If I have one major regret about how I handled my portfolio when I was first learning, it's that I threw away a ton of images that weren't technically perfect when I should have kept them. Now, I really wish I had a lot of those images back, because they were compelling despite their flaws. There's more to life than perfection.
Coming to you from Thomas Heaton, this awesome video essay examines a topic I still struggle with to this day — literally today. I was actually just culling photos from a shoot and very nearly threw a photo away because the eyelashes of the subject weren't pin sharp. They weren't horrifically out of focus; in fact, not even my trained eye could notice until I zoomed in to pixel-peep. And yet, on autopilot, I almost threw away a great shot — the shot from the shoot. While of course we should always aspire to improve the technical quality of our photos, I think we spend too much time evaluating them from that perspective, perhaps because it's more objective and readily articulated than something like how compelling an image is, but really, at the end of the day, I think compelling wins the prize.
Mmm true. I learned this in writing. At least creative fiction writing with no burning deadlines... hahha. Put the first draft away for a few days, then go back for editing.
It seems a similar process with the camera as I explore storytelling via the visual medium.
If there ever was a curse of modern imaging technology, it's the easy ability to zoom onto any and all flaws and completely miss the forest for the trees. Pertinent article indeed.
I agree with Thomas. In the image at the 4:30 mark, he captured the essence of the ocean spray over the headlands.
I learned at the beginning of my MFA in art that nothing had to be perfect anymore haha.