubt about it, to create your best images you need motivation, diligence, perseverance and, to be frank, a bit of selfishness.
That means carving out time for yourself, which will often mean ensuring their are times when you’re able to get out and about and make photos without your significant other half.
If safety is an issue, bring a friend who’s also a keen photographer. But if your partner is bored or aggravated than you photography is likely to be compromised.
I’m afraid it’s really that simple.
Do Your Struggle To Delete Boring Images?
Okay, I made an image that didn’t excite me. Yet, for some reason, I didn’t want to delete it. At least not yet.
I suspect you’ve felt the same way, more than once, about your own photos.
Sometimes the act of deletion is neither a quick nor a straightforward process.
In the case of this photo from Iceland, I converted the image from color to black and white to bring out the shapes of the boats and clouds. And I think that helped, but it wasn’t enough.
The image is technically proficient. It’s sharp, well exposed and boasts a full range of tones from black to near white.
So, it’s a technically acceptable image, but no more than that.
To my way of thinking it’s boring, and the only reason I’ve kept it so long was to put it to use as a teaching resource.
Not one that excites and inspires, but an image that demonstrates the need we all have to separate the photos we consider keepers from the rest of the bunch.
I could consider cropping the image of the boats in the harbour at the top of this post into a panoramic format with the hope that, by eliminating most of the sky, a more dynamic composition might result.
I think it would, but the problem is we’d be left with an overly complex image.
The composition is a mess, with all those vertical lines, where it should be simplistic. And I believe a panoramic crop would only draw attention to those lines.
Actually, the poor composition that underpins this photo is the first reason why I normally wouldn’t keep, let alone publish it.
I know it’s not an easy thing to delete photos. But I’m convinced it’s the first step in creating your own well organized and curated photo collection.
If you use Adobe Lightroom the post I wrote titled How to Rate Photos in Lightroom will be well worth the read. It’s provides a really solid understand of how to rate and organize your photos and, in the process of doing so, work out which ones to delete.
If you need even more motivation then my post titled Delete Photos Often: How To Absolutely Organize Like A Boss will be useful.
Be Objective About The Photos You Make
So, looking again at our Icelandic photo, we have a correctly exposed and well processed image that is deficient compositionally and lacks any artistic merit or communicative power.
Is it difficult for me to talk about my own photography in this way?
No, not at all. I’d rather celebrate and be remembered for my best images, rather than the failures. Needless to say, I’m careful about the images I share.
But we all make poor images, every now and again. Normally I delete them but, in this case, I felt there was a reason why I needed to hang onto it. I guess this post became that reason.
Glenn Guy, Travel Photography Guru, and companions at Tikse Gompa, Ladakh, 1988.
Your Best Images: The Exception To The Rule
Now, there is a case for holding onto less than great images, even if they lack artistic merit, great composition and even technical proficiency.
They’re the images of people and places that hold special meaning for you, regardless of the technical quality of the photos in question.
Perhaps it’s an image of your elderly mother, your child taking their very first steps or a picture of the tree under which you and your partner shared your first kiss.
Those images are precious and should be preserved.
Take a look at the photo directly above of me and some backpacking buddies back in 1988. The image was made in front of the Tikse Gompa and village in Ladakh, India. That’s me on the far right hand side of the photo.
In this case the lighting is hard and unforgiving for people based photography. But given that our faces are so small in the frame, it’s probably acceptable to most folks.
The reason I’ve held onto the image for so long, and have finally published it, is that it’s one of the few surviving images from my first overseas adventure, a massive 3 ½ month journey to India, Nepal, China, Tibet and Thailand.
Almost all of the images (i.e., 87%) from that trip were ruined by a camera malfunction and by mishaps in the processing of the slide films.
Not only that, but all of the images were scratched during the automated mounting process.
As a consequence, I was forced to throw most of the images out immediately, while I had a few scanned for posterity. Those scans are very poor quality compared to what’s possible today.
Though they’re hardly amongst my best images, will I rescan any of them?
I doubt it, though it would have been great if the photos I made of Mount Everest (on the Tibetan side) while camping on a clear, starlit night, had worked out.
Still, it was the anguish I suffered losing all those pictures, that immediately motivated me to start saving so I could travel again the following year. And I did, and I’ve been doing so ever since.
About To Travel?
Adding Context To The Photos You Share Online?
Whether you publish or share pictures online that are not your very best images is your choice, as is where you publish them. And, if you do decide to share them, providing a little context for why you’re doing so can remove the need photo enthusiasts might have to pick apart the photo.
Those kind of comments just wouldn’t be relevant. But what you will receive is feedback from the heart which, ultimately, is the kind of feedback we most appreciate.
What matters is that you protect these photos that, while not your best images, are amongst those that are most important to you.
Please make sure you store copies of them in several places, even if they don’t meet your own high standards of excellence. After all, we only have one mother.
In this case what matters to the heart is what matters most.
Just don’t use that as an excuse for failing to delete all those other photos that have neither artistic nor personal value. That would be my advice.
Conclusion: Surround Yourself With Your Best Images
To become a better photographer I believe it’s important to surround yourself with your best images, not your worst. This ensures you learn from what you do well.
As a result, you’ll make better photos, more often. After a while making good photos will become second nature. Though, needless to say, a little one-to-one private tuition will skyrocket you forwards.
I also feel very strongly that, with the except of a few photos that possess a deeply personal connection, we should all limit the images we share with the world.
I believe our worst images influence the way a collection of photos is remembered. So show fewer photos and be remembered for what you do well and what you’re proud of.
The question is, now that this post is written, what will I do with that boring old photo of the yachts and ferry in Iceland?
