Have you ever wonder what does it take to create a great picture? Was it because of the gear? Was it because of the people inside the picture, their expression or their emotion? Or was it because of an x-factor? X-factor is a common term used in algebra (one of many branch of mathematics, from Arabic “al-jabr”, meaning “reunion of broken parts”), where “x’ usually refers to the unknown. All this while, I thought that this x-factor was something else, something beyond our current science or level of comprehension. Some photographer might call it the technical perfection. However, no matter how good your equipment is, regardless it is the recently released equipment or lenses or camera, without that x-factor, that picture will not become a great picture. So what was it?
That question kept on bugging me because like any other aspiring photographer, I always want to improve my photograpy skills. I want to become a good photographer. Various combination was tried, but it was always hit-or-miss, where sometimes I nail it in my shots, and sometimes I don’t. It was when I heard about Thorsten, reading his stories and reviews, and watching his video on Youtube that I started to get an idea of a good picture. In his word, the x-factor is “the Magic of Light”.