When I first moved from film SLRs to a Nikon digital SLR, the D70, I would spend time at the online forums learning a lot about the digital world. Since I recently bought a D300 I have again been spending time on the D200/300 forum. It seems that one thing has not changed, one of the favorite topics is still which lens is sharper.

Recently my wife and I rode our tandem bicycle in a 100 mile event taking pictures from the bike of the participants. I had my D70 in a harness on my chest and would shoot one handed as I was controlling the bike. My wife used a Canon P&S from the rear. Guess what, her pictures turned about better than mine. How could that be. It made me think about what makes for a good picture.

Although all the following attributes are important, I came to the conclusion that the ones towards the artistic side are more important than those toward the technical side. I t have broken these into three areas ranging from the more artistic aspect to the more technical.

While all of these are important I believe that too many focus on the Technical area because anybody who has money can buy the top quality equipment and with their expensive lens they can go out and take pictures of walls to show everyone how sharp it is. Does that make them a good photographer? Because it is a subjective matter, it may not be obvious. Can a super sharp picture win over one that has much more of the artistic attributes?

I think that answers why my wife’s pictures from the back of the tandem were better. She could take pictures as we were passing people, up close and personal with much better framing and interaction with the subject. I had to shoot from the hip because I still need one hand to control things traveling at upwards of 30 mph.

I am not saying a sharp lens is not important, but what I am saying is that is not enough.

Categories: Photography Principles
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