John and Barbara Gerlach, in the
second edition of Digital Nature
Photography, describe three essential factors for making successful nature
photographs.
The first is that you can’t make a good photograph of
a scene that is lacking in interest. For
landscape photography, this might normally require a site with natural beauty.
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| For many landscape photographers, the goal is to create images that portray great natural beauty and have a strong emotional impact. Sunrises are popular favorites and often successful subjects for this purpose. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. Nikon D810, Nikon 70-200 mm f2.8 VR lens, at 200 mm, 1/125 sec., f11, ISO 100, tripod. |
But when we speak about a
photogenic subject, what do we mean? The
term has many synonyms. Some of these
do, in fact, refer to scenes of native beauty, which is what the Gerlachs
intend by including this criterion.
These synonyms include the terms picturesque, pretty, beautiful, and attractive. But others, like graphic, striking, and
camera-friendly allow for less than beautiful subjects.
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| Structures such as this operating water mill can make up in charm what they may lack in natural beauty. Cable Mill, Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. Nikon D810, Nikon 24-70 mm f2.8 lens at 38 mm, 1/100 sec., f2.8, ISO 800. |
Thus, not all photogenic subjects need to be beautiful. Some interesting subjects may be notable for
reasons other than beauty and others may even be downright ugly. What gives them the potential to make photogenic
photos is the fact that they are appealing for one reason or another. In my judgment, the natural world offers far
more variety and interest than can be found in the spectacularly beautiful
alone. Besides, not all of us have
access to dramatic scenery on a regular basis.
That’s one reason my personal definition of “photogenic” has been
expanded to include the subjects you’ll see in my book, Creative Composition for Landscape Photography, now available for Kindle on Amazon.com.
