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
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:
I love these giant guardians known as Nio. They are typically at the entrance to a temple. Their job is to scare aware the evil spirits.
What I don't like in the picture:
The contrast ratio of this scene is a real test of the dynamic range of a camera sensor. This was shot with a Panasonic G9, handheld at 1/400th second at ISO 5000.
What I learned:
First, I did AI DeNoise to clean up the image. Cropping eliminated quite a bit of the overblown tile on the floor, then a little highlight recovery worked well. Simply amazing how much detail can be recovered in deep shadows and edge-of-disaster highlights with today's cameras. With early digital cameras, this would have necessitated a two-exposure HDR approach. I'm perfectly happy just pulling up the shadows as needed without the hassle of HDR. |
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