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
Just a Touch of Warming
Color Balance
For (I'm sure) deeply psychological reasons, we humans generally prefer things that are warm. Soup, campfires, bed, beaches come to mind. Seems so with photographs, too. This week will include images improved with a bit of warming in processing.
What I saw that I liked:
The Portland Japanese Garden. This is known as Heavenly Falls.
What I don't like in the picture:
I've written elsewhere about how water takes on a blue cast due to the blue sky above. I almost always filter out the blue to create a neutral color in the water.
What I learned:
With this image, after I had removed the blue with the Color Mixer, I saw that the image had a slight warmth and decided to push that further. The captured color balance was 6150 and I pushed it to 8322. That's a lot. I almost never shift color balance that far, but it seemed to be necessary with this image. |
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