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Posted by on Oct 12, 2012 in Photography | 4 comments

Humorous Photography Quote Of The Week


After I posted some of my not-so-great photos from my trip earlier this week, I got a lot of feedback and comments from people who could relate. But I got one response in particular that made me laugh. It’s a short and simple quote that kinda stuck with me all week.

There is no such thing as a bad photo… It’s an editing opportunity! – Arline Scott

 
I thought that was pretty clever. :) And some truth to it as well. Trust me, we’d all love to get everything right in the camera and walk away from shooting knowing we have a killer photo in the bag. But we all know there are plenty of bad photos we’ve taken that simply may never see the light of day. But a lot of times, I have to say, with a little creative processing, a photo that was “meh” can turn into something pretty good. It doesn’t have to turn into an award-winning gallery photo, but it can turn into something that you (and the people that you share it with) think is pretty cool.

That’s one of the reasons why I think plug-ins like onOne’s Perfect Effects, Nik’s Color Efex Pro, Tiffen’s DFX, or Topaz’s Photo FX Lab software are pretty cool. Whichever one you own is irrelevant. The point is, they give you a bunch of one-click ways to try out different styles on your photos. Sometimes, a photo that didn’t grab your attention right out of the camera, actually looks great with a special effect.

Your weekend task should you accept…
Give it a try. Take a photo that you kinda like but aren’t totally enamored with and try one of those programs. Run through the different presets and see if something doesn’t grab you. I did a survey at my Lightroom seminar in Orlando the other day and found that the overwhelming majority of people have plug-ins. So the chances are that if you’re reading this you have one too. And if you don’t, all of those links above have free 30-day trials. But I think you’ll find it’s a cool exercise to try once in a while. And trust me, I’ve done it before – you start out by thinking you’ll spend 5-10 minutes doing this. After you’re done you’ll realize you just spent an hour or two.

But it’s fun little exercise and I think you’ll like it. Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Matt Kloskowski

Matt Kloskowski

Education Director at NAPP / Kelby Training
Matt is a full time Education Director for the NAPP and Kelby Training. He's a best-selling author of various books on Photoshop and Photography co-hosts the live weekly photography talk show "The Grid" and is co-host of "Photoshop User TV". In his spare time he practices as a 1st degree black belt in Taekwondo and enjoys spending time with his family in Tampa, FL.
Matt Kloskowski

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Matt Kloskowski
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  • Dennis Zito

    Matt, Great idea! In fact, I was just doing this same thing yesterday. Took some Autumn photos in Michigan while on vacation and some that I thought looked good after I took the picture, looked a little blah. So, yesterday I started playing around with CEP 4 and got them to look more like I had thought. I enjoy my plugins!

    Dennis

  • http://www.goodsmithstudio.com/denver-engagement-photographer/ Matt

    Classic quote. I’m pretty sure Ansel Adams is rolling in his grave over this one… :)

  • Anand

    Matt, Ansel Adams actually did quite a lot of post…just with the development process. It is well known that as he grew older, his reproduction of the famous moon photo got darker. :)

    Btw, in the name of Ansel Adams and your blog post here, I took the liberty of quickly seeing how that “ugly” tree photo of yours can be edited. Obviously I didn’t have the full rez photo and thus it looks grainy and bad. But check it out:

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12826486/untitled-250-620×413-edit%20by%20fotomango.jpg

    If you care, email me the full rez and I will apply the same effects and see what we get. :) Don’t worry, your copyright is your copyright. :)

    Anand

  • http://scottshotsapplegatephotography.com Arline Scott

    Thanks Matt for the mention on the blog! Made my day when our friend asked me on facebook if I was “the” Arline Scott that you mentioned. Love your work, both photography and in editing, here, and in Adobe Photoshop Elements.