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
Something from NothingI used to search for the perfect image in nature. I'd walk by subjects that seemed blasé — foolishly and naively ignoring the possibilites in post-processing that might make something from nothing. This week, I'll show examples that demonstrate why we should always shoot compositionally interesting images even if the tones in the image would seem to offer nothing of interest. What I saw that I liked:I looked at this, rejected it, looked again, then thought, "What the heck." Click. What I don't like in the picture:Pretty much everything in the above is just plain awful. I didn't put much effort into seeing, composing, or exposing this dumb little flower — and it shows. What I learned:For the umpteenth gazillion time, Brooks, it's not what you take but what you make that counts. I am so glad I didn't give up on this one. The essence of what I so fleetingly saw was the white blossom. Why not process for that? I kept pushing this image darker and darker and eventually found something buried in that crappy RAW capture that I like quite a bit. Something from nothing. |
