Your best worst photo!

[Huss]

The lighting is perfect.

 

[peterm1]

Sometimes I feel that my worst shots are my best shots. 🙂

I called it "Blue Chairs"

Looking down from a vantage point on a table of people in shopping mall cafe. Far too slow shutter speed for the ambient light, unintentional camera movement. Totally blew it. But somehow it works..............well, I think so.

Blue chairs by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Shooting people walking towards me down a narrow side street on a cold and wet day. Somehow produced a complete fail in terms of focus, shutter speed and lighting. But with a little love and care in post I came to love this quite painterly image.

Dark Street by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

More movement, more blur another fail - but it somehow works in terms of recreating the atmosphere of frantic peak hour in a darkening evening.

Evening Rush by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Snap shot of an elderly lady taken through the window of a cafe. Not well focused, blurry, dark, almost none of her face shows and yet it is still one of my most popular images in Flickr. For me it kind of works but is nothing all that special. For the Flickr crowd though, they loved it. Still not totally sure why.

Age and Grace by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

 

[45govt]

Hello
Did not like this one at first but it has grown on me.
Olympus RC35 expired Delta 3200 @ 1600
Olympus RC 35 283 expired Delta 3200 at 1600 birds on a pole by Donald Harpold, on Flickr

 

[Huss]

Sometimes I feel that my worst shots are my best shots. 🙂

I called it "Blue Chairs"

Looking down from a vantage point on a table of people in shopping mall cafe. Far too slow shutter speed for the ambient light, unintentional camera movement. Totally blew it. But somehow it works..............well, I think so.

Blue chairs by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Shooting people walking towards me down a narrow side street on a cold and wet day. Somehow produced a complete fail in terms of focus, shutter speed and lighting. But with a little love and care in post I came to love this quite painterly image.

Dark Street by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

More movement, more blur another fail - but it somehow works in terms of recreating the atmosphere of frantic peak hour in a darkening evening.

Evening Rush by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Snap shot of an elderly lady taken through the window of a cafe. Not well focused, blurry, dark, almost none of her face shows and yet it is still one of my most popular images in Flickr. For me it kind of works but is nothing all that special. For the Flickr crowd though, they loved it. Still not totally sure why.

Age and Grace by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

I agree they do have an abstract painterly feel. I like how you own it.

 

[Huss]

Hello
Did not like this one at first but it has grown on me.
Olympus RC35 expired Delta 3200 @ 1600
Olympus RC 35 283 expired Delta 3200 at 1600 birds on a pole by Donald Harpold, on Flickr

What didn't you like about it, and why did you change your mind?

It's almost like the starkness of the grain is the subject, but the high contrast of the pole with birds competes with it.

 

[peterm1]

It sometimes seems that I have more fails than good shots. In fact given the number of photos that I never publish that is actually literally true.

Here is another with accidental camera movement, excessive softness and blur due overly slow shutter speeds and maybe focusing error. But you know what they say: If the world gives you lemons - make lemonade. With a little tweaking in post it made an image I rather like.

Waiting - An Exercise in Shadow, Blur and Grain by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Another one I blew this time not through camera movement. Big flare and reflection off the window could have ruined the shot totally. But I loved the almost Madonna like quality of the woman in blue so persisted. Somehow the reflection works I think by focusing all the attention on her, where it needs to be. More lemons - more lemonade.

Through a glass darkly 10 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

One thing I learned though bitter experience is not to be put off by technical failures. Technically poor images can still turn into really quite nice artistic results. (In which case just pretend that's what you were going for all along 🙂 )

 

[Emile de Leon]

These were taken with a $10- flea market Agfa MF folder...w/light leaks and a viewfinder that was so cloudy I could barely see thru it..long exposures...

These were long exposures w/M6..of musician friends of mine...

 

[Pál_K]

...
I was testing out this musty folder that a friend gave to me as a gift and there is no way I can luck out like this again.
...

A stunning image. It's not all luck: for that photo to be as good as it is, you also had to pick the subject and general composition.

I've got about half a dozen photos that I'd deemed mistakes, but saved them and realized much later that they aren't bad at all. These are old Polaroids and I have no means of posting them.

 

[Pál_K]

... With a little tweaking in post it made an image I rather like.
...

Beautiful photo of a beautiful woman. If the photo were sharp, I don't think it would be as good.

 

[Huss]

These were taken with a $10- flea market Agfa MF folder...w/light leaks and a viewfinder that was so cloudy I could barely see thru it..long exposures...

These were long exposures w/M6..of musician friends of mine...

$10? My kinda buy! I really like the second one with the branches and the musician pics.

 

[Huss]

.. If the photo were sharp, I don't think it would be as good.

I think that applies to all the pics here. This ties into that 'sharpness is a bourgeois concept' umm, concept!

 

[madNbad]

For everyone that has developed a roll of film:

[/url]DSC08281 by Michael DeLuca, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[shimokita]

Woman's 駅伝 (ekiden), January 2017 in Tokyo... a cold and snowy day...
Ekiden is a long-distance multistage relay running race mostly held on roads.

.

 

[dourbalistar]

I have no idea what happened to this negative. At first, I suspected some issue in my developing process, but none of the other frames on this roll were similarly affected. I also haven't had this happen since, so maybe a random film defect? When I saw it, it made me want to Hulk smash something. 😡

Pentax 6x7, S-M-C Takumar 6x7 200mm f/4, Kodak 400TX, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 6 minutes.


2018.05.28 Roll #158-02200-Pano-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[peterm1]

Beautiful photo of a beautiful woman. If the photo were sharp, I don't think it would be as good.

Thank you Pal_K I agree it is better this way. I often find that embracing those so called failures and going with them produces more interesting imagery. Here is another example I just found where there is nothing really sharp about the image due to it being a snap shot in dim conditions with quite long shutter speed but it somehow works by accentuating the low light in the dark laneway in which it was shot. And of course emphasising the movement of the main subjects which are the most blurry.


City Life, City Night, City Lane by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

 

[Emile de Leon]

$10? My kinda buy! I really like the second one with the branches and the musician pics.

I like those kind of cams..as you never know what you are going to get photographically!
As well as bargains to buy..

 

[peterm1]

Woman's 駅伝 (ekiden), January 2017 in Tokyo... a cold and snowy day...
Ekiden is a long-distance multistage relay running race mostly held on roads.

.

Nice one. My kind of photo. I like it a lot.

 

[analoged]

Best to rewind the film before opening the camera...

 

[Swift1]

This is a photo that I shot back in 2007, before I had any real knowledge on photography. It was dusk, I was shooting 100 speed film, and had a 28-200mm f4-5.6 zoom. What could go wrong... 😀

Minolta Alpha 303si Super
Tamron 28-200mm
Fujicolor 100​

 

[Moto-Uno]

^ This 🙂 , Peter