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
It's What You Make Week
The theme this week revolves around the idea that it's not what you take, but what you make that counts. All the images this week are ones that required radical processing to pull something interesting out of a blah RAW capture.
What I saw that I liked:
A white floating log in a shallow lake. Who wouldn't photograph it? Okay, well, I photographed it.
What I don't like in the RAW capture:
Actually, this isn't a RAW capture — it's an image capture with film using my monorail view camera. I do miss the tilts of the front standard to change the plane of focus.
What I made:
Out of the gray mess in the original negative, a high resolution scan allowed me to add mood to this image. From the moment I saw it, I visualized that floating log as some sort of menace. The lower end is almost shark-like. Again, high contrast came to the rescue to create the mood that I was hoping for — danger, risen from the depths of the black sea. Oooooh, spoooooky. |
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