Parker Photographic Insiders

Photography + Editing tips

Hello Reader !

I knew as soon as I created the image... it was garbage.

What do you think...

Things wrong with this image...

the sky is boring
it's not edited
well, that's about it

For some reason I was disappointed with the sky and just disliked the image.

I did do a quick "auto" edit and wasn't impressed.

So, it hung out in my LR catalog for the next 16 months.

Every time I scrolled by the image... I cringed.

For the 5,245th time... I had enough.

Delete!

Well... before I could hit that key... my left hand accidentally hit the "z."

And boom!

It zoomed in and I was amazed.

....

The one thing that was holding me back was gone.

Now, I could see the beauty of this image and what lead me to create it in the first place...

the shadows were delicious
Fine textured detail revealed what it must have felt like to the touch
cascading hills, in the middle ground, showed shapes and structures
the contrasting color from the middle ground to background popped
the foreground revealed the presence of humans (why they allow this in Utah is beyond me)
the teeny, tiny, rock mushrooms (not sure what else to call them) show scale and an additional interest
leading lines, and layers, and depth, oh my!

I must be some photographic genius! Not really.

My initial instinct was there.

But the inclusion of the sky at time of capture clouded my initial judgement.

I'm glad I didn't delete.

It's now one of my favorites!

....

And after some careful edits... I'm thinking the sky isn't so bad after all.

It now adds another element of interest.

The more I look at it the more I prefer this version.

What do you think?

Before You Delete

There's a hidden gem in that photo you want to throw away.

Try these first...

zoom in
crop it
flip the orientation
edit

If you're still not happy with it... well, maybe it’s time to let it rest in the bin of the afterlife.

Have an awesome day!

Chris Parker

Parker Photographic

269 WALKER ST V5718, Detroit, Michigan 48207-4258
Unsubscribe · Preferences

One of these photos is better than the other…

Parker Photographic Insiders Photography + Editing tips Hello Reader ! It buzzed by like a speeding bullet. Up and down. Left and right… all around it went. Too fast for this old man to lock on with my Nikon in hand. And then as luck would have it, it stopped on a dime. Right on a lily pad bloom. But there was one problem… …it was fifty feet too far. Even for my short Telephoto lens at 200mm. And I couldn’t get closer. I wasn’t about to wade in the cold marsh water. Even if I could, I’m sure...

6 days ago • 1 min read

the first photo is boring, but, not the second

Parker Photographic Insiders Photography + Editing tips Hello Reader ! X-Marked the spot. Or in this case… a “camera.” I was ready. Prepared. Packed. And focused. I’d been planning this landscape shot for weeks. But, there was one small problem. No one mentioned anything about a steep and a very rocky road to the top of the mountain! And if you remember from last weeks newsletter… about our brakes… ...well this rendezvous probably contributed to the pads wearing thin too (and the hole in the...

13 days ago • 1 min read

Photo Fail… and How I Fixed It

Parker Photographic Insiders Photography + Editing tips Hello Reader ! My wife (Tammy) panicked as I backed out of the parking lot. “Do you hear that?” she asked.“Umm… no,” I replied. And away we went... it was time to head home. We twisted and turned. Up and down. It felt like threading a needle at 60 miles an hour. Sharp curves. Sudden drops. No room for mistakes. It was both breathtaking and brutal, like the mountains were daring us to keep up. Oh, and by the way… we were in West Virginia...

20 days ago • 2 min read