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:What a lovely rock in a Japanese garden. What I don't like in the picture:The rock is obviously not the only thing in the frame. What about the pine branch? What I learned:I often find it useful to think about a simple ranking of the objects in the frame. In this image, which ranks higher in terms of what this picture is intended to show? Is it the rock? Or, is it the pine branch? Figure our which ranks highest and then process to accomplish that. In this example, I decided the rock was an interesting background, but the pine branch was the higher priority. As a thought experiment, imagine this image without the pine branch. Interesting rock, but no real subject. Imagine the image without the rock. The details of the pine branch would be lost against a cluttered background. The two work together, but each has a role to play in the image that is different than the other. |
