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
What I saw that I liked:I find architecture to be a tricky subject to compose. Is this staircase an abstract of lines and angles, or a view of fundamental aspects of a building? What I don't like in the picture:The above is too chaotic for my eye. I tried to do something with the details from the image at left, but all I accomplished in the above is a mess of competing angles. What I learned:I think I find architecture so difficult because I have such a hard time seeing three-dimensional objects rendered in a flat photograph. It's easier to do that in an image like the one at left because our brains add the third dimension because of familiarity. The one above is simply to cacophonous and complex for my brain. |
