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.
|
Original digital capture
What I saw that I liked:Torii deep in the woods. In fact, the woods dominate the scene — just about the opposite of most photographs I see of torii. What I don't like in the picture:The Torii is too dark and muddy. What I learned:I have a really bad habit that I think is left over from my wet darkroom days: I give up on images way too early. When I saw this image after I returned from Japan, I subconsciously but intantly gave up on it. Simply too dark for what I saw in my mind's eye. But wait a minute! This is the age of digital post-processing. I can make a mask at the pixel level if I need to! So I went to work and fairly easily created the one at left which I love. And it took about 30 minutes and I was done. I have to remember that tones are simply not a reason to give up on an image these days. Never. 2nd Chances: What I might try nextI can't wait to use this one in a project. |
