Mistakes

[binglemybongle]

Hi everyone.

I guess this question is directed towards amateurs rather than professionals, but all replies are welcome

How many people have shots theyve taken, that are among their favourites, that were not intentional?

I mean along the lines of expecting something to have turned out completely different but the way it has turned out is far better and hard to replicate.

Im hoping for a reasonable response because this keeps happening to me!:lmao:

Sometimes i feel as though i could pass myslef off as quite an accomplished photographer as long as i shot enough film and hid the evidence of my evil deeds!

 

[jstuedle]

It happens to all of us from time to time. I have said on TPF many times, the trash can is the photographers most used tool and best friend. We just need to remember to hide it!

 

[SteveEllis]

I posted two photos in the bloopers section and was rather suprised when everybody loved them

 

[terri32 3]

I know exactly what you mean. It happened to me enough that I got tired of feeling like the images I liked best were only "happy accidents" - I wanted to be able to control it. So I started formal classes.

But understand, even when you've mastered the basics of photography, and you feel you're controlling the camera (as opposed to it controlling you) and you have a reasonable expectation of what you're going to get - sometimes it still doesn't measure up to your mind's previsualization of what you wanted when you took the shot. So then you must ask yourself what you may have done wrong. Would this image have looked better with a different lens? Closer crop? Two steps back? Vertical instead of horizontal? Did you forget your filters? Any number of things can kick an image up - or have you reaching for the trash bin.

It's a matter of putting yourself through the paces. The best thing to do is keep shooting. You will eventually see less and less bloopers and more keepers. I still feel I've had a good outing if the worst thing I'm thinking when I review my negatives is that some of the images are maybe a bit boring - BUT - there are still a few that interest me. A roll of perfection? Highly unlikely.

Keep shooting!

 

[panzershreck]

i rarely have bloopers per say, just photographs that imo compositionally aren't worth printing (or if digital, trashing)

but i can usually (emphasis on usually) tell if something is worth printing the second i bring my camera up to my eye

on the other hand though, i'm terrible at being objective with most of my own stuff, what i disregard as crap, other people think is great

hence why i don't bother thinking beforehand that such and such photo is going to be great, they could all be great, or all suck, depends after i've developed the negatives (and LCD's rarely, for me, tell me if i've gotten what i want, ie: my parent's camera's LCD is too dark, and when i get to a computer i find i have ever-so-slightly different photos, we've thrown away ones i now regret having done so in the field)

EDIT: I take that back on the making bloopers, when i was using my dad's ultra-cheap, ultra-light digital compact on a hiking trip, i forgot to remember that the eyesight was not the same as what the lens was seeing... a big difference actually, what you see with the eye piece is usually 2/3 not what the camera picks up... so instead of landscape shots with various things across the picture plane, i got a shot of grass, or a shot of nothing, etc.