[Peter De Smidt]

Look at as many good photos as you can. Check out sites like onexposure.net, but more importantly go to gallaries and museums. It's hard to know what your quality level is until you've seen the very best. (Note, though, that just because an image is in a book, gallery or museum doesn't make it a good photo. Artistic judgments are subjective. That said, if you can see images by Irving Penn, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock ... by all means do so.) Try to figure out why you like or dislike a photo. Invest in a large trash can.