“If we carried it out to sea

Pushed it over the edge we could have all been through
Well no one even bothered showin' up but we still did what we should have thought through
We crashed in like waves into the stars

Didn't want it didn't need it but we knew that we could see it so we opened up the door
We receded like waves out of the stars
Didn't want it didn't need it but we knew that we could steal it left it dying on the floor.”
 

Excerpt from

“We’ve Got Everything”

by

Modest Mouse.

 

You could take the meanings of these lyrics and apply them to pretty much anything in life. But I chose this quote because it relates to a very important lesson I learnt over the last couple years working as a photo retoucher.  

With photo editing software now you can ramp up the saturation, contrast and recover shadow/highlight detail with the click of a button. But just because  you can, doesn’t mean you should. It took me a long time to realise that subtlety is the key. I used to add +20 saturation to every single shot I took just because I could, but I didn’t realise at the time that it was really obvious and it made my photos look  so cheap.

Don’t do something just because you can. Not every shot needs extra saturation or contrast, some even look better with less. If it adds to a specific  image then do it, but don’t over do it. If you can notice that you’ve done something then you’ve gone to far and the image probably would’ve looked better if you did nothing to it at all.