Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Set a Baseline


Slurp VII
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.
Once you reach a point where you can make an honest analysis of your work then set a baseline for yourself. Take your best image (you can use more than one), and set it as the wallpaper on your computer (phone, PDA, etc.) and when you see it take the time to pick it apart. Look for ways that you could make it better, and then try to apply those changes to all of your future images (if possible). The goal isn't to re-shoot the exact same scene, but to find and fix mistakes that you might be repeating.

Once you take a better photo then set it as your wallpaper and start the process over again. The image included with this post is my current baseline. It's sure to change, but I may not come back and update this post.

Remember that you need to take the feedback that you're getting from other photographers with a grain of salt -both good and bad. If you start believing all of the positive things that people tell you then you might stop improving, and if you can evaluate your own work then no one should be pointing out mistakes that you're not seeing...

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Good idea; I'll start doing that. By the way, there's a trailing " breaking the link.

Dalantech said...

Thanks -fixed :)

Mark said...

Hi John - that is totally true, I think that photographers can get complacent with the praise that other people give them.
I am always looking at my photos and thinking I can improve them.

Love reading your blog.

simak said...

John. I never use blogger.com , how can i receive new messages from your blog?
I am trying to do all i can for this, but nothing is sends me when you write new message.
I logged in with my google accaunt, i am folower of your blog i try to find something about the receiving new messages, but can`t.
Can you help me with it?
Or there is no feature in blogpost.com - it just can`t send email, when you write new stuff?

Dalantech said...

Hey simak,
If you use an RSS reader I think that you can subscribe to RSS feeds. Not sure if there is a way to get new posts emailed to you though.

Dalantech said...

Thanks for the feedback Mark!