What is it a Picture of?

I was looking at this badly exposed photo from when I was still figuring out camera settings and thinking frustrated thoughts. There was a bright area with water behind us, and the camera had exposed for that, leaving us in the dark.

Every time I looked at that dark photo, I was unhappy with it. I'd brightened it up some, but the water was OK and we were still dark.

Then I got a case of 'AHA!' I don't care if the water is overexposed.This is not a picture of water, it's a picture of people. So I threw it back into Photoshop and brightened it up a lot more. It's got some issues, but at least the people look a lot better.



The important thing was asking myself, "What is this a picture of?" and then acting based on that.