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
Film Contact Sheet to Digital Image
I think my generation has been the luckiest in the entire history of photography. We have roots in both the analog and digital workflows. From the odor of Hypo to the click of a Lightroom preset. This week is a nostalgic look back at contact sheets and the images that came from them via the hybrid processing of a negative scan.
What I saw that I liked:
The lowest-left image in the contact sheet is a shot of The Dalles Mountain up the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.
What I don't like in the picture:
The image in the contact sheet is dark, lacks detail in the mountain side,and is emotionally and visually flat.
What I learned:
I tried and tried to print this in the analog darkroom and always failed. After I scanned the negative, I realized the analog problem was that the processing in the clouds needed to be radically different than the mountain. Easy to do in the digital workflow. Impossible, at least with my skills in the analog enlarging process. |
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