The more I know, the worse I get. Have you ever had that experience?
I’m really enjoying my photography class, and I’ve learned a fair amount in addition to what I’ve been learning online (Flickr discussion groups, Strobist, and Photodoto are some of my favorite haunts). I *think* I’ve moved beyond the Knows Enough to be Dangerous stage in a lot of ways (but really, how dangerous can you be with photography?).
Now I’m in the phase called Recognizes Imperfections But Not Until After the Shutter is Clicked. I’m getting better at identifying the good and bad qualities of an image, but usually after it’s too late to do anything about it. Why does it always happen that the subject’s best facial expressions happen on the shots where the lighting isn’t quite right? And why are their eyes closed on the ones that are perfectly exposed?
In tonight’s class we learned some Photoshop stuff. Oh. My. Gosh. When I got home I started working on a self-portrait (plus Maggie!) that I did yesterday, and I think I took about 10 years off the age of my face. It’s still me, but wow. Oh, to look like that again! I also worked on some other images, but think I might’ve been a bit heavy-handed. It gets to the point where I work on something so much that I don’t trust my own judgment about its appearance.
So I figure that my only hope is to keep plugging away, trying to improve my photography and Photoshop skills until I can see my images for what they are instead of what they could be.
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Some of you have commented about the location of my comments link. I know, I know—I went back on my word and chose a template with the link at the top. And I do hate it. But I like the way the darker color makes the photos pop, so until WordPress comes up with something new (or I change my mind again) it’s staying. Sorry!
