Every Picture Is a Compromise
Lessons from the Also-rans
Most photography websites show the photographer's very best work. Wonderful. But that's not the full story of a creative life. If we want to learn, we'd better pay attention to the images that aren't "greatest hits" and see what lessons they have to offer. Every picture is a compromise — the sum of its parts, optical, technical, visual, emotional, and even cosmic – well, maybe not cosmic, but sometimes spiritual. Success on all fronts is rare. It's ok to learn from those that are not our best.
This is a series about my also-rans, some of which I've been able to improve at bit (i.e., "best effort"), none of which I would consider my best. With each there are lessons worth sharing, so I will.
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Original digital capture
What I saw that I liked:I had an idea here that I knew was going to need a square crop. Sort of a "floating" pair of leaves against a broad, featureless background. What I don't like in the picture:Upper right corner. Colors in the background too saturated. What I learned:I can take the above exposure and do some post-processing to arrive at the image at left. Okay, but not great. The corners are too loosely composed. I think I had an opportunity to approach this in a smarter way, I think. Rather than shoot with an eventual crop in mind, I should have changed the aspect ratio in camera to 1:1 so I could have composed the edges more precisely. Live and learn. 2nd Chances: What I might try nextI think I need to desaturate the background colors even more. Not crazy about the purple back there. |
