"good enough" what does it mean to you ?

[Doremus Scudder]

Often when the phrase "good enough" is used, it means settling for second best.

For my personal work, my motto is: "Good enough isn't."

Unless I'm enthusiastically happy with something, it doesn't make it to keeper status. I prefer terms like, "excellent," "stunning," etc. I would never want a viewer to say, "good enough" about any of my work.

Doremus

[Jim Jones]

I wonder if Ansel Adams's Moonrise at Hernandes was ever good enough for him. Certainly the initial capture wasn't. Some of the many variations in printing would have been good enough for most of us.

[invisibleflash]

OP...Forget perfection, either the pix works or not.

That being said, you anal LF guys should make pretty perfect pix unless your Sally Mann and wet coat things. I do doc work, if I come in with 70% to 80% of what I was after it can still be a success.

When I process an image I take it to the best I can do with it. Sometimes it is version 12 sometimes it is version 43 and then I decide it is not going to work.

[jp]

Something better than the previous time I shot the same subject. In what area it is better will vary, it has to be some sort of improvement to be satisfactory.

For family stuff, my wife and I are both fussy. We went out to do family portraits with another couple, we chimped the photos of us and my wife noticed feet were cut off, and suggested they be shot again!

Good enough for government work is considered a low standard where I am, the work of the low bidder or the protected employee coasting along till retirement doing no more than necessary.

[bob carnie]

I have stopped going after the perfect print - a simple concept and attitude - after almost 40 years of printing for others perfection is an impossible print to make.

I prefer to make modifications on certain images over years, in fact if a photographer wants me to match what they consider a perfect print I decline the job. I think
by taking this attitude it has allowed me to expand my skill set and now as ever I still make three versions of any image and let someone else decide its rating.

Right now I am playing with pigment over palladium and there are lots of mistakes, some surprisingly great interpertations of an image. Long ago I was taught by
a very decent photographer/printer to make three variations of contact sheets . This opened many variations that many miss since they are striving for perfection.
I find it very funny to read the stress people subject themselves trying to under stand spot metering, or placing zones. From a technical viewpoint I get it but the charts
need to be done ONCE and then start making prints.

When printing a large body of work - I am most pleased when I step away - quite far away actually from the other side of the room and observe how the whole body work together, as
well watch viewers looking at the show and gage their reaction.
One of the most amazing shows I ever saw was Salgados's Migration show at George Eastman House.. there were actually people crying viewing some of these images... I am sure
S Salgodo did not think about perfection, he was showing raw emotion in his prints, and btw there were many defects. But as a whole it was simply an example of an amazing printing session and I
was changed after this wonderful show.

[John Kasaian]

Just to stir the pot a little more:
GK Chesterton once wrote "Whats worth doing is worth doing poorly."
Meaning that what we call perfection comes at a price, and that price is the dues you pay to acquire the requisite expertise necessary.
It is not only the failures, but the "not quite right" images that teach us problem solving so we can nail it the next time.
I wish I'd kept my very first LF image---a badly over exposed Type 55 POS/NEG of the curb at the Tunnel View in Yosemite(the front standard slipped!)
It was "good enough" to teach me a valuable lesson about taking the time to check that everything is locked down securely.

[Bill Burk]

After the last batch of prints, one I felt like hanging up by my desk was "good enough" at first.

But after looking at it for a while, I imagine it could have been better printed on a higher grade of paper...

Now, where am I going to get Galerie Grade 4 again?

[Bruce Watson]

For my personal work, good enough is the best I can do...

+1. Well said.

[Richard Wasserman]

Just to stir the pot a little more:
GK Chesterton once wrote "Whats worth doing is worth doing poorly."
Meaning that what we call perfection comes at a price, and that price is the dues you pay to acquire the requisite expertise necessary.
It is not only the failures, but the "not quite right" images that teach us problem solving so we can nail it the next time.
I wish I'd kept my very first LF image---a badly over exposed Type 55 POS/NEG of the curb at the Tunnel View in Yosemite(the front standard slipped!)
It was "good enough" to teach me a valuable lesson about taking the time to check that everything is locked down securely.

Ah yes, the concept of failure, a whole other topic unto itself. As Winston Churchill said: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm".

For an interesting discussion of how vital failure is to success I highly recommend Sarah Lewis' "The Rise—creativity, the gift of failure, and the search for mastery".

Now back to the regularly scheduled program...

[paulr]

It means one notch above inadequate and one or two notches below better than necessary.