Brooks Jensen Arts - Every Picture Is a Compromise

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Every Picture is a Compromise
A Series About Keepers, Also-rans, and Learning from Mistakes

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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

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I am a convert

What I saw that I liked:

Lovely field of cattails and grasses.

What I don't like in the picture:

The above is frame #1 of a five frame focus stack. Click on it to see the shallow depth-of-field that resulted from f/3.6. Totally unacceptable.

What I learned:
Use f/3.6 for a deep depth-of-field

The image at left is the composite focus stack, all frames shot at f/3.6 — but counter-intuitively resulting in a very large depth-of-field. I never thought I'd say "you don't need to stop down to achieve a large depth-of-field," but I can't deny the evidence. Be sure to click on the image at left to see it enlarged. Amazing. And keep in mind these plants were not motionless. There are a few here and there that are not sharp, but that's from the wind, not the lens.

Also, as an aside, this was handheld using my camera's built-in focus stack settings that automatically capture the sequence of RAW files for conversion into the focus stack in Photoshop.