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
Sometimes, Just Fix the Obvious
In an ideal world, the image captured in the camera would be perfect and need no processing whatsoever. We do not live in an ideal world. Sometimes, the first step is to fix the obvious.
What I saw that I liked:
I like windows, as you will see this week.
What I don't like in the picture:
Meters adjust exposure to be 18% gray. That's exactly what you see above. I should have "overexposed" the image to bring those whites up to white.
What I learned:
Since I didn't adjust for the whites in the exposure, I adjusted them to white in post processing. Simple, obvious, and easily seen and fixed.
But what about that blue tape in the upper right corner of the window? In my youth, I wouldn't need to pay attention to that distraction because I shot only b/w film. Now in the digital age, I easily removed all blue from that section of the image. The trick is learning how to see that blue distraction when you come from a b/w world. |
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