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 film negative
From Negatives Week
The five images this week all started as 6x9cm b/w film negatives. These were scanned using a flatbed scanner and recently processed using Lightroom only. Some convert better than others. Some are indistinguishable from modern digital captures. Mining those old analog images offers more useful results than we might guess.
What I saw that I liked:
From rural Japan. No idea what these are, but they look very Japanese.
What I don't like in the picture:
Above is the unadjusted scan of the negative. Not a very good negative because my meter had broken and I was guessing at the film exposures. I tended to overexpose all of these.
What I learned:
Time image at left is lemonade, that is, the best I could do with a poor negative to start with. The corner vignetting is a compensation for the light corners in the original exposure.
2nd Chances: What I might try next
Maybe I could pull some more contrast into those trees in the background. They look gray to me as is. |
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