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
7mm - Ultra-wide Angle Week
This week is all about ultra-wide angle lens use. I have the Panasonic 7-14mm lens for my m4/3 cameras. (Think 14-28mm for you full framers out there.) These ultra-wides are tricky. Every image this week was shot at 7mm focal length. Here are a few things I've learned about using this exotic lens.
What I saw that I liked:
Street market in China.
What I don't like in the picture:
I would rarely choose an ultra-wide to make a portrait, but that was the lens I had on the camera when I came across this fellow. Not wanting to take the time to swap lenses, I made the above at 7mm.
What I learned:
Ultra-wides distort the subject. Look at the size of his knee and hand compared to his head. Freaky, or possibly cool, but in this case freakish.
Compare the above to the shot at left. The object in the paper envelops don't seem too large because we don't know the scale of them in real life with normal vision. We can accept their distortion as just the product of a wide angle point of view, whereas the guy's hand in the above image is just plain wrong. Sometimes you can get away with this extreme distortion, sometimes you can't.
2nd Chances: What I might try next
In the image at left, the fellows head is a little oblong-shaped due to the distortions of the lens. I wonder if that can be fixed with some sort of Liquefy tool? |
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