I recently heard an interview with a symphony conductor who said music was just notes on paper until someone realized the potential of the score. This reminded me of Ansel Adam's famous quote, "the negative is the score and the print is the performance."
One of the great impediments to becoming a good photographer, as opposed to a snap shooter, is being able to look at an image and develop or understand its potential. Furthermore, it's one thing to be able to recognize the potential and another to be able to execute. This is where the marriage of vision and craft come together. Recognition without the craft to execute or craft with no vision is worthless. It takes both to create a great image.
For the most part, craft can be learned. Vision has to be developed and nurtured.
Ansel's point was that the interpretation changes over time. The prints are not identical over time. My guitar teacher recently heard a CD and could not guess it was Julian Bream, whose recording were very familiar to him. Julian had re-recorded works from early in his career and the difference was astounding. The same is true of printing negatives. And I believe the same will be true even in digital photography. Every day we grow and learn.
ReplyDeletePS Make sure you save your original digital files, preferably the RAW files! It is basically impossible to undo everything.