Beginner Do You Feel Pressured to Make Photos Bright?

[Sony Corleone]

Based on my interactions with other photographers and photo gurus, I feel there is a lot of unspoken pressure to make photos bright, as though any photo that isn't bright is somehow flawed. Has anyone else noticed this?

I was editing a shot of my son yesterday, and while I could have used Lightroom to light up his face a little, I decided against it. The photo appeared more realistic without that particular bit of gimmickry.

I did increase the background blur, and it seemed to work.

A6702589_DxO Lightroom by Baby with natural light but Lightroom bokeh

 

[LeeRatters]

I don't feel pressured into making photos 'anything'

 

[hunnymonster]

They're my photos. For me. So the only person to satisfy is me. (My other half tells me when I'm satisfied with the result obvs )

If someone else likes them, great.

If they have constructive criticism - and it's phrased along the lines of "have you thought about perhaps trying x" - I might give it a go, and then if I like the result may try it again.

If it's phrased as "you should..." in my mind I'll be thinking "you should... do one"

 

[cuthbert]

I don't feel pressured into making photos 'anything'

Yep. ^^^

That said, some people (especially if English isn't their first language) might really mean something else - they might mean that you need to have some contrast in your image for it be successful. Generally speaking, I'd agree that is mostly true - it doesn't have to be literal crank up the contrast dial, but some kind tension has to be there, be that colour, luminance, or focus otherwise, it can be a bit flat.

This was one of the problems that HDR and smartphone over processing did in recent times, it just created images that try to keep everything "perfect" but all end up looking a bit samey - it's what you might call the "death of shadows"