Revisiting Old Photos
As people change over time, so do tastes and methods for producing photos. I find myself looking back at old photos and wanting to “revamp” them to fit my current aesthetic, which can either take a year or several years to change.
When I first started taking photos, I did very little because I was afraid of all the options at my fingertips. All the detailed sliders, curve tools, and masks one could use to enhance a photo seemed beyond my comprehension. Don’t get me started on how nervous I was to use Photoshop for further edits, like skin detailing. So, I stuck to the basics - exposure, contrast, highlights, and saturation and just reasoned that people want “the real look, the raw.”
But as a photographer, you need to hold yourself to a higher standard, especially as you do more paid work. As for the aesthetic and how one gets to the desired look, that’s the agreed upon preference between the photographer and client. If the client wants film, shoot on film. If they’re taken with a look you did on another shoot, use that look on their photos. If they expect skin detailing, you better have it done before they set eyes on the proofs – unless it’s a tethered photoshoot, where they get to see the work-in-progress and make notes with you.
All that said, I love seeing how my tastes have changed. I rarely go back and think “I could’ve done that better.” What I did in the past reflects who I was and what my tastes were at the time.
Nevertheless, I dug up old photos from before I started doing this full-time and was surprised by how much I liked them. I’ve included a sample below of what was done before (left side) vs my current aesthetic (right side)…
To me, one isn’t better than the other. Although, some may prefer the original edit versus the latest, but it is interesting to see how my thinking’s developed over the years. I’m obviously inspired by a more film-like look right now, but my tastes will change again at some point.
The next old photo (left side below) was inspired by the popular sort of “Peter McKinnon/Matti Haapoja” look around 2018-2020; heavily stylized, deep contrasts, desaturation, cranking that Clarity and Vignette slider nearly all the way up for something that looked…Well, it was a look.
This was a popular social media/Instagram aesthetic among a lot of photographers at the time. But, looking at it now makes me think that this edit isn’t so timeless. Nevertheless, it works as a “time capsule.”
My current edit (right side) maintains the goal of going with a heavily stylized look, but not as drastic as what I did before…
Again, there will be some who prefer the before over the after, or vice versa, but both are meant to represent a mindset. The point is intentions and tastes change. Sometimes those changes are subtle, sometimes they’re more drastic. It’s just important to continue experimenting and growing.
