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
Choosing Between Variants
So often, the measure of an artist is the sum total of the decisions made along the way to the final production. In essence, choosing between the variants is the core of doing artwork. A or B, color or b/w, vertical or horizontal, X or Y. This week will be an exploration of these choices.
Thoughts on these two variants:
This pair demonstrates about 90% of my photography. That is, I typically shoot several subtle variations so I can decide later, at leisure, which composition I prefer. In this example, I wanted to eliminate that dark rock in the very top/left corner of the above version. That subtle shift in composition also creates a nice diagonal line near the bottom of the picture at left. These two variants are so similar that it often are the small details that make the decision about which variant is used in a final project.
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