This is one of a series of posts aimed at encouraging those of you who have fallen out of love with photography to give it a try again. In this post we’ll take a look at a major cause of disenchantment with photography – disappointment with your results, and how to overcome them.
I am just about to send some rolls of film off to be developed. (I occasionally use an old film camera to take photographs) At the moment I am in a state of anticipation – every single photograph is either the best I have ever taken or the worst but I will not know until I see the prints (or the scans). This sense of anticipation is not confined to film photography, though. Even with a digital camera you won’t really know how your images came out until you see them on a larger screen.
One of the things that can put an amateur photographer off their stride is getting back from a day’s photographing and looking at the images on the computer screen. Suddenly they might not look as good as they seemed from the back of the camera.
Perhaps there is a little bit of camera shake; perhaps the subject of the photograph isn’t quite in focus; perhaps the subject is lost in the shadows or blown out in the highlights; perhaps something is intruding into the image; or perhaps the composition isn’t quite as good as it could be. Maybe they just feel a little “meh”.
Bouncing back
How do we bounce back from that sense of disappointment to start taking photographs again? Here are a few ideas I have tried when I have discovered that my results aren’t necessarily what I hoped they would be.
Take the best photographs you can
First of all, when you go out photographing try to be as good a photographer as you can. Know your equipment – familarise yourself with all the settings, especially if working in challenging lighting conditions. Take your time to make your image, checking the focus, exposure and composition carefully.
I always find it useful to check the edges of my viewfinder before I take the picture. Is there something creeping into the image that might be distracting? Can I remove it in some way?
Plan the photographs you would like to take
Secondly, plan. What are the photographs you would like to take and therefore where do you need to be and what needs to happen for you to get them? Perhaps there is a certain viewpoint you need to have of the subject? Perhaps the subject is a fast moving object which needs to be in a certain location? Research the subject in advance and plan the photographs you intend to take.
Learn from your mistakes
If you do make mistakes, make them good mistakes and try to learn from them. You might be able to go back and retake the image once you have recognised what you need to do to make it better. Or, if that is not possible, then you could apply what you learnt to other photographs.
Don’t treat the photo out of the camera as the finished product.
So we have carefully taken our photographs, researching the subject in advance and setting up each image to get the best shot we can. Even then we might still feel a little underwhelmed when get home and see the pictures properly for the first time.
One thing to bear in mind, if you are shooting in RAW image files you might find that the photographs look flatter than they did when you previewed them in your camera. This is because your camera will have shown you a jpeg version can look brighter. The RAW file image contains a lot of unprocessed data some of which you will not need in your finished images. As a result they can tend to look a little disappointing when you first view them.
Don’t treat the RAW image file as the finished product. Instead, consider it as the starting point for creating the image you really want it to be and which captures the feelings you experienced when you were making the photograph.
Give yourself time to revisit your photographs
If you still feel uninspired by the photographs you have taken put a bit of time between viewing your photographs. Look at them first and then set them aside, coming back to them at a later date. The chances are you will now discover something in them that you did not see on the first look and the photographs might actually be better than you first thought.
It maybe that your original images did not meet your expectations of your trip. You wanted to get that spectacular sunset or that street photograph caught at the perfect moment. Those images didn’t quite work but you may have taken some other photographs that did work.
Don’t write them all off.
Enjoy taking photographs!
Perhaps the best way to avoid disappointment is to go out with no expectations at all, simply taking your camera for a walk and enjoying the stroll. Any photographs you take are a bonus! Someone said to me once that they actually enjoyed the process of taking the photographs – observing their surroundings, composing the image and taking it – more than they did actually looking at the photographs later on.
And when you are back home looking at the photographs and maybe feeling underwhelmed, give yourself time to remember that experience of actually taking the photographs – where you were, what you were doing.
Simply embrace your photography!
If you have ever felt a little disappointed by the results of your work I hope these ideas are useful and will help you bounce back to take more photographs.
In the meantime my film is in the box and on its way to be developed. I will report back on my response to the photographs when I receive them!
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