Trying Different Tools Can Do Wonders For Your Creativity & Your Grades
I’ve previously written about some strategies to break out of a creative impasse or when you just need a little inspiration to keep you going.
In this Insight, I want to explore a slightly different approach to fixing periods of creative frustration – mainly by exploring some technical options.
The other day I was on hour 11 of a pretty challenging grade and I was struggling to get a shot to match perfectly. Well, out of the blue I did something that not only fixed the problem that I was having, but also made me realize every once in a while, throwing a change up is a good thing.
What do I mean? Read on!
A Change Up Is Not Only An Effective Pitch – It’s Helpful For Grading Too!
In baseball, a change up is a pitch that often befuddles batters. Most pitchers that throw a fastball probably also throw a change up and they do so for good reason!
Imagine this:
A pitcher has been throwing fastballs all game long that go 90 mph. He’s getting some strikes, but the batters are getting lots of hits and are starting to figure out that next pitch they’ll get, is probably going to be a 90mph fastball!
So, instead of trying to throw faster or even to a new location, the pitcher decides he’s going to try break the pattern and throws a change up.
Here is the thing, a change up looks like a fastball but its way slower.
The result is a pitch that confuses the batter who’s expecting a much faster ball and (hopefully) forces an early swing.
Ok, I know what you’re thinking, what does a baseball pitch have to do with grading and how did it help me?
Well, during the long grade I described above, I was spending a ton of time using the primary color wheels – you know, the 3-way color controls that are mapped to a control surface.
No matter what I did I just wasn’t getting results that I was happy with – and trust me, I tried and tried and yes, tried again!
It dawned on me that maybe that 3-way tools weren’t the way to go. Maybe if I used another primary tool like curves, or contrast and pivot or some other tool, I could get a better result.
Well, that’s exactly what happened!
In my case, I actually found that using the primary offset controls for Red, Green and Blue worked perfectly for the shot matching problem I was having.
Could I have gotten there with the 3-way controls? Maybe. Did the Offsets give me a slightly different result? Probably.
Here’s the point – simply by using another toolset to tackle a problem I was able to, like a pitcher, throw my grading a change up that ultimately resulted in fixing the problem and getting good results.
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