Going Too Far

Having recently worked on some low contrast images in which I substantially boosted the contrast, sometimes to the point that image integrity was damaged, I thought to write about taking things too far - whether it's too long a lens, or too wide, too dark or too contrasty or too much saturation or even too clever composition with lines meeting in the corners, this is always an issue for photographers, or at least it should be.

If you never go too far, how can you tell if you have gone far enough. The real trick is not in never going too far, it's in recognizing that you have done so and having the courage to then back up a bit, even if it means starting over.

The catch is that when you make incremental changes, they tend to build on you , a little bit more would be better, until suddenly you realize you way overshot ideal. Had you for example increased contrast to that degree in a single step, you probably would have seen the problem immediately and backed off.

That's ok, so long as you now fold the print and either back up or restart from an earlier save.