Photography Tip - Filtering Albums

Here is one photography tip I have not seen in many tutorials and web sites. This tip is more applicable with the advent of digital photography which allows us to take pictures using renewable resources and allows us to experiment more without losing much.

Once we download the pictures from our digital camera to our computer, we often neglect the step of filtering the good images from the not-so-good ones. Many times, we just upload our entire album to the internet and share our link with our friends.

I have just noticed that it makes a remarkable difference to the albums if I filter them by setting aside the mediocre pictures. Improperly lit pictures, repeats from experimentation, badly framed ones, mistakes, are all candidates for removal. Variety is also important to retain attention of the viewer.

I don't claim to be a professional photographer, but with just this simple step of removing the bad pictures from my albums, I have been able to give the good pictures a different level of appreciation they deserve.

Sharing judgment

When we describe some thing or some place, or some person, or some event, to a friend, we often end up not just transferring to them the description to the other person, but also our sense of judgment about that thing, event or person. I am realizing it profoundly when I describe to my wife my past events in my life, people I have interacted with, people who I have a good opinion about, those I don't, people in my life that have transformed me and so on. I see that I not only share with them the facts, but also what I feel about them - its emotional value. Sharing judgment is sometimes good. Sometimes it is not so good. When the event, person or event is a positive one, the effect is wonderful - we are spreading happiness. But when our own perspective of the event is negative, and if the listener accepts the negative perspective blindly, it may not be a good thing.

What I am arriving at is this: It is the responsibility of the narrator to describe the story in such a way that facts are separated from his own judgment. When appropriate, it is always good to clearly indicate to the listener that what he is describing is his own judgment and not necessarily the final verdict. And as a listener, it is important to not blindly accept others judgments, and take them at full value. The listener could use the facts along with his own experience, knowledge and maturity to provide perhaps a different perspective to the subject - which is always better.