Photographic Mistakes

Although we would all like to take images that need no editing to produce a finished picture, editing can often improve your image.

For example, this is an image I took of Buttermilk Falls in the Adirondacks, NY. Although I loved the light, the morning mist, etc. I managed to include an ugly branch in the image.

Click “More” for a solution.

A little work with the cloning tool in Photoshop made a big improvement in the image.

In some cases an image can be improved by cropping. This is an image of a Tufted Titmouse.

Although I was pleased with the overall image, at the suggestion of some critiques at photo.net I cropped it.

I like the cropped version better. Sometimes it takes the advice of others to improve your images. It is often difficult to accept that changes in an image will improve it because when you made the image you thought it was what you wanted. This may be because you have attached emotions into the photograph when you were taking the picture that don’t show in the image. All your senses were working when you clicked the shutter – now that it is a photograph only what you recorded with the camera is available. It is useful to have others look over your images & offer suggestions. Of course, you don’t have to accept their suggestions, but often another eye can help. That is one of the reasons editors exist!

Sometimes adding a familiar object to an image helps give the viewer a sense of scale. At Arches National Park, I took a couple of images of Skyline Arch. The first includes some interesting trees in the foreground, but doesn’t give any idea of the size of the arch.

The next image adds a couple of people to the foreground. It works as a “We were here” photo, but still does not give a sense of the scale of the arch.

Finally, I asked a friend to stand in the arch. I feel this works well to show the scale.

In a previous article I mentioned paying attention to the location of the sun (or what ever your light source.) Here is what happens if you don’t. Since it would be difficult to reposition the shot to include the cross with sunlight on the subject’s face, the use of fill flash would solve the problem. Unfortunately, I don’t have a “fixed” version of this one.

Although a wide angle lens is helpful when you want to take a photograph of a large object without having to move too far away, look at what may happen to the edges of your image:

The building doesn’t curve in at the ends – the distortion created by wide angle lenses causes the problem. Although you can use distortion correction software to improve parts of the image, getting it completely back to normal is difficult.

Here is what you get using “lens distortion” in Photoshop. The verticals are OK, but look how the roof slants.

When you fix the roof line the entrire left of the image looks OK, but , but the right side still leans…

Although there is better distortion correction software, the best solution is to get far enough away that you can shoot with a normal lens, and shoot perpendicular (both horizontally & vertically to the building). Other solutions include using a Perspective Correction lens or a distortion free wide angle lens, both of which are expensive.
There are cases where you just don’t pay attention. Here is a nice sharp photograph of a squirrel’s tail. Unfortunately, the head should be in focus. If your camera has multiple focal points, make sure you place the active one on the most important part of your subject.

And lastly, be sure to protect the originals of your images. The following photo of a chipmunk is my most popular image of the hundreds at my web site, at least according to Google. I have had many offers to purchase prints of this little guy. The problem – the highest resolution version I have is what is on the web page. Somehow, the original is gone. During one of the editing processes on the image I managed to save the low resolution version over the original, before I backed it up.

I have lots more examples of mistakes – anyone who takes photographs has them. The best we can do is learn from them & use the knowledge to improve the next picture.