I read one time that Ansel Adams had an exhibit of his work once where he didn’t sell anything; he later went back and reprocessed the images lighter and then they sold. If a great photographer like Ansel Adams reexamined and reprocessed his work, then I should too. Especially this series of shots which are among my favorites of my daughter, Ellen. I took these very early in my iStock career, not long after I got my first speed light. They were shot with a Nikon D90, the 18mm to 105mm kit lens and an SB900 for fill. I’ve always loved them because of the subject, setting and backlight but knew they had some problems. Using the speed light as a fill (undiffussed) had caused a few issues, but mainly they were underexposed. So yesterday, with five years more editing experience under my belt and a keener eye, I went back to rework this shoot. Originally I only used two of the images in my stock portfolio, but yesterday’s efforts yielded four more images.
Reviewing our old images lets us appreciate how far we’ve come and with the benefit of modern digital photography, the power of Photoshop and newly acquired editing skills, reworking them can also salvage some gems.