I have learned to keep photos I take of myself even if I don’t immediately care for the image — to keep them longer than a few seconds before deleting them, anyway — because I sometimes find that, when I go back later and look at what I took, I find something to like about them.
The original of this photo was just such a one. Taken in the early dark hours that launched a lovely day earlier this year, my original instinct was to -/delete/- quickly. Too blurry, too grainy, too dark. Too much shoulder, too much face, too many crumpled blankets in the background. But, heeding my second instinct (to wait and re-examine it later) instead of my first, I made a note to myself about this photo: play with this.
And so, this morning, I did.
And I’m rather pleased with the result.
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Sometimes things are worth a second look.
And sometimes, cropping out the clutter and focusing in on a smaller part of the picture is necessary if you want to see new potential.
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I really like this one. It looks like a painting and the colour is great. I often come back to photos too so agree this is a good way of working. Missy x
Thanks. I tried to get the grainy grays turned to midnight blue; I think it worked. 🙂
That’s nicely done, especially considering you attempted it as a “save” rather than a clear intent.
Thanks. 🙂
I was always very quick with deleting images, but my husband has taught me never to delete. I happened to find a couple of those almost-deleted images which eventually made it to my blog. Love this image 🙂
~ Marie xox
I still probably hit the delete button too often and too quickly, but I’ve gotten better about allowing time for a second look. I can usually tell right away if it’s going to work to alter/crop it, but not always.
Great advice and I agree it’s always good to keep images to return to at a later point. Beautiful image and I love the colour.
It can be hard to do for many of us, I think. What we envision in our creative mind’s eye and what the lens portrays are not always the same thing.
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This image has a story behind it, or ahead of it! Events could go either way – and of course it’s blue, as the action probably was!