When I was teaching a basic photography course at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland, I often would tell my  students that the perfect photographic exposure was the one that they liked.

Mary and I recently went shopping at our favorite Barns & Noble store in Lone Tree, Colorado. While there we also took a peek at movies from the Criterion Collection that were on sale for 50% off but didn’t buy any.

There are all kinds of photographers out there in the world and I’m not just talking about portrait shooters, landscape photographers or astrophotographers. All of these genres also include (at least) four major categories of photographers that I’m about to describe.

Take High key portraits for instance. Images like the featured photograph use soft lighting and contain mostly white or pale tones. High-key lighting is typically free from dark shadows and can contain small darker areas such as the subject’s hair or eyes to keep the portrait from becoming too boring. A

Every photographer has heard this one, nauseatingly more than once: “That’s a really good picture, you must really have a good camera.” But, as usual, there’s more to the story than that…