There are certainly times when I don't know what I'm doing.
I've been working on a few prints recently, but one in particular has been vexing me. I've had to make three different versions of it, all identical except for their size.
I started with a print that was 16" across simply because I could – it fits nicely on the paper, and there are plenty of pixels to reproduce it properly. I looks the way I want it to, with no problems in the reproduction, but it didn't grab me. I put it on the wall and lived with it for a week, and it didn't grow on me.
I suspected that the size was the problem. It was reproducing as slightly larger-than-life, so I tried it as a 14" print. The result was immediately better, and spending another week with both photos side-by-side made it even more obvious.
Since a little smaller was a lot better, I took it one more step and tried it as a 12" print. This would let it fit a standard 11x14 frame with only a custom mat, which makes the whole package more affordable than a bigger – or custom – frame. I wanted it to work, but it just didn't. Those two inches left the print weak and uninteresting.
I can't explain much of what I do, and don't understand everything that goes into making decisions. In this case the photo only works as a print of a specific size, and while I could probably rationalize it, it would only be trying to make myself feel better. This is the way it needs to be, so I'm just going to let it stay that way.
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