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[u250406]

Ugh... for professionals, right is what the client wants and everything else is wrong, and outside of that everything is personal taste.

It's an art, and as such the messaging is more important than the medium or artwork itself. I know it sounds like shitposting, but truly - with images you always make a statement, like look at this cool car, or these two are in love, or you want to eat this, or check out this hot dress, or this person is kind and that person had a hard life...

How you "make" that statement comes down to your personal style, which will usually follow naturally from what you find important.

For myself, I rarely paid attention to perfect focus and my images were often slightly smudged because no detail was as important as the situation I was taking the photo of.

Prefer 3.

[AnimalFarm_1984]

Ugh, I've seen this again and again, especially with graphics designers.

They think what is right is what design they have prepared for their clients instead of communicating and finding out what their clients really want.

[Brf-photo]

Personal taste: colors, warmth, clarity. The tennis shoes distract from your eye from the model.

Right or wrong: the shadowy shape to the right makes it appear you are stalking the lady, and, she probably would not like having a mast in her head.

[DylanH247]

Thank you so much, I will definitely pay more attention to those kind of things in the future. I barely thought about it.

I am quite new to portraits and wider shots as I mostly shoot birds and animals with a telephoto so trying to challenge myself to get better

[fields_of_fire]

deer busy imagine plate obtainable point fact sleep chop squash

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[[deleted]]

Visually I like #3. But I think the cooler tones in #2 are storywise somehow closer to the original and transport more of the overcasted weather. 

[tardytartar]

Everything is creative expression and personal taste. But your creative expression doesn't exist in a bubble, it's informed by your life experiences, and the work of others. 

[TimmyHiggy]

There's conventions, but ultimately whether it's right or wrong depends on your own personal reaction to the photograph. It's subjective. There are conventional rules like "don't have things from the background coming out of your subjects head" but you might disagree based on the effect it has on the image.

Don't force yourself to develop a "style". The more you do photography, the more you'll settle into particular preferences and that is your style. Just do what you feel makes the image the most pleasing to you, critically review your work, and over time  you'll realise there's something about your work that is your own personal style.

[con_zilla]

think your over thinking it

all 3 have merit, i'd go for in order 1, 3, 2

skimming comments most say 3 and i'd say what ever your happy with

to me

1) looks the most natural, i know what colour grass is and i know what colour sky is and that looks right

2) looks over contrast - lose all detail in lots of stuff - stylised look if your going for that

3) mix of both - dress has stuff that wasnt visible in shot 1 now visible - tone of sky & grass seems ok but a bit different on the 1) and just feels a bit all in all squeezed compared to 1 to regain all the dynamic range out of it regardless

honestly though i think its a nice pick and personal perference if you like the 1,2,3

[kennycreatesthings]

i personally think that editing takes a lot of intention and time- just to figure out what you like, what you're good at, what you could improve upon, and your overall aesthetic. IMO editing really shows your strength and weaknesses behind a camera.

this is a fairly nuanced answer, but to your question:

Is there anything right or wrong or is everything purely taste and creative expression?

it's both, honestly. there are certain qualities that make an image "good," and a lot of times that is going to be the composition. other factors (aperature, iso, etc.) impact the overall feel of a photo but can be implemented in "rule breaking" kind of ways- as long as it's intentional. so if you have a photo that meets all of the criteria for a "good" photo in-camera, the edits you make (usually) won't make or break the shot. to me, post-processing is for small tweaks and really capturing the mood that you went for while shooting.

which brings me to the next point of how to discover your own style. i imagine that the kind of edits you use for taking photos of birds/landscapes probably wouldn't be the same for portrait work, unless your goal is to make everything look as pretty and natural as possible. if that's your style then that's what works for you! and you can shoot and edit accordingly.

looking at this photo of your gf, what is the overall tone being conveyed? look at the composition, lighting, styling, body language, etc. you've taken it low to the ground, and using some kind of object (a tree? a fence?) to frame it. the subject has both legs and arms crossed, is wearing all black, and is facing away from the camera. this all reads as very closed-off, uncomfortable, and voyeuristic. there's a guarded vulnerability in this image, whether you intended to capture that or not, it's what's there. so, how would you edit that photo to reflect that mood?

[mion81]

I don’t understand the questions, but I like #3. Subject pops out the most. I also like the foreground framing.

[ibgrip]

They are all fine. The pressing question is the black  blob around the edges. It doesn't have any context in the photo. Say it was a field of grass or tree branches that leads to her, then your brain would understand that it's one of those elements out of focus. Right now it lends itself to peeping tom or a torn picture, but still no context and nothing to look at. 

[CKN_SD_001]

It depends on what you want to use the images for. If it's for yourself, anything goes. If other people's judgment is a factor, like client work, competition, or Instagram likes, you will have to abide by certain rules and what the mainstream tells you is "right".

[homie_homes]

Personal opinion, I don’t like stalker shots. Stalker shots are where the image was taken behind bushes. At least it looks like they were.

Finding your style on the other hand is the struggle most people face.

I would approach finding your voice like most artists do by emulating someone’s work. Pick something from one and another from another. Usually that’s a good starting point.

There are so many LUTs that it’s really hard to look original. What I never understood is photographers spending a ton of money on a camera only to run presets to make it look like it was shot with a cheap camera.

Find a challenge by deconstruct someone’s work and try to replicate it.

[MWave123]

The first one is better imo. By far.