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.
|
Original digital capture
What I saw that I liked:Those centered clouds are what cause me to stop the car in this precise location. What I don't like in the picture:The clouds caught my eye, but they are not to center of attention in the above. That belongs to the hill — not at all what was interesting to me in the moment. What I learned:This is another example of capturing a composition, not a set of tones. It was pretty easy to process the tones in the image at left to completely shift the point of interest. Field work is for compositions and subject, processing work is for tones and emotions. I think that's the lesson from this image. If nothing else, an idea to experiment with in the future. |
