Categories
Editorial Photographic

daddy or chips? comic or sweets? cropped or uncropped?

Whenever I have a big decision to make, a clear choice between ‘a’ or ‘b’, my mum likes to remind me of my habit as a 3 or 4 year old toddler of storming out of newsagents empty handed, crying my eyes out and having a right old hissy fit because I couldn’t choose between a) a comic or b) a packet of sweets. So rather than risk making the ‘wrong’ decision I’d go empty handed like a proper little martyr.

(and my mum would argue that this still happens)

So, I had a really difficult decision to make recently. In fact, I’ve still not made it. No sweets or comics were involved, but all the same it’s pretty much hamstrung my entire creative flow. I’ve got photos in my camera that I can’t even find the motivation to download simply because Photoshop is still open in the background with two slightly different versions of the exact same shot sitting there waiting to have the Ultimate Verdict delivered, and it’s been like that for over 24 hours. Talk about making a lot of fuss over nothing.

The shot in question isn’t even all that amazing (well, obviously it is really – I’m just being modest). It was taken a few days ago when I was on a wander around my neighbourhood with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens, looking for little details that caught my eye in an attempt to keep my hand in with casual personal urban photography, something the photoblog was pretty much founded on but which I seem to have strayed away from recently. I was deliberately looking for the really small stuff that still told some kind of story in terms of how it might have got there, and also have something aesthetically pleasing to my eye.

So, which of these two versions is ‘better’?

Categories
How-Tos Photography how-tos

making ‘this glass is half full’

Today I posted a new image from a local pub that at the time I took it was a really nice photo as it stood. Really nice soft natural light, nice depth of field and sharpness with the 50mm f/1.8 lens, simple subject matter, popping colours, and beer. Perfect. 🙂

I did give it a little lift in Photoshop though, as I often do. I just like my images with a bit more pop or a push one way or the other. As it was a really simple few layers I used, I thought it would make for an easy explanation!

First of all, here’s the original photo straight off the card, untouched by any editing software beyond the JPG settings on board the camera:

myglasseye540_half_full ORIGINAL.jpg