Hellgiver Wrote:The thing is... I can usually tell a professional photographer as opposed to an amateur.  It is only after looking at a collection though, since an amateur can get lucky.  But, IMO, the problem here is many great photos are great because there is a subject that the photo is trying to portray.  Or there is a certain essence they are trying to capture.  Only problem is if wee have a POTW, people wouldn't understand why a certain photo is so great, since it captured every single thing about that subject, whereas another photo might be of just a random scenery that is pretty.

No, also quality, composition, colors, DOF, light, with the correct exposure.

All of that help to make a good photo. Lets say you have 2 photos, one snapshot of a beautiful scene and another of just a dead flower on the road. The beautiful scene lets say is poorly taken (lets say under exposed + a little blurred, these are the most common mistakes I see in amateur photography.) while the dead flower on the road has a nice DOF (lets say the guy used a wide aperture of lets say like f/1.8 so you get really great depth, and lets say the colors are preserved, and perfectly exposed.

It also depends on the photographer, and if someone gets lucky and makes a great photo once and wins a months contest. So what? This is a friendly competition to show off our photography skills.