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:You thought I was kidding yesterday about the birds. Here is where the idea came from. What I don't like in the picture:I didn't paste in these birds. They flew into the picture just as I was photographing the rocks. What I learned:Once again, luck trumps skill. The birds were great and added that sense of scale that I was moaning on about yesterday. Unfortunately as you can see in the above, the sky was rather bland and gray. I popped this one over to Photoshop and did a Sky Replacement for a more dramatic set of clouds. Now that I have two images of these granite hills, I'm motivated to push further to see if I have enough for a small project. Yay! 2nd Chances: What I might try nextInsert flying monkees with the new Gemerative AI in Photoshop? |
