How many of you look back and wince...

jamesoliverstone

jamesoliverstone

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When you look at some of your older shots ;)

I was flicking through some of my old albums from my b&w days with film and I have no idea why I took most of them! Mind you, that was 10 years ago :)

Mind you saying that, I look at some photos I shot six months ago and cringe :D

I hope to think I am not alone in this :lol:
 
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What do you mean look back and wince?

Does Sunday just gone count? :D
 
I have to agree with Keith. I tend to have a very short love affair with most of my photos, and then I move on to the next new thing.
 
Totally. Especially my processing techniques!
 
I only have to look back a couple of years to see the shots that I thought were keepers when I first got my 50D. Most of them would have been binned now.
 
The23rdman said:
Totally. Especially my processing techniques!
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Me too, especially my B&W's. There seems to be so many different techniques now to bring out the contrast and depth out of a black and white, yet my previous ones look so flat and boring!
 
I think we all do, and still do :D although not many of mine are keepers anyway but, just what I call "Ron's" (Later rons's :lol:)

It was not only yesterday that Fernface and myself were saying this and now make myself delete 10 photos a day to get rid of a few "maybe's"
 
ive only been taking 'proper pics' since september when i started college and got my d70 and i cant belive the difference in the pics im happy with now and the ones i thought were great then, ive got my best ones from only a few months ago in frames in my lounge and already im looking at them and thinking 'why on earth did i print that one?'.
 
Keith W said:
Does Sunday just gone count? :D
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Yep..same here.
Having said that I do tend to re-visit old folders sporadically, with the intention of digging out photos I used to love but now know I could do better. I guess I do it to reassure myself that im still learning, and that I am actually making some progress with my photography?

This may be quite sad...but I actually have a 'one of these days ill go and re-shoot this' folder :D
 
I did this the other week, I added some new pictures to an old album on Facebook.

There was a stark difference between the ones taken on my 400D/Sigma 18-200mm compared to the latest ones on my 7D/15-85mm/100-400mm.

Even my girlfriend commented on how must better my latest pictures were so the difference must be hooooge :lol:

IQ aside, I think I've improved in terms of composition and PP but still looking for ways of improving :)
 
Keith W said:
What do you mean look back and wince?

Does Sunday just gone count? :D
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Im generally like it every time i connect the cam to the pc.
I go out and think... "That will make a great shot!"..
Then get the pics on the PC and hate them :D
Really must try harder...I dont exactly have a huge "keeper" ratio..
 
Yep, I often look back & think oh my god what was I doing, but then it makes you realise how far you have improved in this game.

That said some of my very, very recent stuff still makes me wince.
 
i put an album on facebook of my mates wedding about 3 years ago, where i made a lovely job of selective colouring the groom's carnation in about 6 different shots :bonk:

it makes me shudder just to think about it never mind actually looking at them.
 
I think it is good to see how I have progressed.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I think it is good to see how I have progressed.
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I agree - I look back and (thankfully) see near continuous development - it's a good reminder of how far you've come.

I don't think it's my tastes that are changing, but just that I'm getting better at framing action, being more selective and being a lot more confident about my photography in general. Having said that, I've just expanded into studio work and it's like being a beginner all over again!
 
The way I see it is. Those old shots got me to the stage I am at now, tomorrow I will hopefully be better but without those early shots I would be nowhere.

Without the promise of progression my interest would wane.

Having said that I have more to learn than most of you.
 
Glad its not just me :)

Thing is, are we ever really truly happy with what we produce? I mean, I look at some shots of mine that I know are real belters, but I can still see things in them that bug me, little things that nag away at the back of my brain...

I have my best shots from Africa now mounted and framed in the house, and 3 of them are now annoying me because I can spot a little thing in each one that isnt quite right... even though I know they are standout shots.

Damn me and my ever critical brain :D
 
The worst is doing a big shoot then working on PP all day, crashing into bed feeling really happy with your work... then waking up the next day and looking with a more objective eye and realising all the little niggling things you missed or did badly!

I find even once I've finished a set of images and feel happy I have to force myself not to send them out for a few days until I have some distance and perspective on the images. Of course, with images I took a year ago I have an even stronger feeling of how I'd do it all totally differently if I was there again.

In the end you just have to be philosophical and see it as a journey - as someone above said, I think shots you took a long time ago are great to dig up just so you can feel good about how you've progressed!
 
If that ever stops happening, I'm screwed. I'm not progressing, and it's game over.

Though at the minute... I've had a few years away from creative photography, looking back to my old stuff and wondering... can I be that good again? We'll see soon, I hope.
 
I like to go back once in a while and look at the old pics and see how much Ihave improved, learned etc etc.

I did some portrait shots soon after getting my first cam and i thought they looked good at the time, then I did some last weekend of the wife (ok slightly naughty ones too) and they are a vast improvement on my first attempt due to reading on here about lighting etc.

spike
 
I totally agree. There are some shots that truly male me cringe but at the same time I realize how much better I've gotten.

On the other hand I see some shots that look great yet were taken closer to the beginning of my career and I'm reminded that I've learned so many post processing techniques and that I tend to overuse them.
 
For me I enjoy the process of learning and look forward to improving on what I am currently doing, though I am already getting annoyed at myself for making errors:bang:
 
I look back and wince after only a couple of hours, and delete stuff which I thought would be good.
 
andy700 said:
I look back and wince after only a couple of hours, and delete stuff which I thought would be good.
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i tell you what your not wrong, i upload my pictures normally a few mins after ive taken them (if im home) and dislike them by the time the upload has finished...

they never look 'right' to me... but i still keep taking them anyway :)

keeps me ammused i guess :bonk:
 
I most hate it when sometimes its not even you that spots something. I did some portfolio shots for a model recently and I was as pleased as punch with them (as was the client). It wasnt until a few weeks later that one of my mates saw a print round at the house and immediately pointed to a small piece of litter on the floor and said, "I am surprised you didnt clone that out"...

Now I see nothing except that damn piece of litter! :lol:
 
Hmm
ukglyn said:
Yep, I often look back & think oh my god what was I doing, but then it makes you realise how far you have improved in this game.
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This does happen to me, but perhaps not as often as it seems to others from perusing this thread.

I've got some embarrassing stuff taken in my mid-teens inspired by Brian Duffy's elaborate advertising photography setups from the 1970s that nobody else is going to see. I think I quickly realised the gap between my imagination and the result on those :)

I am sometimes surprised how little I seemed to understand about the dynamic range available on slide film till my mid-20s, but beyond that I'm still reasonably happy with a lot of the photos that I liked when I took them the over last 30 years or so, to the extent that I've posted them in my Flickr photostream.

Picking a couple of the older examples, I took this one when I was just sixteen, in 1983


M 827 by cybertect, on Flickr

And this during my first year at University in 1986 (home-processed HP5)


Foster's Renault Joint by cybertect, on Flickr

Now, I'll be the first to concede there's nothing hugely adventurous about them. They're not going to win any competitions, but they're workmanlike photographs that do the job they need to and I think I'd do that in much the same way today.

I got a decent grounding in composition doing 'O' and 'A' Level Art at school. I went through enough FP4 and HP5 with an all-manual Praktica and a darkroom in the loft in my early teens to get a reasonable handle on most of the technicalities of using a a camera.

Digital's opened up a lot of technical opportunities since I got a 300D in 2004, but I'd been using Photoshop for over ten years by then, so I had a fairly good idea of what was possible. The basics of photography remain the same anyhow. It did allow me to take a lot more pictures and not worry so much about expense. :)

Maybe I just hit my modest level of creativity and ability in my mid teens and haven't really moved on since then? A lot of what I do is essentially documenting things that interest me, but I'm not hunting birds or fast sports sports action. I don't do studio work or macro. I rarely attempt portraits. I'll try to make a visually pleasing image where I can, but I'm not an all-out 'creative' photographer.

I'm certainly not obsessing about progress. Photography is just a part of my life. It's a thing that I do. :shrug:
 
yes, i do. i look back a few years and think something along the lines of.. wow how i thought that was remotely good is beyond me!
 
Totally! I was looking through some old stuff the other day actually and was cringing beyond belief! I've only been at this for 2 years, but even I can see I've come a long way. (More so at pp'ing. I now realise less is more). I seriously need to go back and re-edit some of them!
 
I would not keep much of my older stuff if shot now. I think it is a combination of many factors, including easier access to information on technique, advanced equipment, and processing software. I suppose if we feel like this, then we can only be improving:D
 
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