Why Do Photographs Fail?

The pre-editorial editorial process

This image is supposed to be an illustration. Specifically an illustration of the evolution and process of developing a book.

Surprise, it’s not the camera. In fact, every camera made in the last 10 years is more than enough to make great photographs. Working with hundreds of photographers and tens of thousands of photographs over the years the reason most pictures fail is because they don’t know what they are supposed to be. In other words, the intent of releasing the shutter button is unknown at the moment of the exposure. A few examples…

• Is this a landscape?

• Is this a travel picture?

• Is this a street picture?

• An architecture picture?

• A memento to look back upon with friends and family?

• How about an environmental portrait?

The above list could go on-and-on but I focused on many things that seem to be common when people, especially photography enthusiasts travel away from home. Almost everyone takes a lot of pictures when they travel out of their everyday geography. That’s great, so do I, but many times the vast majority of the pictures I make are failures. The issue has nothing to do with resolution, dynamic range, or any other technical consideration. They fail because the picture doesn’t fulfill any of those things. It fails as an architecture photograph but could have been a great memento. It’s neither. A landscape in boring light taken at the wrong time of day. The failures go on and on. We can fool ourselves and mess with all of the post processing things modern cameras and software allow us to do, it still fails, probably worse, because the picture doesn’t know what it is.

Another illustration documenting the mockup and notes of page design. How about the top image in the illustration? A landscape of course, would it be a landscape picture in boring light without the atmosphere at noon day? Probably not it would be more of a mental note of this place might make a great landscape photograph.

I choose the typical situation of traveling away from your typical environment because of how common an experience this is. The ramifications go far beyond this scenario. I’ll go so far as to say that even when the intent is known and we go out with a very specific intent pictures fail for the same reason. Even when we are extremely practice and know whatever genre well, we tend to force the situation. An incredible landscape fails as a landscape photograph because the light is boring, bad, and truthfully, ugly. There is no post-processing your way out of this. An awesome structure fails because the composition stinks, the angle doesn't portray how space and structure feels. I could go on and on.

How about portraits or still-life pictures. Those are specific right? Not specific enough. What story is being told, what is that portrait supposed to be? Is it a mere reasonable representation of that person at a very specific point in time, like those 4th grade headshot picture packs that generally also have a class picture bundled in? Or is it supposed to capture the character of someone in the joy of their favorite activity? Or just a business card portrait to know what this person looks like… you know putting a face with a name? A lifestyle picture showing someone “in their element”? I swear the biggest reason all pictures fail is they don’t know what they are supposed to be.

Obviously this relates to the editorial process down the road and the context in which those pictures are presented. Knowing what pictures are supposed to be when you are making them is tantamount to making successful photographs. The more you know the answer to this question the more successful those photographs will be. Just one of the reasons I am not a landscape photographer. I don’t have the patience to have extremely limited times to approach a particular landscape in light that will make a great photograph. I certainly don’t have the patience to do it over and over again.