No photo can be liked by everyone!

I've watched lots of photography YouTube to get an understanding of photography, and there has been numerous times when the photographer said a picture was bad, even though in my eyes it was better than anything other they showed. It then triggered me when that person started to educate me how not to take such pictures they didn't personally like, and were trying to prove their opinion with fancy photography lingo. There were also videos that showed examples of what amazing photos look like, and it's just like, I'm glad you find them great, pal... they don't seem that special to me.

The photo's value depends on what you want to see. If your job is to photograph something with specific instructions and you fail to meet the requirements, then the photo will be bad. When you ask someone's opinion of a photo and give them no instructions, the requirements will be based on their own tastes, and those vary. Those YouTubers weren't wrong that their photo was good or bad, and I wasn't wrong that it was bad or good. We had different requirements we checked against.

Just wanted to write a bit about this because I got the expression that what's considered a "good" photo is a bit gatekeeped in photography groups. It feels intimidating. If I started sharing photos, I really wouldn't want to hear about the "correct" aperture, shutter speed, or framing for my situation. There is no correct one if I really like the photo. Like in painting, nobody can tell the artist what kind of brushing technique they should've used.