It's nearly noon. The sun is shining and my restlessness is beginning to stir. The bell from a nearby church has started to ring, signifying 11 hours have passed this day already. I spent at least 8 of them sleeping and I feel sufficiently rested to pursue whatever adventures await.
I told the Profuser I'd stop by today and give him a crash course in Lightroom, a photo-editing software that he's developed interest in. For some (myself included), the editing process adds an additional layer of dimensionality to photography. Toying with color temperatures, contrast levels, clarity and saturation are ways to build on the originally captured photo, allowing you to add shades of sentimentality that may not have been as apparent upon the first viewing. It's not unlike editing something you've written; you go back and switch out words for more suitable ones, you delete the sentences that are superfluous and you embellish where necessary. Editing is to refine.
That's not to say that there isn't something magical about capturing a complete image straight from the camera, because there is, but it's rare to shoot one that speaks clearly and communicates everything you want it to without wanting a modicum of modification. Often it is only after viewing a photo several times that you see something you'd missed when you'd first taken it in. The true content of a photo sometimes hides camouflaged in the shadows, underexposed and out of focus, like some deep-sea creature trying to avoid detection. Ideally each of us would be skilled enough to consistently photograph our subjects perfectly the first time, but that simply isn't the case. Time doesn't stand still and pose for us like a teenage girl in front of a bathroom mirror, it doesn't allow us to deliberate over the myriad possibilities for framing and composition, or proper exposure values; time waits for no one.
No comments:
Post a Comment