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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Processing for the Project

It's often best if the images in a project have a similar aesthetic. The trick is to have them look like they belong in a group without being repetitive. This week will be a look at five images processed for a project.

What I saw that I liked:

This is the image that started this small project. It wasn't the leaf that fascinated me, but the ribs that give the leaf structure.

What I don't like in the picture:

The image above is too, what — factual. It shows the leaf but not what I saw that interested me.

What I learned:

It didn't take long for me to convert to b/w and apply contrast to highlight the ribs. Once I had that as an aesthetic for this image, I easily applied the same processing to the other candidates to create a unified aesthetic for the project.