Tip: Look Back at Previous Photographs

Tip: Look Back at Previous Photographs

Posted by Gabrielle Sapphira at 4/15/2011 09:00:00 am

This is something that I need to do and yet try not to do too often. When looking back at previous photos, many people tend to get stuck on the way they look, the technical aspects, the composition. I'm one person that tends to beat myself up a lot about my photos but in small doses, this helps us to progress. If we don't like a picture, we look at it, we think about the moment taking the shot, what we could've changed to get a different look from the one you currently have. This pushes us to take better pictures (which is fine in small doses). You shouldn' get to the point of depression or anger because you can't create a picture like someone else or you couldn't get it a certain way like whoever you're comparing it to. I'm constantly thinking "ugh, why didn't I do that? It would've made it soooo much better, like such and such on Flickr or Deviantart or blah blah blah..." but looking back has helped me progress (well, I'd like to think so anyway). Like most people, I suffer with creativity, or more like the lack there of. Through the year, I gradually learned tips like not everything in the middle is a great picture, or trying different angles of the subject may get you the picture you didn't know you wanted. You and me are individual people with different thoughts on different matters, so try not to compare too much!

But I am progressing. I think that it's okay to take a look back and go through it, because who knows? You may find something you overlooked when you were busy trying to progress. The picture at the top of this post was taken in the first few months of receiving my SLR and I was just randomly shifting through my pictures in lightroom and came accross this! It needed a bit of tweaking to make the colours a bit more vivid but other than that I left it alone. I was a person that thought I wouldn't like to be one of those people that overly processes their pictures. I mean, if you like it then feel free to do so, because its the way you're expressing emotions and conveying what you want to... convey. I'm now started to get into the habit of shooting most things in RAW because it gives me an option of editing without too much loss in the photos. I still prefer to keep them looking as natural as possible though, cause that's how I like my photos :)

Soooo my point is to take a look back every few months, or if you think that's too much, then every year. Some of my favourite photos that I've taken are ones I overlooked or didn't remember taking. I'm trying to take the same approach with my weight loss as well. "OMG she lost blah bla blah in blah bla blah!".... of course she did! I'm not her, I'm different so my body and genes will behave differently. That's how I'm staying sane so far!