Brooks Jensen Arts


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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Never Give Up! Week

It is so easy to be disappointed and give up on an image when it doesn't look like we wished. That doesn't mean there isn't a good image buried in those pixels. Sometimes it just needs for you to coax it out! This week includes 5 examples that took considerable processing, but eventually emerged as a keeper. Never give up! (All of these are from a morning photographing in a Buddhist temple in Lishui, China in 2019.)

 

What I saw that I liked:

A lovely statue of Bodhidharma, the monk who is said to have brought Buddhism from India to China.

What I don't like in the picture:

Student monks were studying in this room, so I dared not enter and disturb them. I photographed it from outside the window and unfortunately couldn't avoid including a lot of clutter in the composition.

What I learned:

AI remove tool to the rescue! What a fantastic tool to salvage otherwise useless images. A bit of AI Noise Reduction, too.