a preponderance of today’s mobile phones possessing cameras of decent resolution, and the addition of multiple smart phone picture pre- and post-processing applications, has given rise to a flood of accidentally good and phenominally bad digital pictures. due to the ease and convenience of online photo albums, people are sharing these pictures with everyone.

we love pictures. we love looking at them, taking them, and showing them off. we think that some of them are even pretty decent.

we also love critiquing them. we were recently purusing the hipstamatic group on flikr, a group for folks who’ve taken photos with the hipstamatic iphone app, and decided to do a little piece on what we think makes a picture good or bad.

bad – untitled[coffee], by richelortiz

this photo was very poorly composed, the coffee cup’s placement and angle seemingly chosen at random. given the slanted angles of the table edges, a vertically aligned coffee mug would have looked better. this photo was also hampered by the iphone camera’s lack of optical focus, resulting in no depth of field, nothing to draw the eye to the intended subject matter. everyting appears to be at the same depth, making the photo look crowded. the sepia color tones and lack of contrast make the photo look muddled and give no distinction to the coffee mug.

good – milan, by pebblebytheriver

we love the composition of this photo. the right side placement of the coffee cup and saucer juxtaposes nicely with the right side light source and left side shadows. in addition, placing the subject slightly above center, with a somewhat top facing view gives the photo great depth and dimension. the stark contrast and washed out colors work well with the the photo’s color pallette.

bad – sandwich, by MrHispta

while the composition, depth of field, and high contrast with washed out colors are all appealing, it should go without saying that the subject of the photo should be interesting as well. one could apply as many artsy filters to a photo as one pleases. however, doing so to a uninteresting photo will usually only result in an uninteresting artsy photo. the subject of this photo is not interesting. there, we said it.

good – chalk, by hipstamatized

the upward angle of the subject in this photo, along with the off centered placement of the subject gives the photo a feeling of hopefullness and whimsy. while also sepia toned, there is much greater contrast. The vignette style and high contrast give the photo a more dramatic appeal, clearly highlighting the subject.

bad – 15/365[friends], by maxwilliamson

so much for subtely. if this photo had actually been taken with a leaky, plastic camera like the histamatic 100, it likely would’ve been discarded. there is too little detail, as the photo is too dark and too grainy for any detail to be seen. everything from the composition of the subjects to their facial expressions is lost to the poor resolution of the image. this is a good example of a photo with too many digital effects applied to it.

good – scratch, by hipstamatized

as opposed the previous photo, this image retains enough detail to provide some interest to the viewer. while still very grainy and unfocused, there is enough light and contrast to view the bemused expression of the subject. the grain, washed out colors, blurred focus and scratches all combine to give the photo a dreamy quality, almost as if the image of the subject were superimposed over a pastoral landscape. while there certainly have been many effects applied to this image, the result is a much more subtle and appealing photo.

the beauty of the hisptamatic was that one would never know what photos would turn out to be beautiful; most, in fact, didn’t. while this is the case with all most film cameras, the hisptamatic had so many other variables involved that the ultimately beauty of the photo had a lot to do with luck. digital cameras and digital post processing applications take some of the randomness out of the picture, so to speak. the fact remains, though, that a bad picture is still a bad picture.

don’t let the risk of failing to produce a work of art deter you from trying, though. even the best artists often produce many more failures than they do successes; take it from us, we know. so go ahead and try. just be a little choosy about what you post online.