How and When to Give up?

This has happened to me many times, and I have a feeling that it happens to others around here as well...

A recent excursion turned up several nice shots that at first glance seemed like would yield some nice "keepers", even though they were still diamonds in the rough. I feel like I have gotten better over the years at looking at an unprocessed RAW file and seeing the potential hidden inside, but sometimes, no matter how hard I try, and no matter how much time, effort, tricks and plugins I throw at an image, it just doesn't cut it.

At this point, it is often hard for me to admit that it is not longer a keeper, and I sometimes will try to pretend it is a good image, even when deep down I can see it is not quite up the standards that I had hoped.

I am getting better at not "publishing" these so-so images in my portfolio, but I used to really struggle with this. It is hard sometimes to admit that something that we have put so much time and effort into needs to be discarded.

Does anyone else have this problem?

In my example above about my recent 2-day excursion, I isolated 6-8 images that I thought were really good. After PP however, I had to admit to myself that only 1 was a true keeper, and 2 others were "fair". I had posted several of these "so-so" images in my portfolio, only to take them down a day later. Dang. I so wanted them to be good! They had so much "potential"!!!

In the music recording business in which I used to be heavily involved when I was younger, there is a saying that goes "you can't polish a turd", which means if it is junk going in, no matter how hard to work to try and improve it later, it is still a turd. The more you try to polish it, the bigger the mess you make. I think this same bit of knowledge applies quite well to photography as well.

Others?

I hear you! From my personal experience, photoshop was such a big learning curve and such a wonderful world to get lost in and I think that sometimes we try and push the limits of a photograph we would have previously discarded. The creative limits of it seem to be only hindered by our imagination.

However I've decided to take a step back from all the editing techniques that i've spend hundreds of hours learning and improving (still am learning) and focus more on the process of taking a shot.

I've began to think more about composition and exposure ideas. Currently itching to try out long-exposure photography with ND filters.

For me at least i've come to the realization that you may be able to make a bad image "acceptable" with editing, but a great image is often mostly the result of a great photograph to start with.

I think you would rather have fewer images of high quality than lots of ordinary images.

I've taken photographs that I thought would turn out well, but once on my computer couldn't come up with a way to turn them into a photo that I liked. However, I generally don't delete them, and on more than one occasion I've gone back a couple of years later when both my editing skills and my eye were more developed and turned the meh photo into something I am quite pleased with. As long as you are learning, there's always the possibility that at some future point you will revisit your photos and find a way to develop it into what you originally hoped the shot would be.

I fully agree with all the postings until now. Happens to me every time as well.
In my workflow I try to sort out the bad photos before going into post processing and very often I drop photos after processing in Lightroom because they did not come out as I would have liked.

Yup...+ 1, especially after I just started posting on 500PX

To put a positive spin on it....it means that you are becoming a more discerning photographer, thereby challenging yourself more and in the end making you a better photographer :-D

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Regards,
Rich
http://500px.com/richhalferty

To stick with the music biz analogies (I worked in music for 30+ years)

"You can't fix it in the mix"

Meaning - if it's no good to begin with - do it again.

I think everyone has this problem but some may be slow to admit it. I am in the middle of a edit session when I saw your msg. I think it's safe to say "join the club". After a trip my wife & I sit down at the computer wonder what we were thinking, if at all, when we took that one.

If I recall correctly Ansel Adams said something like "if you get 12 really good photos a year you are doing good".

Carrying around a 4x5 or 5x7 view camera & film packs you had to be much more selective & think thru the process.

Digital-Bad news, take lots of shots-Good news, delete most of them.

May your next shot be your best.

Now, just turn your back and walk away.

It is not a sin to take a break from an activity you are not enjoying.

If the financial investment worries you, Sell it all.

Most lenses will still be worth close to what you paid.

If the cameras are up to date, they can go for a good sum too.

Flashes, Tripods, and stuff. may need a bit of discount to get them out the door.

n/t

drh681 said:

Now, just turn your back and walk away.

It is not a sin to take a break from an activity you are not enjoying.

If the financial investment worries you, Sell it all.

Most lenses will still be worth close to what you paid.

If the cameras are up to date, they can go for a good sum too.

Flashes, Tripods, and stuff. may need a bit of discount to get them out the door.

Click to expand...

Ummmmm... I am NOT giving up on photography... I was talking about giving up on an image that you have spent a lot of time editing, and it is just going nowhere. The thread is about knowing when to give up and move on from an image, not photography. Go back and re-read my first post again, and it will make more sense.

Your advice would be good however if that was how I was feeling. I reached that point with my (music) recording, and sold everything and moved on. It was a hard thing to do, but when I finally did it, it was very freeing.

In this case however, I love what I am doing, and have no intentions of giving up for a long, long time!

Thanks again for your message.

Doublehelix said:

drh681 said:

Now, just turn your back and walk away.

It is not a sin to take a break from an activity you are not enjoying.

If the financial investment worries you, Sell it all.

Most lenses will still be worth close to what you paid.

If the cameras are up to date, they can go for a good sum too.

Flashes, Tripods, and stuff. may need a bit of discount to get them out the door.

Click to expand...

Ummmmm... I am NOT giving up on photography... I was talking about giving up on an image that you have spent a lot of time editing, and it is just going nowhere. The thread is about knowing when to give up and move on from an image, not photography. Go back and re-read my first post again, and it will make more sense.

Your advice would be good however if that was how I was feeling. I reached that point with my (music) recording, and sold everything and moved on. It was a hard thing to do, but when I finally did it, it was very freeing.

In this case however, I love what I am doing, and have no intentions of giving up for a long, long time!

Thanks again for your message.

--
James

Click to expand...

Ah well, duff images are a dime a dozen.

But the same brutal cut-off policy should help.

I got one useable image last night.

But I can get three interesting iterations out of it

Somewhere in the past is a picture of Jay Maisel with a HUGE box of discarded slides.

Probably images that most of us would have kept, but his work was so focused that he could easily select out the ones he needed and what he could send for recycle.

That's what we should be doing on import.

But we often get attached to the "almost there" pictures.

Or worse we have so many that we lose any sense of discrimination for the right one.

So...

Maybe go back to the original on this image and look for the reasons to not work on it.

They will probably be there, if you can set aside whatever made you love the image enough to spend so much time on it.

--
Photons by the bag.
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The best photographic tool is between the photographer's ears, not in front of his nose.