When good photos go bad
Have you ever taken any photos that looked good in the viewfinder, or on your digital camera’s LCD screen, but when you saw them full sized ended up being rather bad? Or, perhaps you wished that your shot only had some minor framing adjustments?
Recently I took a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the Steelers vs. Dolphins game (I know, I know, it was a horrible game) and I managed to take what I thought were a few great photos around downtown Pittsburgh. The day I was out shooting was a rather foggy, rainy, and generally gray day but I thought that out of the 100 or so photos I snapped that I had 4 fairly good ones. Turns out, I was wrong.
Now that I’m back home and have been able to look at my photos on my computer’s screen I don’t really like a single photo that I took. Some of them actually had potential too - but they were just slightly ill-framed, had horrible depth, or I missed ‘a moment’ by just, well, a moment.
I’m pretty bummed about not having any publishable photos from Pittsburgh. I’ll keep them in my photo library for the sake of keeping a few memories of the great time I had going to my first ever Steelers game, having been a fan since I was about 11 or 12 years old, but I just wish I had at least one good photo to show for it.
Current mood: Bummed out.
November 28th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I hear you, Colin, but really look at those 4 or so that you thought you had nailed and try to see what you would have changed. When I can catch myself to ask questions while setting up a shot, I’ll sometimes become aware that I’m not so sure about some aspect and take a few extra shots with adjustments to be sure. Even that doesn’t guarantee anything.
In the end, some days the pictures take themselves, some days they just don’t happen. I hope your trip has good memories, if not good photos.
November 28th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Hey, don’t get bummed out d-:
This happens all the time to me. Just gotta deal with it.
One remedy I’ve found, at least to prevent those framing problems? Shoot copiously.
I mean, seriously, seriously copiously.
I carry 4 2GB CF cards around with me, and when I see an interesting subject, I’ll often take 15-20 photos from a given major angle, with slightly different f-stops, ISO settings, shutter speeds, focusi (is that the word?), or minor angles. I know I can never really tell what a photo will look like on the tiny viewfinder, so I just shoot as many as I can, and worry about choosing ‘the one’ when I get back to my 30″ screens where I can see each option in all it’s 10MPx of glory.
Getting quite a few CF cards to have around with you, so you don’t have to be restrained on how many options you have later, is definitely worth the money. I recommend Costco, I bought my cards there very cheap in bulk.
Also, if you have a Macbook (pro), then it might be worth it to grab an ExpressCard flash card reader, and a copy of Photon for the lappy; then you can at weed through for the better photos on something larger than a camera LCD every day.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I only use low-level cameras, and so I expect my pictures to be kind of not so good, but I still hate it when none of a hundred pictures are any good.
I feel sorry for you.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Elliot Cable: I also, typically, take a ton of photos (far more than the 100 I took on this particular trip). I just didn’t have the time to do that this time. It wasn’t due to me not having enough equipment with me.
Raphaël: Good idea…. make sure all of my photos aren’t good and so I won’t be so picky!
To all: Just so it is clear, the photos I took weren’t all blurry, or horrible, just not worthy of my photolog in my opinion.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Todd: Sorry for not approving your comment quicker (but you should comment here more often anyway).
Yeah, my trip had some good memories for sure. And I agree that I probably should have shot many more photos, angles, and made those adjustments in between shots that you are talking about. But I was in sort of a rush. I also agree that some days are just awesome photo days, and others are not.
I’m hoping that with Photoshop’s help (when I have some free time) I’ll be able to put together at least one publishable photo.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
November 28th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
[...] read this blog post today and I couldn’t agree more with the author. Taking a bunch of photos which look fab and wonderful on the little LCD screen, only to get home, [...]
November 28th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I think you’re crazy! I saw the photos and liked at least 3 or 4 of them! You need to publish them!
November 28th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Eliza: Bleh. I’m hoping to, but I tried to get one done today and it didn’t go as planned.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
That’s the exact reason I bought a camera with the biggest screen I could find. Still not full proof unfortunately. Even the iPhone has the same issues of finding out a picture is bad. However, that’s half due to the lower quality photos it takes.
I would pay a lot of money to whoever finds a fix to this soloution.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Hey Colin - that happens all the time. Be sure to take a good look at the images thought a little cropping and straightening in PS goes a long way.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Happens to the best of us! Don’t worry.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Colin, First of all i am disappointed that you did not tell me that you were the burgh! Hope that you had a great time despite the weather conditions. Anyway I am not a photo GURU but you said it yourself the day was gray. Sometimes you have look at a photo for what it was taken for. I don’t think that just because a photo is not crisp and clear that it is not good or has no value. When you look at them in the future you will see the moment that you captured even though it was not the”picture perfect day” they will give some satisfaction. I would love to see those pictures since I lived half of my life in and around Pittsburgh.
JB
December 18th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
[...] the end of November I said none of my photos from Pittsburgh were “worthy of publishing” to my photolog. Well, I [...]