You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again, photography ‘know it alls’ telling you your photo would be great, if it wasn’t overexposed.
Well… congratulations Ansel Adams the Third, it is overexposed.
Have you ever sat in the ocean, waiting for that next great wave with the blazing sun glimmering atop the cresting foam, shooting pincers of blinding light into your eyes as you busily scan the natural beauty of the beach; all while bright bikinis are begging to distract you from your quest?
At that moment do you ever think to yourself… wow, this scene is perfect… too bad the sun is obliterating nearly all the highlight detail in this brilliantly white sand and crashing waves.
No, you don’t.
Real life isn’t exposed properly half the time, our irises automatically adjust to compensate but their range is limited. While you’re floating there, squinting out across the ocean with tightly pinched eye-lids you are fully aware of the limitations inherent in a human eye.
Any claim that a great photograph can’t enjoy the same freedom of tonal range is absurd. Blinding highlights and all.
Sometimes, like a tropical beach, a photo simply demands to live it’s life overexposed. This was one of those times.
I DEF agree with you, overexposed i think has a nice look to it sometimes. I cant tell you how many times i’ve been called out for my photos being over exposed. I feel this. Great post jake!
I like the nice short and sweet blog… Its a quick read, makes its point, and focuses on a single issue…
Great post,
Thanks…
Maybe i’ve let those people get to me, but i find it hard to let myself do that, to my detriment. I can appreciate it in others photos, but my own i start to fret that it’s over or underexposed. Wish i knew how to kick that. :\
Well hopefully this post will give you a bit more courage to do it yourself!
With the proper set up… I would agree. If this isn’t part of a collection. A single image in a portfolio which is filled with a variety of exposed images doesn’t sell the concept.
Agreed …. I am soooo encouraged to burn in areas to get detail in my print at school but I never do.
I agree wholeheartedly. There have been plenty of examples of images that would be very boring if exposed ‘correctly’, while the degree of overexposure in the photo gives it just what it needs to grab your attention. Perfect example in your post, although I would be hard pressed to imagine that photo being boring at any exposure.
Like any other photographic choice you make, exposure is a creative choice and should be treated as such. If the scene calls for it, over expose it. As long as you know the reason to do it, then go right ahead I reckon.
Totally agreed! I remember taking a class once and my teacher told me that the image was over exposed but it looked beautiful to me. He completely dismissed it! It didn’t matter, I rocked anyway 🙂
Great article!
To would-be critics: before you pick on an element of a photo, ask yourself if it was intentional. If it was, you’re not criticizing a mistake, you’re criticizing a conscious artistic choice. Ask yourself: did you understand the point of the piece? If not, is it just because you missed it, or is it because the photographer didn’t say it effectively?
It very well ~may~ be the photographer fumbled it. Maybe your artistic sensibilities ~are~ more refined in this case. If you’re confident, go ahead and say so. Just be aware that you’re saying it out loud.
Amen.
Dude, that photo is overexposed, it’d be great otherwise…
I agree with you completely!!!
So it was all intentional, that really had me wondering, hundreds of amazing inspiring photographs and then you post one with all the obvious “flaws” now i see it was all part of an intricate plan of a blog post. and i must say this photo here definitely titillates my retinas
Rules truly are meant to be broken. Funny so many people forget that mantra when they want their thoughts to appear well-informed whilst discussing someone else’s work. I think everyone has been guilty of this at some point, I know I have, especially early on in school when I didn’t know better.
A couple days ago I started thinking about this and put those thoughts into an image (as you started to catch onto)…
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=495689494779&set=a.126473729779.100591.56799754779
After I thought about it a bit more I decided to write this blog post. After all, repetition is the best way to get heard, just look at all that advertising. 🙂
You make a point and overexposure sure isn’t as a big deal sometimes and people questioning only about right exposure are sometimes missing it.
This very picture in this context I, in my own opinion, find a bit troubled to look at – because of exposure.
Word.
Thank you for writing this!!! I totally agree!
I just recently had a guy purchase some photos of his family (He wasn’t in the photos…it was his daughter…). Anyway, he wrote a little “friendly note” with his cheque mentioning that next time I should make sure to not let those little sun “bubbles” interfere with the photo as they detract from the image.
Really??? You thought that sunflare was a mistake??? You don’t think I intentionally put them in the exact spot where I could GET that sunflare?!?! argh…. luckily, he wasn’t the actual client…and I kept my mouth shut…
Word 2.
One of my favorites of this session was an accident… virtually no time in PS…pretty much straight out of the camera…
( I do a slight curves tweak sometimes – 2 pt. minor s-curve, 75 sat, ans a tiny bit of Smart Sharpen for web…)
Totally loved it and yes, agree with ya!
Totally loved it and yes, agree with ya!
Loved the way you explained it as well =)
Absolutely, the artist can do whatever feels good. The trick, however, if one wants to be accepted by others, is to go “far enough” that it doesn’t look like accident or incompetence.
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive read anything like this before. So nice to search out someone with some authentic ideas on this subject. realy thanks for starting this up. this website is something that’s wanted on the web, somebody with a little bit originality. helpful job for bringing something new to the internet!