IQ means never having to say I'm sorry. - Photography Instruction Series

IQ. It's a touchy subject for some people. Well, not for me since mine's...oh wait...you mean IQ as in "Image Quality". Hmmm. Awkward.

Well, Image Quality is just as elusive as the much ballyhooed Intelligence Quotient. But as photographers, whether professional or amateur, we all want to know, "How do I get 'better photos'?"
Image quality is the general term for the overall TECHNICAL quality of the image. It doesn't take into account the subject or pose, just how well the technical aspects were executed. A lot of things go into it so it's really difficult to nail down but I'll give it a try.

What do we WANT in a photo?
I'd say that a photo is a quality image if it:
is focused
is well-exposed
has good color
has acceptable amount/quality of noise.

Regardless of the subject, I think most of us would judge the above image as successful...at least technically.

But there is still room for subjectivity. An image that was acceptable in quality to me five years ago may now be deleted without a thought. Part of that is due to experience, expectations, and ability and part of it is due to higher expectations from my equipment. While what you do in the camera has the greatest influence, image quality can also be effected after the fact in post-processing.

Some of the factors that contribute to image quality:

Sensor size
Lens quality
Exposure
Focus
Jpeg compression
White Balance.

I've had many requests for instruction on my blog and have been meaning to oblige for quite a while. I'm very happy to FINALLY be getting started!

For the next 6 weeks I will take one of the above contributing factors and lay it out in a blog post. I will welcome discussion and comments.
I'm going to post each topic on Thursday simply because that's the day I feel like doing it.
Hang out with me and build your photo IQ!

So tune in tomorrow to find out why size does, in fact, matter.

Later,

Jon