Why it’s Good to Re-Visit Your Old Photographs

A combination of stormy weather and a busy home schedule, which included new-puppy training, have meant that I haven’t been able to get out with my camera very often over the last few weeks. I hope to remedy this situation very soon but in the meantime I have been keen to keep an ongoing interest in my photography.

How to do this without being out taking photographs was the dilemma.

I didn’t want to watch too many YouTube videos, as they just give me a yearning to be out with my camera.

I did make some images close to home, but inspiration quickly dried up.

I spent some time working on my website, which is always productive.

But it was a Google notification on my phone, reminding me of ‘on this day’ photographs from recent years, that gave me an idea - why not re-visit some old photographs and analyse them with the benefit of increased knowledge and experience?

Would any of them be better than I originally thought?

If not, would some additional editing improve them in any way?

Would I find a gem I had overlooked? Hardly likely, but worth a try.

Since it was February, I decided to start with my February folders of the last few years. I wanted to pick three images from each of the previous five years that I would bring into Lightroom for a re-evaluation. From there, I planned to choose three images that would go into a new ‘Best of February’ folder, to be added to in coming years.

Below are some ‘re-vamped’ images:

I remember watching this woman feeding the birds and I took a few images. I like the overall composition but I consider the image to be too busy. I would prefer a simpler image, such as an image of the woman feeding a single swan, though that may not have been possible!

Since I took this photograph I have learned about long exposure. Today I would try a different shutter speed to smooth out the water.

At the time of taking this photograph I was working on composition and using different perspectives.

I like this image although today I would consider it to be a little unbalanced in terms of composition.

This was one of my first attempts at ICM (intentional camera movement). I was pleased with it at the time.

Although this is a JPEG, and there wasn't much I could do in post-processing, it does reflect one of the themes that I like to capture to this day - old buildings - and a subject that I still love - boats.

 This exercise was well worth doing for a few reasons:

1.    I realised that my photography, in terms of composition and exposure, has definitely improved over the last few years. I mainly shoot in RAW rather than JPEG so I have more information to work with in post-processing.

2.    I discovered that I do have some images from the past that I quite like and it’s worth re-editing them.

3.    It is a good learning exercise and I have noticed many mistakes that I used to make that I can rectify in the future.

I also resurrected some forgotten images that I made using Adobe PaintCan, an app which I played around with occasionally.

Why not look at some of your older images? You may find a hidden gem, and at the very least you will see the improvement you have made in your photography.