It is interesting to see trends in what folks like and don't. Lately, here and elsewhere, there have been a slew of "if only you had a lower angle" critiques.
While a lower angle does, in a many cases allow an intimate, eye level image, I wonder if we have been conditioned to always think "lower is better." I've even said it a bit more lately :o
I was just looking at a wonderful portrait and one would think it was awful after reading the critiques that had little to say other than "you should have shot lower." ( not on this site BTW)
Next. Diagonals
I see a lot of critiques that say "oh, lovely diagonals make this a great image." In many cases, I feel the diagonal adds nothing and fear that folks are just "parroting" what they have come to believe are "critical elements" of a good image.
Sure, diagonals help at times, but I think we're going a bit to the extreme.
BIrd on a stick or environmental images?
I have to admit to being a sucker for close, in your face shots, but I have seen a lot of environmental images lately that are wonderful too.
Crop or don't crop?
Some feedback indicates than an image shouldn't be cropped so an editor would be free to do his/her own cropping. Also there is a fear that a cropped image might be selected for use at a size that it can't hold up to.
Other indications are that one should crop the image to show it at the very best it can be (I kinda fall into this one)
I'm sure there are more, but I'm not writing to be critical, more to cause us to think a little and get away from our checklist mentality. I'm also not talking about personal preferences, but rather a "group think" phenomenon where suddenly "everyone" is saying the same thing over and over and over again.
Thanks for sticking with my rambling :D
Jim