Brooks Jensen Arts - Every Picture Is a Compromise

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Every Picture is a Compromise
A Series About Keepers, Also-rans, and Learning from Mistakes

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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

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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:

Wyoming. 'Nuf said.

What I don't like in the picture:

Note in the contact sheet that the letters that spell "CAFE" on the sign are so faded that they are not easily read. That word is the essence of this photograph.

What I learned:

An easy fix with a little tightly controlled digital burning with a tiny brush. I had a fair version of this printed on gelatin silver, but the combination of the CAFE type and the warm tone achieve a result I never did complete in the darkroom.