"Giving Brith" to Photos

[pikers]

Weird title, right?

OK, so this has been one of my biggest issues since getting into photography about a year ago. I have trouble "giving birth" to my photos. By the way, I didn't come up with that one...a photographer friend coined that term. So what do I mean by "giving birth"...

After a shoot I download my photos into Lightroom and "correct" everything. From there I pick my faves and really dive into them. I mess with colors, lighting, DOF, cropping, etc. Once I have something I kind of like, I have a hard time saying "Yes, this is the one. It's perfect". I'm not sure what my problem is...I think it's just that maybe I'll come back to the photo at one point and think of something better to do with it. I know this isn't wrong or and issue, but I feel like none of my work is ever finalized. I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, I can't can be the only one out there with this problem, so my question to the fourm is...

How do you know when a photo is "done"? I know it's a totally subjective thing, but I'd like to create a portfolio and it's tough to do when you can't finalize a photo. Does anyone have any advice?

[Murtasma]

I can usually tell before I even take the picture what I want the final image to look like. Perhaps your going about it in the wrong manner. Correct me if I'm wrong but your work flow appears to follow these steps.

1. Take Picture
2. View picture and decide what you want to do with it

Try using the following process

1. Is this picture worth taking?
2. What do I want this picture to look like? (contrast, subject, colors, distracting elements that may need to be removed in post processing if recomposition can't fix the issue, what story do I want to tell) This step should dictate the post processing you do
3. Set camera settings accordingly
4. Post Process

When I first started making images I often found myself in the same situation as you. I find myself taking fewer images now but, the images I take today have more focus and I'm generally much happier with what I take home.

[pikers]

Thanks Murtasma!

I DO take a good amount of thought into the shots that I take BEFORE I take the shot (light, angle, DOF, perspective, etc.) but I never think of the "story" or what I want the final shot to end up like. That is some solid advice...think of the end product BEFORE you take the shot. I like it and I'll be sure to try that the next time I'm out snapping away.

[Murtasma]

Don't forget less can be more with post processing